(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

[dirigibletrance]

The only time it ever actually *is* a clip is in the old top-loading bolt-action and semi-automatic rifles from World War 2 and before.

Example:
http://www.freerepublic.com/~holymoly/

[kalquessa]

The en-bloc clips kind of put a crimp in my handy-dandy litmus test of contain-vs-clipped-on since they do sort of contain the rounds. The actual textbook difference between clip and mag is so much more difficult to grasp and apply. *pouts*

[dirigibletrance]

Console yourself with this though: The Garand was the only major rifle to have an en-bloc, all others just used a stripper-clip.

Furthermore, rumor has it that the Garand was originally slated to have a detachable box magazine (like the BAR did) but the Army decided when the Garand design was adopted that soldiers were too used to top-loading the rifles, and they didn't want to retrain them.

(Yes, the Army does make decisions like this based on whether they think a weapon would confuse the average knuckle-dragging Infantryman. Which is kind of a shame, since if they'd made it box-mag, they would have essentially had the M-14 20 years earlier than they actually did.)

(Ok, fine, the M-14 was only *externally similar* to the Garand and used a totally different gas system, but I think my general points still stands.)

(I used too many parentheses in this reply.)

[bellatemple]

You know, my TEFL instruction professor (which is possibly the most redundant phrase I've ever typed non-ironically) made a very interesting point during one of our classes, a couple years ago. He made it regarding saying "Me and Bob" or "Bob and I". Grammatically correct or not, "me and Bob" is quite often what people will say, and we were there to teach our students the common usage of English.

I kinda wanted to punch him in the face, but I understood his point.

Perhaps in the case of this clip v. magazine issue it's a matter of context. One would not, for instance, have someone who learned about their weaponry through a strict training program, such as the armed forces, refer to a magazine as a clip, but for one who learned about their weaponry in a very informal setting, such as a street thug, it might be perfectly acceptable.

I'm avoiding formatting treasury tables right now, which would explain why I'm putting far too much thought into this as a question. But consider that one might call any adhesive bandage a "bandaid",

[kalquessa]

Very true, and I agree re. the street thug example. That's how I handwave away the one instance of this that I can recall in Supernatural: Dean says "burn a clip in him" and while I can't imagine John teaching the boys incorrect terminology, I can see Dean using the term as part of a slang phrase like that for effect. (And yes, I am thinking about this way, way too much, why do you ask? *grin*)

[bellatemple]

Now I have a mental image of Sam and Dean in their youth, all by their lonesome and encountering something horrible.

And Dean says they need to "burn a clip in it". And Sammy goes "But Deeeeeeean, it's not a clip, it's a magazine!"

[kalquessa]

*cracks up* That is awesome. Yay, Sammy is my fellow OCD terminology freak!

[ruthette]

Some people don't care that much about the fate of bunnies.

I'm just saying.

[kalquessa]

*gigglesnort*

[prester_scott]

I... I love you.

Not that way. In a shooty-goodness sort of way.

[kalquessa]

I love you, too, Scott! *tacklehug* Huzzah for shooty goodness!

[prester_scott]

As an aside: until recently, I had more magazines than clips. Now it's the opposite, many many times over... because clips can be useful for quickly loading magazines.

[kalquessa]

Heh heh. I only have magazines. We have an old Mosin that I think would take stripper clips (I can't remember how old it is) but we've never gotten around to procuring any.

[kalquessa]

Heh. Which is probably why people use "clip" so often, since it at least has a higher rate of association with guns than "magazine."