firearm
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 307 U.S. 174 - United States v. Miller · 1939Most cited · 857 citing opinions
a shotgun or rifle having a barrel of less than eighteen inches in length, or "any other weapon, except *176 a pistol or revolver, from which a shot is discharged by an explosive if such weapon is capable of being concealed on the person, ór a machine gun, and includes a muffler or silencer for any firearm whether or not such firearm is included within the foregoing definition, [The Act of April 10,1936, c. 169, 49 Stat. 1192 added the words] but does not
How often courts cite the cases defining “firearm”
Court decisions citing the 2 opinions that defined “firearm” — 866 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 2 definitions, chronological · 1939–2017
(1) a shotgun having a barrel or barrels of less than 18 inches in length").