Weapons, weapons, weapons

I've always said that writers who write about weapons should know what they're talking about. Many of your readers will, and you will look stupid and inept if you do something like put a silencer on a revolver or have your hero twirling a halberd over his head like it's a baton.

To that end, and because I want to, I thought it would be interesting to do some posts on weapons with which I am familiar. Most of these will be weapons I own or have owned, but some of them might just be weapons belonging to friends or family but are still weapons I've used enough to become familiar with.

I do not intend for these post about weapons to be extensive. I'm not going to get into measuring my groupings (how close my shots come together) with a particular firearm, nor am I going to give you the exact weight and length of any of my swords. Some of that info I know and some of it I don't. But it would be boring to go through all that.

No, I'm just going to give my impressions of the weapons, mostly in layman's terms (not that I'm an expert or anything ... I've had some training in stage combat and in firearms, but I'm not a veteran of the military nor of a police force). I hope these postings will be somewhat relevant to writers. Even if the weapons I speak of are not ones a particular writer will use in a story, it's still possible the posts might be helpful in giving general knowledge and ideas to the writers.

And, I want add, all the weapons I write about are real. Even my bladed weapons are battle-ready weapons, not some flimsy stainless steel stage weapons.

So, let's begin!