How Did Firearms Become Platforms??

[Whit]

Got to thinking the other day, a dangerous thing for a brain as small as mine to engage in. How we begin talking about firearms as a platform? For example the AR platform or the 1911 platform. When I was a young lad in school my teachers always encouraged us to use the dictionary, especially if you didn’t know how to spell a word, which made no sense to me. So I went to my Funk and Wagnalls to look up platform. For the sake of transparency, I shamelessly copied from the internet (which knows all things) definitions for platform, of which there are several:

1. a raised level surface on which people or things can stand.

2. a raised floor or stage used by public speakers or performers so that they can be seen by their audience.

3. a raised structure along the side of a railroad track where passengers get on and off trains at a station.

4. a raised structure standing in the sea from which oil or gas wells can be drilled or regulated.

5. a raised structure or orbiting satellite from which rockets or missiles may be launched.

6. a standard for the hardware of a computer system, determining what kinds of software it can run.

7. the declared policy of a political party or group.

8. a shoe with very thick soles.

Admittedly I am not a linguist, however with careful reading I can usually understand definitions of words and apply them properly (most of the time) in writing or speaking. Based on the definition(s) above of platform, how does the word become applicable to firearms?

It is with bated breath that I await the explanations the learned members of this forum will provide. Based on previous readings on this scholarly site, there will probably be some humor in what follows...that is if anything follows. This thread may die right here on the platform from which it was attempted to be launched!

Be safe and blessed.

 

[UncleEd]

As one of the "learned members of this
forum," I've always referred to a gun as
a bullet launching acceleration device.

 

[Peak53]

This has also befuddled/amused me and I think of it as a gun to which multiple "mods" can be applied. I don't own any of those. My Model 14 sure ain't a "platform."

To answer your question, it appears that #6 could be adaptable: a hardware standard. This seems to apply to your examples because the AR and 1911 are standardized in a way that they can be modified with drop in parts.

This is not a platform:

 

[LVSteve]

It's probably crept over from military usage. Planes, ships and tanks are different "platforms".



From your original list #6 could be stretched to guns by saying "platform" relates to a particular operating mode or collection of features.

 

[The Last Standing Knight]

Whit......

.....it just means the basis. Most modern firearms are modularized and components and equipment can be added or removed at a whim unlike the rifles and handguns of a few years ago.

It applies mostly to AR-15 style, Glock, and SIG firearms but more are added to this list daily.

I believe in the KISS principle at all times instead of turning my Smith and Wesson into something that looks like it was created by Vader and Spock.

(yes, I know....cymbals crashing)

 

[Whit]

Peaks53, your Model 14 is a prime example of a “non platform”. And a nice looking example.

Number 6 is a stretch since the definition applies specifically to computers. Now if we had “smart” guns like some folks want then number 6 might be applicable. Be safe and blessed.

 

[rockquarry]

Got to thinking the other day, a dangerous thing for a brain as small as mine to engage in. How we begin talking about firearms as a platform? For example the AR platform or the 1911 platform. When I was a young lad in school my teachers always encouraged us to use the dictionary, especially if you didn’t know how to spell a word, which made no sense to me. So I went to my Funk and Wagnalls to look up platform. For the sake of transparency, I shamelessly copied from the internet (which knows all things) definitions for platform, of which there are several:

1. a raised level surface on which people or things can stand.

2. a raised floor or stage used by public speakers or performers so that they can be seen by their audience.

3. a raised structure along the side of a railroad track where passengers get on and off trains at a station.

4. a raised structure standing in the sea from which oil or gas wells can be drilled or regulated.

5. a raised structure or orbiting satellite from which rockets or missiles may be launched.

6. a standard for the hardware of a computer system, determining what kinds of software it can run.

7. the declared policy of a political party or group.

8. a shoe with very thick soles.

Admittedly I am not a linguist, however with careful reading I can usually understand definitions of words and apply them properly (most of the time) in writing or speaking. Based on the definition(s) above of platform, how does the word become applicable to firearms?

It is with bated breath that I await the explanations the learned members of this forum will provide. Based on previous readings on this scholarly site, there will probably be some humor in what follows...that is if anything follows. This thread may die right here on the platform from which it was attempted to be launched!

