When people talk about the use of firearms by the police, what do they mean? What subjects are usually designated by such a term, often frightening impressionable inhabitants, far from any violence? Nowadays, firearms are a matter of interest to many men … What can I say, women too.
What is it about?
The most urgent problem is the formulation of the concept in question for forensic experts, forensic experts who often have to deal with unusual and new, literally invented tools that can harm a person. A firearm is an object that to this day does not have an unambiguous definition in specialized literature. However, everything is much simpler for the average person: it is worth saying the phrase, and immediately in the head the corresponding image is born.
Official approach
Currently, it is customary to say that firearms are objects that are designed to hit a target (obstacle, person, animal) and fit the criteria for firearms. This term denotes the process of work: the defeat is produced by the release of energy provoked by a reaction in a gaseous substance. A firearm is a product designed for repeated use, so you can call it reliable.
A sufficiently accurate wording of the term can be found in the Federal Law of our country, dedicated to the features of different categories of weapons. What kind of firearm happens here is indicated with the clarification that these are objects, devices with which you can give signals, and not just hit the chosen target. In this case, the interaction with the goal is due to mechanical processes. Special firearms, conventional - in short, anyone - use projectiles moving in a given direction in their work. Not only gunpowder, but also other substances can act as an energy source.
Terminology: different approaches
Many lawyers in their work prefer to rely on the definition that Komarinets formulated in 1974. He pointed out that the concept includes such a throwing gun that is equipped with shells propelled by powder energy.
Another relevant definition of the term can be found in the works of Pleskachevsky, who believed that it was assumed a device designed to repeatedly hit a target (person, obstacle, animal) at a distance. Used shells can vary significantly - buckshot, bullets, shot. Thermal decomposition, as Pleskachevsky drew attention to, is the main source of aimed motion and it is precisely this design feature that makes it possible to attribute the product to this category.
Classification
It is customary to allocate police firearms (official), civilian, and military. Within categories, there is a subdivision into several types. Each class has its own rules of use. Laws govern the storage of firearms - for each group, individual standards have been developed.
Civil weapon
Such products are designed for use by ordinary citizens for sports, while hunting. In addition, civilian weapons make self-defense possible, subject to the law. Such items cannot shoot in bursts, and in a drum or magazine there can be no more than 10 rounds.
Civil weapons are usually classified by type. For self-defense, a long-barreled, barrel-free shotgun loaded with cartridges that affect the enemy with gas, light, and sound is used. Traumatic weapons also belong to the category of firearms. Relatively recently, the legislation did not consider this group of self-defense products in an appropriate quality, but several years ago amendments to the regulatory acts were adopted that changed the position of the authorities.
There is also a sports weapon. This is a smoothbore equipped with a rifled barrel. Finally, hunting - weapons with a rifled barrel or smoothbore, and can be supplemented by a rifled part (size within 140 mm). There is a combined hunting weapon.
Office
This category includes, for example, firearms of police officers. However, the group includes any types of weapons in question that are used by officials as part of the performance of their duties. It is not only about employees in government agencies. The use of firearms by employees of legal entities is allowed if a special permit has been obtained declaring the ability to store, transport, use a specific unit.
Service weapons can be used as a means of self-defense, as well as in the performance of obligations imposed on a person. This is implemented solely for the purpose of protecting the health, life, property of people. In some cases, the use of weapons is allowed as a way of protecting natural resources, goods, correspondence.
Combat weapon
This category includes small arms, cold weapons, and hand weapons. Permissible use only in certain conditions.
Edged weapons
This group includes a rather interesting specimen - the so-called scout knife, which attracts the attention of connoisseurs of the best examples of its class. Briefly, the subject is called LDC - a special reconnaissance knife. From the point of view of the layman, this is almost a spy invention, somewhat reminiscent of the legendary ninja. As far as it is known now, LDCs are used only in specialized units, but ordinary employees do not use them. A shooting knife cannot be used for mass destruction, as part of an organized attack by the formation. But the craftsmen handle it silently and very efficiently. Such measures are necessary during reconnaissance and as part of special operations.
The LDCs are most visually similar to the usual bayonet-knife, widespread in the army, and outwardly gives the impression of a weapon designed for hand-to-hand combat. The design feature is a single-shot device installed in the handle and fixed on top with a latch.
Russian knife
The uniqueness of the LDCs is in the ability to aim the target at a distance of 25 meters. The charge produced by such a knife pierces a two-millimeter steel sheet or an army helmet (tests were carried out on samples made in 1968). The process of the shot itself is not accompanied by noise or visual effects. LDCs, as many experts agreed, are a very serious and dangerous scout weapon, especially in skilled hands.
Minuses: is there?
According to some experts, the only weak point that the “LDC” “sins” is the low rate of fire, since after each shot it is necessary to reload the weapon. The process is not easy: the barrel is twisted out of the handle, a fresh cartridge is inserted, the structural element returns to its place, a latch is installed, and a new bullet can be fired. LDC uses 7.62 mm caliber SP-4 cartridges. With a relatively small mass of the projectile - only 9.65 g - LDCs have a very high damaging power.
The cartridges used in the shooting knife were invented for use in such firearms that do not produce noise during operation. For the first time they were used in the PSS "Vul", a little later they were used in the work of the OC-38 revolver. The LDCs are actually a cross between these two weapon models. The cartridge for it is designed according to a special technology: the powder gases are cut off inside the sleeve. In the sleeve there is a piston made of steel, it is from him that the jerk movement transmitted to the bullet goes. The piston itself cannot jump out, since the passage narrows. Powder gases are stored in the shell, and the pressure reaches 100 MPa, and after about half an hour the sleeve is discharged. However, practice has shown that sometimes it takes up to six months.
You need to be able to use
Nobody trusts LDCs: there are very few scouts who have been allowed to use such weapons, and they all undergo a special training course. This applies not only to the characteristics of the target’s destruction, but also to safety rules, since with inept application of LDCs it can cause significant damage to the shooter himself. And if you try to disassemble or break the sleeve, you can pay for such an experiment with life.
As part of the training course, scouts are told that the bullet is located inside the sleeve, the cartridge device is very unusual, and the weapon has additional combat power due to the reliable sharp blade.
