Suburban Law Enforcement Academy (SLEA) BA State Certification Practice Exam

Which type of pistol is characterized by its ability to fire one round for each trigger pull without manual cycling of the action?

1. Revolver

2. Single-shot

3. Semi-automatic

4. Fully automatic

The correct answer is: Semi-automatic

The type of pistol that allows a shooter to fire one round for each trigger pull without the need for manual cycling of the action is the semi-automatic pistol. This firearm operates by using the energy generated from the firing of a round to eject the spent cartridge case, reload a fresh round from the magazine, and prepare the pistol to be fired again with the next trigger pull. Unlike fully automatic pistols, which continuously fire rounds as long as the trigger is held down, semi-automatic pistols require the shooter to release and pull the trigger for each shot. This makes the semi-automatic mechanism highly efficient for quick follow-up shots while still providing control and precision for the shooter. A revolver, on the other hand, requires the cylinder to rotate to present a new round to the barrel for each shot, and a single-shot pistol can only fire one round at a time, requiring manual loading after each shot. Fully automatic firearms fall into a different category altogether, designed to discharge multiple rounds automatically with a single pull of the trigger, which is not the case for semi-automatics.