Naming
While suppressors are also referred to as "silencers", the latter is misleading because no firearm can be made completely silent, as the term "silencer" implies. Functionally, a suppressor is meant to diminish the report of a discharged round, or make its sound unrecognizable. Other sounds emanating from the weapon remain unchanged. Even subsonic bullets make distinct sounds by their passage through the air and striking targets, and supersonic bullets produce a small sonic boom, resulting in a "ballistic crack". Semi- and fully automatic firearms also make distinct noises as their actions cycle, ejecting the fired cartridge case and loading a new round. Despite being misleading, the term "silencer" is still widespread.
Both the United States Department of Justice and the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosive) refer to these devices as "silencers". Additionally, Hiram Maxim (the original inventor of the device) marketed them as "Maxim Silencers."
Read more about this topic: Suppressor
Famous quotes containing the word naming:
“Husband,
who am I to reject the naming of foods
in a time of famine?”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“See, see where Christ’s blood streams in the firmament!
One drop would save my soul—half a drop! ah, my Christ!—
Ah, rend not my heart for naming of my Christ!—
Yet will I call on him!—O, spare me, Lucifer!—
Where is it now? ‘T is gone; and see where God
Stretcheth out his arm, and bends his ireful brows!—
Mountains and hills, come, come and fall on me,
And hide me from the heavy wrath of God!”
—Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593)
“The night is itself sleep
And what goes on in it, the naming of the wind,
Our notes to each other, always repeated, always the same.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)