[bargle0]

Is a cannon really a firearm? Was this for an individual, or is it a crew served weapon?

[MrLeap]

That's up to you.

One of ways the ATF defines a firearm is "any weapon that can be converted to expel a projectile using an explosive."

If you don't WANT it to be considered a firearm maybe it's sufficiently corroded such that it's no longer true that it could expel a projectile using an explosive, and therefore is no longer a firearm. In that case, if you hit someone with it, it goes back to being an armament, but no longer a firearm.

That is of course unless you melt the metal down and turn it into some kind of lower receiver. It would go back to being considered a firearm by the ATF.

Whether or not it's a firearm depends on your context. If you and all your friends disagree it's a firearm, in that context it is not. In other contexts it is.

Words are really just illusions though. It's equally true that there are no firearms, because firearms are just words. It also is true that any and all matter is a few steps away from being a firearm. Where do you end and I begin? If we get quantum mechanics into it, maybe everything already is a firearm.

[bargle0]

This was made before 1899 (or whatever the cutoff date is), and it’s black powder. The ATF does not consider this a firearm.

[867-5309]

this is probably the best thing I have ever read on this cursed platform. thank you

[morkalork]

When the daily microdose isn't so micro

[Someone]

> Was this for an individual, or is it a crew served weapon?

FTA: “Sometimes referred to as a wall gun, the unearthed cannon was an early type of firearm requiring two people to operate. Designed primarily for use along fortification walls, the expedition reportedly utilized them as an offensive weapon to breach wooden or light adobe walls of domestic dwellings in the cities they encountered.”

Wall gun: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_gun

[olddustytrail]

Yes, a cannon is a firearm. The "arms" bit has nothing to do with human limbs, it's from the Latin arma.

A firearm is anything that uses an explosive to propel a projectile, so it can be "fired".

[BJones12]

It is. The US defines a firearm as "Any weapon... which will or is designed to or may readily be converted to expel a projectile by the action of an explosive" and definitions in other countries are similar. Both a pistol and a ship-mounted cannon are firearms.

[Rebelgecko]

I thought if it uses black powder it isn't (federally) a firearm? IIRC felons can own black powder guns, you can have them shipped to your door, etc

[injb]

US federal law excludes antiques from this, antiques being defined as 1898 or older.

[devoutsalsa]

Well it goes boom and it’s roughly shaped like a big stick, so it’s big boomstick! Boomlog?

This is my boomstick!

https://youtu.be/881Dr4lMey4?si=sOW7Py_jQejicprM

[orbital-decay]

Yes for all senses of the word. Moreover, first firearms were really hand cannons on a stick. Look at the picture in the article, it was a rifle-sized weapon mounted on a swivel.

[TrainedMonkey]

> Sometimes referred to as a wall gun, the unearthed cannon was an early type of firearm requiring two people to operate.

The article claims it is a firearm.

[tourmalinetaco]

A firearm, if sufficiently old, is not a firearm per the ATF.

[nkrisc]

As you’ve illustrated, it depends on the definition you choose for a given term.

That may also depend on who you ask and in what context.

[ensignavenger]

Definatly not a firearm.