Pistol

A pistol (while technically an over-encompassing term for a short barrel-projectile handgun) is a repeating single-chamber handgun which automatically cycles it's action to insert the subsequent cartridge, but requires manual actuation of the trigger to discharge the following shot. Pistols are some of the most common weapons in the wasteland, as they were legal for civilian use in most of the world before the Nuclear War.

Terminology
The definition of a pistol previous to the Nuclear War of 1993 was much broader than it is in the wasteland. Before the war, a pistol was any handgun that has a single fixed chamber integral with it's barrel, making them distinct from revolvers. However, in the wasteland where survivors aren't very concerned with the use of accurate terminology to describe their firearms, pistol became the term for any semi-automatic handgun that shoots a small or average sized pistol cartridge.

Examples

 * M1911: An American semi-automatic pistol that has seen extensive use since World War I. The pistol fires .45 ACP cartridges.
 * Makarov: A Soviet semi-automatic pistol. The pistol fires 9x18mm cartridges.
 * M9: A Italian semi-automatic pistol. The pistol fires 9x19mm Parabellum cartridges.
 * Walther P38: A semi-automatic pistol developed in Nazi Germany. The pistol fires 9x19mm Parabellum cartridges.
 * Glock: A semi-automatic pistol developed in Austria. The pistol fires 9x19mm Parabellum cartridges.