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means of air pressure, similar in principle to the operation of pneumatic tube delivery systems. The term comes from a Greek word for "wind" or "breath" (πνευμα).
In theory, pneumatic weapons have certain advantages over traditional firearms:
In practice, pneumatic weapons are not as well-developed as traditional firearms and have a number of practical deficiencies:
The low projectile speed requirement of a toy weapon greatly reduces the amount of air pressure needed; combined with the importance of safety in the toy industry, this has lead to widespread adoption of pneumatic firing mechnisms in toy weapons, where a propellant reaction is not appropriate (although other technologies, such as rubber bands, can be used).
The toy industry has produced a number of pneumatic toy weapons, which fire small, lightweight (often plastic and frequently hollow) projectiles at relatively low speeds. The Airsoft pistol is a popular toy that operates this way.