On a

firearm A firearm is any type of gun designed to be readily carried and used by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see Legal definitions). The first firearms originated in 10th-century China, when bamboo tubes ...

or other

tool A tool is an object that can extend an individual's ability to modify features of the surrounding environment or help them accomplish a particular task. Although many animals use simple tools, only human beings, whose use of stone tools dates b ...

s, a pistol grip is a distinctly protruded handle underneath the main mechanism, to be held by the user's hand at a more vertical (and thus more ergonomic) angle, similar to the how one would hold a conventional

pistol A pistol is a handgun, more specifically one with the chamber integral to its gun barrel, though in common usage the two terms are often used interchangeably. The English word was introduced in , when early handguns were produced in Europe, a ...

. In firearms, the pistol grip is located behind the trigger and generally held by the hand that operates the trigger.

Rifle A rifle is a long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting, with a barrel that has a helical pattern of grooves ( rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus on accuracy, rifles are typically designed to be held with ...

s and

shotgun A shotgun (also known as a scattergun, or historically as a fowling piece) is a long-barreled firearm designed to shoot a straight-walled cartridge known as a shotshell, which usually discharges numerous small pellet-like spherical sub- pr ...

s without pistol grips are generally referred to as having "straight" or "upland" (shotguns only) style

stock In finance, stock (also capital stock) consists of all the shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided.Longman Business English Dictionary: "stock - ''especially AmE'' one of the shares into which ownership of a compan ...

s. Some firearms, starting from a 1840s Belgian carbine,https://littlegun.be/arme%20belge/artisans%20identifies%20l/a%20lesoinne%20et%20pirlot%20gb.htm and most automatic weapons in the 20th century (e. g., Chauchat MG,

Thompson submachine gun The Thompson submachine gun (also known as the "Tommy Gun", "Chicago Typewriter", "Chicago Piano", “Trench Sweeper” or "Trench Broom") is a blowback-operated, air-cooled, Magazine-fed rifle, magazine-fed Selective fire, selective-fire subm ...

, AK-47 assault rifle), have a second frontal pistol grip (or foregrip) on the firearm's fore-end to be used by the support hand for better stability in operation. Pistol grips can also serve multiple functions, such as a

magazine A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...

housing (in semi-automatic pistols), bipod (in some foregrips) or tool storage device (for spare

batteries Battery most often refers to: * Electric battery, a device that provides electrical power * Battery (crime), a crime involving unlawful physical contact Battery may also refer to: Energy source *Automotive battery, a device to provide power t ...

, gun oil/ cleaner, hex keys, etc). In few firearms, like the Finnish Kk 62

light machine gun A light machine gun (LMG) is a light-weight machine gun designed to be operated by a single infantryman, with or without an assistant, as an infantry support weapon. LMGs firing cartridges of the same caliber as the other riflemen of the ...

, the pistol grip is also used as a handle to charge the weapon. Pistol grips are regarded as a defining feature in United States gun law. Pistol grips that protrude below the weapon but are not integrated with the shoulder stock (i.e. as part of a thumbhole stock) are currently regulated in some states and were regulated by the now-expired

Federal Assault Weapons Ban The Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act, popularly known as the Federal Assault Weapons Ban (AWB), was a subsection of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, a United States federal law which includ ...

. Tools with pistol-style grips run the range from

hand tool A hand tool is any tool that is powered by hand rather than a motor. Categories of hand tools include wrenches, pliers, cutters, files, striking tools, struck or hammered tools, screwdrivers, vises, clamps, snips, hacksaws, drills, an ...

s such as

bar clamp An F-clamp, also known as a bar clamp or speed clamp, is a type of clamp. The name comes from its "F" shape. The F-clamp is similar to a C-clamp in use, but has a wider opening capacity (throat). This tool is used in woodworking while more perman ...

s and hand saws, to

power tool A power tool is a tool that is actuated by an additional power source and mechanism other than the solely manual labor used with hand tools. The most common types of power tools use electric motors. Internal combustion engines and compressed ...

s such as electric drills and

pneumatic Pneumatics (from Greek ‘wind, breath’) is a branch of engineering that makes use of gas or pressurized air. Pneumatic systems used in industry are commonly powered by compressed air or compressed inert gases. A centrally located and ...

surgical sternal saws. Often the word "gun" appears in the name of pistol gripped tools such as the glue gun, caulking gun and nail gun. Spray painters and grinders also often include this feature for added precision control. One of the reasons that pistol-style grips are so common in machinery is because it is possible to ergonomically position the operating controls for use with minimal hand movement. For example, on self-loading rifles such as the

AR-15 An AR-15-style rifle is any lightweight semi-automatic rifle based on the Colt AR-15 design. The original ArmaLite AR-15 is a scaled-down derivative of Eugene Stoner's ArmaLite AR-10 design. The then Fairchild Engine and Airplane Corporation ...

and

M16 rifle The M16 rifle (officially designated Rifle, Caliber 5.56 mm, M16) is a family of military rifles adapted from the ArmaLite AR-15 rifle for the United States military. The original M16 rifle was a 5.56×45mm automatic rifle with a 20-r ...

, the user's grip hand can manipulate the trigger and magazine release with only the index finger, while using the thumb to control the

safety Safety is the state of being "safe", the condition of being protected from harm or other danger. Safety can also refer to the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk. Meanings There are two slightly di ...

or selector switch, all without needing to remove the palm from the grip. Pistol-grip drill

References

{{Firearms Human–machine interaction Firearm components