Gun Expert Needed

[Jack Getze]

for quickie question: Looking at an online picture of a Sig Sauer P226, it seems to have a hammer that a shooter could thumb back. Is this true? Can pistols and revolvers both be "cocked" with a thumb? If not cocked, what's that called?
Thanks for any help.

[Dennis Leppanen]

I agree, gun is the slang of choice for fiction writers.

[Tom Barclay]

Terminology is all going to depend on the character and situation, isn't it? Someone unfamiliar with firearms or violence is going to use different vocabulary than someone who has spent hour upon hour training and developing combat skills, or someone obsessed with doing injury to others.

Just don't have a character run out of 'bullets,' please, unless you want to portray someone unfamiliar with firearms. Without the rest of the cartridge (case, powder, primer), a bullet is inert.

[Jack Getze]

Works for me, especially if the character using the term gun doesn't spend time around weapons. I decided with my stockbroker, however, that I wanted him to exhibit at least some small knowledge of pistols and revolvers, so that later, if I need him to, he can use a weapon effectively.