If someone is speaking of ammunition clips, they almost certainly don't know what they are talking about. The box full of bullets you put into the grip of the pistol or into the receiver of the rifle is a magazine.
A clip holds a number of rounds, usually to facilitate loading an internal magazine. You align the clip and slide the rounds into the magazine. A small number of guns (the M-1 Garand being notable) are loaded by inserting the whole clip into the magazine. When the last round is fired, the empty clip gets ejected as well.
Oh, and the definition of an "assault weapon" could be rewritten as "looks scary".
I couldn't decide whether to include the clip-vs-magazine distinction -- OT1H I hear folks who know the difference saying "clip" either from sloppiness or because they think that's more intelligible to their listeners; OTOH it really annoys some people and raises the "can't tell whether you're being lazy or ignorant" problem I mentioned.
I thought a clip looked awkward as hell, until my brother demonstrated loading a WWII-or-thenabout rifle with a clip. (He didn't show me on a Garand; this was one that used a stripper clip, where you pull the clip out leaving he cartridges in the magazine. An SKS maybe?)
Another distinction I left out because even though it serves as a shibboleth it didn't seem important right now, is 'cartridge' vs. 'bullet'.
(For anyone listening in who's unsure of the difference: the bullet is the projectile that comes out the end of the barrel when the gun is fired; the cartridge is the complete package with the gunpowder and bullet (or shot, for a shotgun) in it that you load into the gun. But saying "bullet" when you mean "cartridge" isn't usually confusing, because (AFAIK) the only time you'd load a gun with a bullet that isn't part of a cartridge would be with a muzzleloader or maybe naval artillery.)
(no subject)
"clips" versus "magazines"
If someone is speaking of ammunition clips, they almost certainly don't know what they are talking about. The box full of bullets you put into the grip of the pistol or into the receiver of the rifle is a magazine.
A clip holds a number of rounds, usually to facilitate loading an internal magazine. You align the clip and slide the rounds into the magazine. A small number of guns (the M-1 Garand being notable) are loaded by inserting the whole clip into the magazine. When the last round is fired, the empty clip gets ejected as well.
Oh, and the definition of an "assault weapon" could be rewritten as "looks scary".
(no subject)
I thought a clip looked awkward as hell, until my brother demonstrated loading a WWII-or-thenabout rifle with a clip. (He didn't show me on a Garand; this was one that used a stripper clip, where you pull the clip out leaving he cartridges in the magazine. An SKS maybe?)
Another distinction I left out because even though it serves as a shibboleth it didn't seem important right now, is 'cartridge' vs. 'bullet'.
(For anyone listening in who's unsure of the difference: the bullet is the projectile that comes out the end of the barrel when the gun is fired; the cartridge is the complete package with the gunpowder and bullet (or shot, for a shotgun) in it that you load into the gun. But saying "bullet" when you mean "cartridge" isn't usually confusing, because (AFAIK) the only time you'd load a gun with a bullet that isn't part of a cartridge would be with a muzzleloader or maybe naval artillery.)
(no subject)