For the purpose of this chapter, the following definitions shall apply unless the context clearly indicates or requires a different meaning.
ANTIQUE FIREARM. Any firearm manufactured prior to 1898.
ASSAULT WEAPON.
(1) ASSAULT WEAPON means any:
(a) Semi-automatic or pump-action rifle that has the capacity to accept a detachable magazine and has one or more of the following:
1. A pistol grip;
2. Any feature capable of functioning as a protruding grip that can be held by the non-trigger hand;
3. A folding, telescoping or thumbhole stock:
4. A shroud attached to the barrel, or that partially or completely encircles the barrel, allowing the bearer to hold the firearm with the non-trigger hand without being burned, but excluding a slide that encloses the barrel; or,
5. A muzzle brake or muzzle compensator.
(b) Semi-automatic pistol, or any semi-automatic, centerfire rifle with a fixed magazine, that has the capacity to accept more than ten rounds of ammunition;
(c) Semi-automatic pistol that has the capacity to accept a detachable magazine and has one or more of the following:
1. Any feature capable of functioning as a protruding grip that can be held by the non-trigger hand;
2. A folding, telescoping or thumbhold stock;
3. A shroud attached to the barrel, or that partially or completely encircles the barrel, allowing the bearer to hold the firearm with the non-trigger hand without being burned, but excluding a slide that encloses the barrel;
4. A muzzle brake or muzzle compensator; or
5. The capacity to accept a detachable magazine at any location outside the pistol grip;
(d) Semi-automatic shotgun that has one or more of the following:
1. A pistol grip;
2. Any feature capable of functioning as a protruding grip that can be held by the non-trigger hand;
3. A folding, telescoping or thumbhole stock;
4. A fixed magazine capacity in excess of five rounds; or
5. An ability to accept a detachable magazine;
(e) Shotgun with a revolving cylinder; or
(f) Conversion kit, part, or combination of parts, from which an assault weapon can be assembled if those parts are in the possession or under control of the same person.
(2) ASSAULT WEAPON does not include any firearm that has been made permanently inoperable.
AUTOMATIC FIREARM. Any firearm designed or specially adapted to fire a succession of cartridges with a single function of the trigger. AUTOMATIC FIREARM also means any semi-automatic firearm designed or specially adapted to fire more than 31 cartridges without reloading, other than a firearm chambering only .22 caliber short, long or long-rifle cartridges.
BALLISTIC KNIFE. A knife with a detachable blade that is propelled by a spring-operated mechanism.
CURIO OR COLLECTIBLE FIREARM. Any firearm manufactured 50 or more years ago.
DANGEROUS ORDNANCE.
(1) Any of the following, except as provided in division (2) below:
(a) Any automatic or sawed-off firearm, zip-gun or ballistic knife;
(b) Any explosive device or incendiary device;
(c) Nitroglycerin, nitrocellulose, nitrostarch, PETN, cyclonite, TNT, picric acid and other high explosives; amatol, tritonal, tetrytol, pentolite, pecretol, cyclotol and other high compositions; plastic explosives; dynamite, blasting gelatin, gelatin dynamite, sensitized ammonium nitrate, liquid- oxygen blasting explosives, blasting powder and other blasting agents; and any other explosive substance having sufficient brisance or power to be particularly suitable for use as a military explosive, or for use in mining, quarrying, excavating or demolitions;
(d) Any firearm, rocket launcher, mortar, artillery piece, grenade, mine, bomb, torpedo or similar weapon, designed and manufactured for military purposes, and the ammunition therefor;
(e) Any firearm muffler or silencer;
(f) Any combination of parts that is intended by the owner for use in converting any firearm or other device into a dangerous ordnance.
