(Untitled)

[kalquessa]

TO: The World
ATTN: Hollywood, Stephen King, Fanfic authors
RE: Your continued misuse of basic firearms-related terminology

It's not a clip. It's a magazine.

No, I'm sure. Yes, there are times when it really is a clip, and no, this is not one of those times. It never is.

No, seriously, it's not.

I don't care. It's a magazine. Mag, if you like

Comments

[ladybrick]

I know it's a magazine. And I learned it from you.

[kalquessa]

Yay for me and my bizarrely rabid pet peeve!

[dirigibletrance]

Hardly bizarre, or rapid. Any weapon enthusiast will be annoyed by the ignorance of the average sheeple.

My pet peeve is the overuse of the term "assault rifle", because average sheeple tend to use it to refer to any even remotely scary looking weapon. (Scaryness being the operative thing, since they look upon firearms with only irrational fear, not healthy respect.)

The word clip doesn't bother me as much, I think, because I've never owned or fired a weapon with a detachable box magazine. The only rifle I've had was top-loaded with a stripper-clip. (A Mosin)

[prester_scott]

Anyone who attaches the word "assault" to any weapon other than a medium-caliber select-fire military carbine, should be slapped. And they should still be slapped if they get it right obviously by accident.

[jd3000]

It's really likely because of the legion of World War II books and articles produced in the past, all referring to the metallic 'ping' of an 8-round en bloc clip ejecting from an M1 Garand anywhere from Anzio to Bataan.

-JD

[kalquessa]

Yeah, and there are such things as half-moon clips for revolvers, but neither of those things actually show up in non-WWII stories, and yet everything has somehow become a "clip." I have to admit, it does sound snazzier than "magazine," I can see why Hollywood favors it.

[jd3000]

It's almost certainly because using the proper term would confuse the average reader, sort of like "Big Ben".

-JD

[kalquessa]

Not as confusing as missing movie dialog because some annoying girl in glasses couldn't keep her voice down when she protested "It's not a clip, it's a magazine!"

[mosinging1986]

A baby bunny will die. Please think of the bunnies.

Now every time I hear 'clip' on TV/movies I'm going to be seriously traumatized.

I'm not sure if Jack Bauer's ever said it, but if I ever hear him, I may just die. Torturing terrorists is one thing. Killing baby bunnies? Entirely unacceptable.

***

And see? You do know everything about everything!

[kalquessa]

Bwah! Keifer Sutherland is going to get fanmail one day with a giant "BUNNYKILLER" scrawled across it and he's going to have no idea why.

I know just enough about a lot of stuff to get me in trouble/confused/irritated. *grin*

[aurora_novarum]

I learned my lesson! (I hope) when you betaed a fic of mine. :-D

Oh wait, so if I have a "reload thingie" for a revolver that has all six bullets clipped in a circle just like they would be in the revolver itself and they just have to be shoved into the gun just like that...is that a clip?

[kalquessa]

*grudgingly* Yes.

*laughs* Yeah, that's a moon clip. It makes getting the shells out and loading in new rounds faster on a revolver. The other kind of clip is a long, thin strip of metal seen in a lot of WWII movies. It's very good for dramatic storytelling because it flies out of the gun and makes a "thwing!" noise when you run out of rounds.

[aurora_novarum]

Hee! Moon clip! See, I knows stuff. I is smart.

Exception that doesn't prove the rule! :-D

[ruthette]

Has it occurred to anyone else that you seem to know a little too much about this...?

[izhilzha]

If I ever use "clip" instead of "magazine" you are free to mock me until I edit whatever the story is.

[kalquessa]

Except you never will because you don't want the BUNNIES to DIE!