Firearm

The term "firearm" referred to any ranged weapon that fired solid projectiles as opposed to the plasma-based blasters or energy-based pulse weapons. Most firearms used a combustible substance such as gunpowder or explosive chemicals to propel the projectile. While many metals and polymers were used in the production of projectiles (also known as bullets, slugs, or "rounds"), lead and brass were the most common. Propellant-based firearms typically used bolt-action, lever-action, pump-action, single-action, semi-automatic, or fully-automatic mechanisms to reload after firing.

The earliest form of firearms, which appeared as early as 26,000 BBY, were gunpowder-based muzzleloaders that could only fire one round before reloading. Known muzzleloaders included the arquebus, the hand cannon, the blunderbuss, and the musket.

Even millennia after the introduction of blasters and energy weapons, firearms were still very prevalent in both military and civilian scenarios.

Firearm types

 * Powder guns, the most common type of firearm, used gunpowder or other explosive powders to propel bullets. The term powder gun may also refer to larger weapons such as launchers, mortars, and cannons that also used gunpowder.
 * Airguns used compressed gas to propel bullets. Most airgun bullets, often referred to as pellets or "BBs", were extremely small at no more than half of a millimeter in diameter. For this reason, most airguns were only used for hunting small animals and not combat, though some military-grade airguns were known to have existed.
 * Slugthrowers used explosive liquids (most of which had a slimy or "slug-like" texture, hence its colloquial name) to propel bullets known as slugs. Slugthrower slugs are not to be confused with the slugs fired by shotguns, which are a type of powder gun.
 * Railguns used electromagnetic force to propel bullets. Rail bullets often took a more needle-like shape and were thus considered less lethal, though the extremely high velocity most railguns were capable of made up for this.