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.

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This site explains the various mechanisms pretty well, Jack. A quick Google told me the P226 is available in single/double action, or double action only, so your question would depend on the model your character has.

Revolvers and semi-automatics can both be referred to as pistols, btw.
Thanks, Jude. Went back to the Sig Sauer site, read my character's weapon is a "standard single-action" so I'm thinking, yes, my guy could cock the hammer IF it was the first shot. Nice site. Apologies for you doing my research. Thanks again.
Aure you sure about revolvers and pistols? I'm going by the August/Sept 2003 MWA newsletter, in which John Mullins, 22 years with Army Special Forces, says the #1 "Writers' Mistakes About Guns" is "Calling a pistol a revolver and vice versa." Mullins opening line is "A revolver has a revolving cylinder. A pistol is all else, including semiautomatics..."

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Technically, he's correct, although I think modern usage has lessened the distinction. It would be a major mistake to call a semi-auto a revolver, but I don't have a problem with someone calling a revolver a pistol. Like Butch said in Pulp Fiction, "It's not a motorcycle, baby. It's a chopper." :)
FWIW, Jack, I'd use specific terms. The picture the two words create in the readers' minds is quite different.

Tactically, the two types of handguns have different implications as well.

I recognize your story may not require so much detail.
Thanks, Jude and Tom, for your help. If my character keeps getting assaulted like this, one day I may actually have to learn something about weapons.
Hi Jack. I'll add my two cents in the form of this eloquent statement. A pistol is a pistol (semi-auto or auto) and a revolver a revolver. They don't look alike, nor do they operate the same way mechanically. To use the terms universally would be like saying a pig is the same as a lion. They're two different beasts. However, I've heard many cops call a revolver a pistol, but never once have I heard anyone call a pistol a revolver.

I carried a Sig Sauer P228 on duty and referred to it as my gun. As in, "Oh &$*!, I left my gun in the lockbox at the jail, again." (I discovered that little error on the side of the road one night during a traffic stop. Not a good feeling).
I was waiting for you to show up, Lee. I bought your book after Deadly Ink, and if I could have found it, I probably wouldn't have had to come on here and beg for help, but the book has gone missing. I think it might be at home, tucked somewhere neatly by my cleaning lady. I will make a new search before asking any more dumb gun questions. Thanks for your eloquent two cents.
Your question wasn't dumb. In fact, it's a question that's asked quite often.

Perhaps your cleaning lady found a better use for the book. Have you checked to see if it's now a door stop?
Lee, a gun?

In the Army, the mantra was; This is my weapon and this is my gun---one is for fighting and, one is for fun.
I know. Weapon is the correct terminolgy, and when I taught at the academy or as a FTO (Filed Training Officer) that 's what I used. However, I'm a sucker for slang, so gun it was.
In crime fiction, you can't go wrong with "gun." It's a metal thing you hold in your hand with bullets in it and you pull the trigger and somebody on the wrong end bleeds.

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