Legal Commentary

The Semi-Automatic Revolver

By Eugene Volokh

From Rodriguez v. Glock, Inc., 28 F. Supp. 2d 1064 (N.D. Ill. 1998): ?According to the testimony Plaintiff submits, including Bedoya?s testimony from his criminal trial, Rodriguez grabbed Bedoya from behind, held his arm and attempted to remove Bedoya?s service revolver, a .40 caliber Glock Model 22 semi-automatic pistol, from its holster.? The Glock 22 is a semi-automatic pistol, not a revolver, but more to the point nothing can be both a semi-automatic pistol and a revolver (except perhaps under very odd and to my knowledge entirely hypothetical circumstances [UPDATE: some commenters pointed out that there were indeed some very rare guns that were both]).

Incidentally, a quick Google Books search for Glock revolver yielded an alarming number of hits. (To my knowledge, Glock doesn?t make revolvers.)

Full post as published by The Volokh Conspiracy on October 26, 2010 (boomark / email).