Be safe and blessed.

I've wondered the same thing. Maybe "platform" in reference to guns was created by the semi-gun enthusiast gadgeteers. I have a feeling they might be the same folks that created "chassis", too. They probably "run" both.

 

[BSA1]

When I am considering acquiring a new (or new to me) firearm it is the base or platform on which I want to add other items for. Ammunition, more magazines, holsters, sights, availability of spare parts are just some of the items that are important and can be as important as the gun itself. The lack of these items have caused me to pass on firearms that were in good condition.

Since you mention the AR-15 the basic gun can be modified many different ways. Stock, grip, handguard, barrel, sights, optics, laser, a light are just some of the items that are commonly installed or changed on the gun. The Lower Receiver is the platform on which all of the other parts are installed on.

I prefer to use the word “system” as it conveys the message.

 

[Mike SC Hunter]

I've never shot a platform before. Just a bunch of REAL guns......From the old school. Never shot an "assault rifle ether. But I do own AR15's. Never saw an assaultler for sale.

 

[crazyphil]

About two thousand four hundred years ago, a gentleman by the name
of Hippocrates said: "The chief virtue that language can have is clearness,
and nothing detracts from it so much as the use of unfamiliar words."

If he were around today I believe he would agree that platform is one of
those unfamiliar words. I'm a simple guy. If it's a handgun, I will call
it either a revolver or a pistol depending on what it is. If a long gun,
it's either a rifle or shotgun. The Glock is a pistol. The AR15 is a rifle.
That should be clear enough even for old Hippocrates.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

It most likely came from a gun writer who didn't actually know beans about any firearm! They fill pages with nonsense dredged from their fountain of ignorance. The old terms of "Thunder Stick" or "Smoke Pole" were much the same thing 150 years ago, so the tradition continues.

As to specific usage: The "Platform" you use is of great importance when your "CQB" drills involve a "Perp" in a specific "Target Rich Environment"!

Ivan

 

[Telecaster]

#4 is sorta it. A 1911 is a platform for launching projectiles.

So, what “platform” do you “run” and in what holster do you “rock” it?

 

[Peak53]

crazyphil - yesbut...
While not an aficionado of platforms, I am an aficionado of the English language, which is infinitely adaptable. We have words based in Old English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Latin and others. We even adopt new words on a regular basis depending on their usage. Think of the word "hugely" which may show up in the Oxford Dictionary any day. Still makes me cringe.

 

[Telecaster]

Do you cringe bigly?

 

[peterGun]

Well 4-6 and 8 are relatively new definitions so what’s to say in 10 years another definition will be added that pertains to firearms.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Rustyt1953]

I don't need a Rosetta Stone. I understand what folks here mean.

 

[Golddollar]

It's probably crept over from military usage. Planes, ships and tanks are different "platforms".



From your original list #6 could be stretched to guns by saying "platform" relates to a particular operating mode or collection of features.

This post is not too far from an actual commercial manufacturing reference to a "Platform." I just looked this up to support my old memory of this reference, and I was able to confirm that for quite a few years the Ford Motor Company referred to its big V-8 cars (Ford Crown Victoria, Mercury Grand Marquis, Mercury Marauder and Lincoln Town Car) as being built on Ford's "Panther Platform." This occurred between 1978 and 2012.

 

[okiegtrider]

Firearms as platforms snuck into the vernacular around the same time that members on gun forums became tiered operators.

 

[Absalom]

I’m not a fan of fancy modern gunspeak which is just meant to sound knowledgeable and identify the speaker as a member of the tactical in-group.

But platform as a descriptor of a basic operating system which has been expanded, adapted, improved (or not) by brilliant and less brilliant innovators, customized almost beyond recognition, and hung with more stuff than a Christmas tree, seems a practical term.

A platform is something you build on. That can certainly be applied to the basic AR-15/M-16 system just like the 1911. It should also be applied to older examples, though; the Mauser 98 system certainly qualifies as a platform too, although it appears that folks interested in those aren’t that much into the terminology

 

[Peak53]

If a Mauser 98 is a "platform," I hereby resign all further discussion