Machine pistol facts for kids

A machine pistol is a type of firearm that can shoot bullets very quickly. It can fire in two main ways:

• Fully automatic: This means the gun keeps firing bullets as long as you hold down the trigger. It shoots very fast!
• Burst fire: When you pull the trigger, the gun fires a set number of shots, usually three, very quickly.

Machine pistols use small cartridges (bullets) like those used in regular pistols. These cartridges are usually held in a rectangular box called a magazine, which feeds them into the gun. Most machine pistols are "self-loading," meaning they automatically put a new cartridge into the firing spot after each shot.

A US Marine fires a fully automatic Glock 18.

History of Machine Pistols

The idea of a machine pistol started a long time ago. The very first true machine pistol was the German MP-18, made in 1918. It used 9mm bullets and had a magazine on its side that held 20 cartridges.

The Luger P08 could fire in a fully automatic fashion.

During World War I, the Germans also changed some regular pistols, like the Luger, into machine pistols. One version, called the Luger P08, had a longer barrel and a large, round magazine that held 32 bullets. It was given to artillery crews so they could protect themselves.

In 1951, the Russian army created the Stechkin APS. This gun could fire in burst mode or fully automatic. When using it in these fast-firing modes, soldiers were told to attach a wooden stock to help control the weapon. One challenge with machine pistols is that they tend to kick up when firing, making it harder to aim accurately.

The MP-18 was the first machine pistol. Even though it had a wooden stock, like a rifle, it fired pistol cartridges.

Machine Pistols in the 1990s and 2000s

In the 1990s and 2000s, many soldiers started wearing bulletproof vests that had hard ceramic plates inside. These vests were very good at stopping bullets. Because of this, the smaller bullets fired by machine pistols were not strong enough to go through the new vests.

Armies then started using a different type of gun called a personal defense weapon (PDW). PDWs fire more powerful bullets that can go through bulletproof vests. This made machine pistols less useful for soldiers in battle.

Related pages

• Submachine gun

Images for kids

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  Russian Stechkin APS and suppressed APB select-fire machine pistols, introduced into Russian service in 1951

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  Steyr "Repetierpistole M1912/P16", one of the world's first machine pistols

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  Stechkin APS machine pistol

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  Czechoslovak Škorpion vz. 61

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  H&K MP5K, a machine pistol version of the MP5

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  Argentine special forces with a Micro UZI

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  Man firing a fully automatic 9×19mm Glock 18 machine pistol with a shoulder stock

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  Steyr TMP machine pistol

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  MAC-10 with a sound suppressor (shown unloaded)

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  A US Marshal firing a MAC-10 machine pistol on full auto

See also

In Spanish: Pistola ametralladora para niños