Talk:Winans Steam Gun

Is this technically a firearm? Sure it uses fire to power the steam engine but that still seems like a bit of a stretch. -Anonymous

It's does fire projectiles and is a "real world" weapon as opposed to the whole "steam punk" genre of weapons but it does fall outside of the parameters of what is listed on this web site. --Charon68 00:27, 26 October 2010 (UTC)

But it doesn't use gunpowder to fire anything. It's like making a page with crossbows. Excalibur01 01:42, 26 October 2010 (UTC)

I think it's more appropriate than a crossbow being as it does use fire at some point in the firing sequence and is a weapon, and thus is a "fire"-"arm", but being as the fire only indirectly launches the projectiles I think this is borderline acceptable. -Anonymous

Ok, now you are talking about semantics between what counts as a firearm. A firearm is a device which projects either single or multiple projectiles at high velocity through a controlled explosion. The firing occurs by the gases produced through rapid, confined burning of a propellant. This process of rapid burning is technically known as deflagration. In older firearms, this propellant was typically black powder, but modern firearms use smokeless powder, cordite, or other propellants. Most modern firearms (with the notable exception of smoothbore shotguns) have rifled barrels to impart spin to the projectile for improved flight stability. A howitzer counts as a firearm. A Rocket launcher counts to a degree. But something like this is just a novelty. Excalibur01 02:45, 26 October 2010 (UTC)

I'm more worried about the possibility of this article being the start of a slippery slope. If we allow it just because it propels an object intended to be lethal upon impact, next thing you know someone will use that excuse to create a catapult article or something. The only non-firearms stuff we have right now that I can think of are airguns (seeing as they can be mistaken for actual firearms by the uninformed) and crossbows (those only get mention because they tend to mimic firearms in terms of use, and they don't even get their own page (save for one that's up for nuking), just in-works examples).--PistolJunkie 03:29, 26 October 2010 (UTC)

Just to clarify about the crossbow thing (as this has been confusing me for some time) you're saying it is okay to list crossbows on movie pages but they do not get their own weapons pages. I fully agree with the reasoning but just want to make sure this is what we're doing as I've seen some movie pages list crossbows and be left alone and others do it and be altered. -Anonymous