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Russian Stechkin APS machine pistol

Glock 18C (variant of Glock 18) shown with high capacity magazine. Note the fire-selection switch on the top-right.

A machine pistol is a handgun-style, magazine-fed and self-cocking firearm chambered for pistol cartridges that is capable of fully automatic or burst fire. While most machine pistols are designed to be fired with one hand, their light weight, small size, and extremely rapid rates of fire make them difficult to control. To improve the accuracy of the weapon, most machine pistols can be fitted with a a shoulder stock. Some machine pistols, such as the Heckler & Koch VP70, will only fire single rounds unless the stock is attached. Other machine pistols, such as the Beretta 93R, add a forward handgrip. In the US, adding a stock or forward handgrip to a pistol makes the firearm illegal under the US National Firearms Act, as pistols must be designed to be fired with one hand.

Machine pistols are used by tactical police units such as SWAT teams or hostage rescue teams inside buildings and other cramped spaces. Israeli counter-terror units such as the YAMAM use the Para Micro Uzi, a pistol-grip machine pistol with a 33-round Glock 18 magazine. Machine pistols are also used by government security service bodyguards for VIPs and heads of state who need a a weapon that can be concealed under clothing. Machine pistols are also occasionally issued to undercover operatives who need a small, concealable weapon with a high rate of fire.

In a military setting, machine pistols are issued as personal defense sidearms to paratroopers, artillery crews, helicopter crews or tank crews. They have also been used as close quarters combat (CQC) weapons for urban combat where a small weapon is needed (e.g. in buildings or tunnels). As well, silencer-eqipped machine pistols have been used by special forces for clandestine missions in enemy territory, such as Russian Spetsnaz units in Afganistan during the Soviet War.

The term "machine pistol" is a literal translation of Maschinenpistole, the German term for a submachine gun. While the term existed previously as a synonym for semi-automatic pistols, Western references to automatic machine pistols appear at least as early as 1935. The 1932 Mauser Model 712 'Schnellfeuer', a modification of Mauser's 1896 design, is notable as the first widely accepted and mass-produced machine pistol.

Machine pistols can be held - but usually not fired -in one hand. It is difficult to control the gun in full automatic mode, on account of the weapons' light weight and lack of grips for both hands. This led to the development of an "intermittent-fire" setting that fires a burst of three shots instead of full-automatic. An early pistol developed with the three shot system was the Heckler & Koch VP70.

Many have a magazine contained within the grip, and several have select-fire capabilities. Some machine pistols only fire three-shot bursts, such as the Beretta 93R or the Heckler & Koch VP70. The VP70 is capable of semi fire, but it will only fire three-round bursts with the stock attached. Most are simply fully automatic. Some machine pistols have cuts that run across the top of the barrel to act as a compensator, thus counteracting the weapon's tendency to rise when fired in automatic mode.

The dividing line between machine pistols and submachine guns is hard to draw. Usually the term submachine gun refers to larger automatic firearms. Today several types of weapon are described as either - for instance the MAC-10 and the smaller examples of the Uzi series. Typically, however, a submachine gun's operating mechanism is scaled down from that of a full-sized machine gun, while a machine pistol is built up from a semi-automatic pistol design.

The popularity of submachine guns in recent years has led many weapons previously described as machine pistols to be advertised and referred to as submachine guns. Perhaps the most obvious example is the Brugger & Thomet MP-9, which was formerly known as the Steyr TMP. Though many submachine guns possess a stock and are thus capable of being fired from the shoulder like a rifle, this is not a clearly defining feature, as numerous submachine guns lack a stock, and several machine pistols possess them, at least as optional extras.

• Submachine gun

Some machine pistols

• Beretta 93R
• Mauser C96
• CZ-Scorpion
• Glock 18
• Heckler & Koch VP70
• MAC-10, MAC-11
• Micro Uzi
• APS Stechkin
• Chechen 9x18mm BORZ ("Wolf") machine-pistol, Russian lang.
• OTS-33 Pernach
• Steyr TMP
• OTS-02 Kiparis

This article or section includes a list of references or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. You can improve this article by introducing more precise citations.

• Full Auto Conversion for Browning Pistols, Gerard Henrotin (H&L Publishing - HLebooks.com, 2003)
• The German Submachine Guns, Lyndon Haywood(H&L Publishing - HLebooks.com, 2001)

• Personal Defense Weapons: Machine Pistols
• Article on Glock 18, a fully automatic pistol
• Article on KG-99
• Chechen 9x18mm BORZ ("Wolf") machine-pistol

• List of submachine guns
• Blowback
• Firearm action
• Semi-automatic pistol
• Personal defense weapon