A side arm is a small personal weapon that is typically worn on the body in a holster in such a way to permit immediate access and use. Although this term can apply to swords and other mêlée weapons (called main-gauche in this case), the modern use of it usually pertains to pistols and similar firearms. The bayonet, still used in war as both knife and spearpoint. ... A holster is a specialized article of clothing worn to hold a handgun about the person, most commonly in a location where it can be easily drawn for immediate use. ... Swiss longsword, 15th or 16th century Sword (from Old English sweord, cognate to Old High German swert, literally wounding tool from a Proto-Indo-European root *swer- to wound, to hurt) is a term for a long-edged, bladed weapon, consisting in its most fundamental design of a blade, usually... Mêlée generally refers to disorganized hand-to-hand combat involving a group of fighters. ... In fencing, the main-gauche (French for left hand) is a dagger used in the off-hand, mainly to assist in parrying, while the right hand wields a sabre, a rapier or similar longer weapon intended for one-handed use. ... A Browning 9 millimeter semiautomatic pistol Ordnance pistol of the French Navy, 19th century A pistol or handgun is a usually small firearm that can be used with one hand. ... An assortment of modern handheld firearms using fixed ammunition, including military assault rifles, a sporting shotgun (fourth from bottom), and a tactical shotgun (third from bottom). ...

A side arm is typically required equipment for law enforcement personnel and military officers. Usually, uniformed personnel of these services wear their weapons openly, while plainclothes personnel typically keep theirs under their outer clothes. However, in some military situations, military officers prefer not to have such a weapon visible as it can identify them as a priority target for snipers. For the band, see The Police. ... In military organizations, a commissioned officer is a member of the service who derives authority directly from a sovereign power, and as such holds a commission from that power. ... The term sniper is attested from 1824 in the sense of sharpshooter. The verb to snipe originated in the 1770s among soldiers in British India in the sense of to shoot from a hidden place, in allusion to snipe hunting, a game bird known for being difficult to sneak up...

According to an adventure book written under the pseudonym S. M. Gunn, the Red Army was noteworthy because its officers hardly ever dispensed with their side arms, considering them equivalent to badges of office. It is unclear whether this tradition is maintained within the armed forces of the present-day Russian Federation, but appears likely. A pseudonym (Greek: false name) is a fictitious name used by an individual as an alternative to his or her legal name. ... The short forms Red Army and RKKA refer to the Workers and Peasants Red Army, (in Russian: Рабоче-Крестьянская Красная Армия - Raboche-Krestyanskaya Krasnaya Armiya), the armed forces first organized by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War in 1918. ...