Side Arm

A side arm is a weapon, usually a pistol but sometimes a dagger or other melee weapon, which is worn on the body in a holster to permit immediate access and use. A side arm is typically required equipment for military personnel and sometimes carried by law enforcement personnel. Usually, uniformed personnel of these services wear their weapons openly, while plainclothes personnel have their side arms concealed under their clothes. A side arm may be carried alone, or as a back-up to a primary weapon such as a rifle or carbine. Most standing army also have service pistols.

Read more about Side Arm:  Uses, Other Eras

Famous quotes containing the words side and/or arm:

    For I loved the man and do honour his memory, on this side of idolatry, as much as any.
    Ben Jonson (1573–1637)

    The point is that nationalism, even in its latest madhouse frenzies under Mussolini and Hitler, is still, like advertising, an arm of big business. Nations as we know them today, were the invention of business and it is natural that business should still consider itself slightly above patriotism and that the strongest international should still be the international of profits.
    John Dos Passos (1896–1970)