Is a rifle considered a firearm?

Answer 1

A rifle is any gun having helical grooves (called rifling) cut inside the bore of the barrel. These grooves cause the projectile to spin, making it more stable and the gun more accurate.

A musket is any gun having a smooth bore barrel. Their projectiles are unstable and the gun is not very accurate.

Guns that use explosive propellants are firearms, whether they are rifles or muskets.

Guns that just use compressed gasses or springs are not firearms, but also could be either rifles or muskets. An example is an Air Rifle. Even though such guns are not actually firearms, they should always be treated with the same respect as if they were.

A special type of musket is the shotgun, which usually shoots many small pellets (called shot) instead of a single projectile. An example is the Bug-A-Salt, which is a compressed air shotgun using table salt instead of metallic shot.