One thing you’ll notice as you read proposed legislation is that most include something defining the terms. This is where you get the definition of, say, and “assault weapon” or “high-capacity magazine” from.
Different levels of government may have different definitions for various things.
For example, the federal definition of a machine gun–a firearm capable of firing more than one round with a single pull of the trigger–doesn’t actually apply to the first machine gun every produced: The Gatling Gun.
That’s because the Gatling doesn’t have a trigger, but a crank.
In Delaware, though, they define the term “firearm” rather broadly. Like, incredibly so. Now, there’s an effort underway to tighten that term a bit.
By Tom Knighton