(2) DANGEROUS ORDNANCE does not include any of the following:
(a) Any firearm, including a military weapon and the ammunition therefor, and regardless of its actual age, which employs a percussion cap or other obsolete ignition system, or which is designed and safe for use only with black powder;
(b) Any pistol, rifle or shotgun, designed or suitable for sporting purposes, including a military weapon as issued or as modified, and the ammunition therefor, unless such firearm is an automatic or sawed-off firearm;
(c) Any cannon or other artillery piece which, regardless of its actual age, is of a type in accepted use prior to 1887, has no mechanical, hydraulic, pneumatic or other system for absorbing recoil and returning the tube into battery without displacing the carriage, and is designed and safe for use only with black powder;
(d) Black powder, priming quills and percussion caps possessed and lawfully used to fire a cannon of a type defined in division (1)(c) above during displays, celebrations, organized matches or shoots, and target practice, and smokeless and black powder, primers and percussion caps possessed and lawfully used as a propellant or ignition device in small-arms or small-arms ammunition;
(e) Dangerous ordnance which is inoperable or inert and cannot readily be rendered operable or activated, and which is kept as a trophy, souvenir, curio or museum piece;
(f) Any device which is expressly excepted from the definition of a destructive device pursuant to the "Gun Control Act of 1968," 82 Stat. 1213, 18 U.S.C. 921(a)(4), and any amendments or additions thereto or reenactments thereof, and regulations issued thereunder.
DEADLY WEAPON. Any instrument, device or thing capable of inflicting death, and designed or specially adapted for use as a weapon, or possessed, carried or used as a weapon.
DETACHABLE MAGAZINE. Any ammunition feeding device, the function of which is to deliver one or more ammunition cartridges into the firing chamber, which can be removed from the firearm without the use of any tool, including a bullet or ammunition cartridge.
EXPLOSIVE DEVICE. Any device designed or specially adapted to cause physical harm to persons or property by means of an explosion, and consisting of an explosive substance or agency and a means to detonate it. EXPLOSIVE DEVICE includes without limitation any bomb, any explosive demolition device, any blasting cap or detonator containing an explosive charge, and any pressure vessel which has been knowingly tampered with or arranged so as to explode.
FIREARM.
(1) Any deadly weapon capable of expelling or propelling one or more projectiles by the action of an explosive or combustible propellant. FIREARM includes an unloaded firearm, and any firearm which is inoperable but which can readily be rendered operable.
(2) When determining whether a FIREARM is capable of expelling or propelling one or more projectiles by the action of an explosive or combustible propellant, the trier of fact may rely upon circumstantial evidence, including, but not limited to, the representations and actions of the individual exercising control over the firearm.
HANDGUN. Any firearm designed to be fired while being held in one hand.
INCENDIARY DEVICE. Any firebomb, and any device designed or specially adapted to cause physical harm to persons or property by means of fire, and consisting of an incendiary substance or agency and a means to ignite it.
LARGE CAPACITY MAGAZINE. Any ammunition feeding device with the capacity to accept more than ten rounds, but shall not be construed to include any of the following:
(1) A feeding device that has been permanently altered so that it cannot accommodate more than ten rounds.
(2) A 22 caliber tube ammunition feeding device.
(3) A tubular magazine that is contained in a lever-action firearm.
MUZZLE BRAKE. A device attached to the muzzle of a weapon that utilizes escaping gas to reduce recoil.
MUZZLE COMPENSATOR. A device attached to the muzzle of a weapon that utilizes escaping gas to control muzzle moment.
RIFLE. A weapon designed or redesigned, made or remade, and intended to be fired from the shoulder and designed or redesigned and made or remade to use the energy of the explosive in fixed metallic cartridge to fire only a single projectile through a rifled bore for each single pull of the trigger.
SAWED-OFF FIREARM. A shotgun with a barrel less than 18 inches long, or a rifle with a barrel less than 16 inches long, or a shotgun or rifle less than 26 inches long overall.
SEMI-AUTOMATIC FIREARM. Any firearm designed or specially adapted to fire a single cartridge and automatically chamber a succeeding cartridge ready to fire, with a single function of the trigger.
SHOTGUN. A firearm, whether or not it is intended to be fired from the shoulder, that is designed or redesigned, made or remade, to fire a fixed shotgun shell.
ZIP-GUN. Any of the following:
(1) Any firearm of crude and extemporized manufacture;
(2) Any device, including without limitation a starter's pistol, not designated as a firearm, but which is specially adapted for use as such;
(3) Any industrial tool, signaling device or safety device, not designated as a firearm, but which as designed is capable of use as such, when possessed, carried or used as a firearm.
('80 Code, § 549.01) (Ord. 19-93, passed 3-15-93; Am. Ord. 48-97, passed 6-2-97; Am. Ord. 84-04, passed 2-7-05)