Need to stop using the word weapon. What's more appropriate?

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Call it a criminal re-education tool . Or even call it a guidance counselor for poor misguided youth of the pillaging type.
 
I just use the term "firearm" and then let the use of the firearm define its use, whether its for:

Collecting
Sport
Recreation
Display
Weapon (and if so, define if its used for defense, or to harm another)
etc...
 
I think we should follow the lead of that greatest of entertainers.....Prince.

We should call them "the objects formerly known as weapons".

Gimme a break... it is what it is.

:rolleyes:
 
CJohnson76 said:
Yammi, only because it was I once heard someone refer to a firearm as that. Seriously though, I do use the word weapon, but try to substitute it with system or platform during so it does not sound as menacing to some.
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Less menacing, more mall-ninja.

If there was any term I'd want people to stop using, it would be "platform".

They are guns, guns are weapons. They are firearms, firearms are weapons. Rifles, rifles are weapons. Handguns, handguns are weapons. Any of those terms is just fine. It usually makes sense to use the most descriptive term to avoid confusion. "Weapon" is a classification, not a singular item, except as a general classification.
 
I object to calling it a weapon too on the basis of my Ruger 77/22 is a rifle that I use to shoot small groups at 100 yards. My 22/45 is a handgun that my girlfriend uses to make Diet Coke cans dance about in the back yard. Those are guns are not being used as weapons. However, my M-4A1 that I carried in the Sandbox is a weapon, provided I was using it to fight bad guys, not run it in a three gun match.

What's that old saw "I'm the weapon; my gun is the tool" or something like that? While I find that a bit melodramatic, I don't think any sort of gun, be it a .22 match rifle or a BAR sitting in an armory is a weapon anymore than the old F-4s sitting in the bone yard. They are tools and object. They don't anything on thier own.
 
SPEMack618 said:
I object to calling it a weapon too on the basis of my Ruger 77/22 is a rifle that I use to shoot small groups at 100 yards. My 22/45 is a handgun that my girlfriend uses to make Diet Coke cans dance about in the back yard. Those are guns are not being used as weapons. However, my M-4A1 that I carried in the Sandbox is a weapon, provided I was using it to fight bad guys, not run it in a three gun match.

What's that old saw "I'm the weapon; my gun is the tool" or something like that? While I find that a bit melodramatic, I don't think any sort of gun, be it a .22 match rifle or a BAR sitting in an armory is a weapon anymore than the old F-4s sitting in the bone yard. They are tools and object. They don't anything on thier own.
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That arguments been had 1,000 times and no one ever changes their minds but I find it silly.

"Weapon" is a general classification which fits the specific item of a firearm. A given firearms actual use over it's individual life or at any specific moment is irrelevant.

It's like saying a parked car is not a vehicle because vehicles are used to transport people and it's not transporting people when it's parked.

Or a book is not a literary work unless it's being read. I could use a book as a hammer and it's still a literary work.

You can use a gun as a hammer and it's still not a hammer. It's still a gun and it's still weapon by basic design.
 
This sound a little like claiming a pistol (an automatic pistol!) is unloaded that has seven rounds in the magazine but none in the chamber.

Can you weaponize any firearm?
 
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Excellent post Brian. Politically correct semantics are truly exasperating but i suppose it makes a lot fo people "feel" good. Where I grew up we just call them "gawns".:rolleyes:
 
weapon is to general a word . A gun is a weapon but a weapon is not necessarilly a gun . You can use a table lamp as a weapon but you can't use a gun as a table lamp and yet they are both weapons if used as such . I still like firearm
 
I know that when I went through the NRA instructor course for the Boy Scouts, it was pounded in our heads that "weapons" were not permitted, but firearms, guns, and rifle was okay.
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An interesting point. If a rampaging raccoon was dispatched with a rifle at Boy Scout camp then that same rifle has become a weapon. A gun has the potential for use either defensively or offensively, and is then by definition a weapon.

Twobit I agree that this is a good thread, and think you also make an interesting point. I appreciate your input.

I think that in most conversation weapon is a perfectly acceptable word when discussing firearms. For those of us who understand our right to keep and bear arms there is no denying it is guns as weapons that is central to the 2A; for those who believe all guns are evil and should be illegal, it doesn't matter what you call them.
 
I am careful to avoid the word "weapon".
I say "firearm" when referring to guns.
A weapon can be any object. An object becomes a weapon only if the person holding it chooses to use it in an offensive manner.
 
K Mac said:
An interesting point. If a rampaging raccoon was dispatched with a rifle at Boy Scout camp then that same rifle has become a weapon. A gun has the potential for use either defensively or offensively, and is then by definition a weapon.
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Interesting point. And as a former camp director, one I feel qualified to answer on. Said rampaging racoon would have to be dispatched by either the camp reservation ranger, or, preferably, State Fish and Game.

Firearms are used for merit badges at Boy Scout camp, that's it., per BSA National Headquarters.
 
No, I'm fine with calling them weapons. That's what they are. Even a little .22 plinker shares the design and potential purpose as something intended to be used to inflict harm.

Calling them weapons may help hammer home how serious these things are, and I see a lot of shooters who need that.
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There's too much of an implication that a "weapon" is designed to be used against people. I just can't bring my self to use that term when dealing with a young boy with a pocketknife, a 410, or a 22. That's not what he's supposed to be using it for. And I don't want him getting it in his head that's the purpose for a firearm, a blade or any other tool for that matter.

When it's adults around other adults speaking about firearms for defensive (or offensive) purposes, for killing, injuring, and defeating other people, then use "weapon", "killing machine", or any other term that suits your fancy. Although "rifle", "pistol", and "shotgun" are more specific.
 
I quit worrying about what anti-gun people think a long time ago. Quit wasting your time with these folks you are never going to change their minds about firearms. Make your life simpler avoid these people.
 
Of course, pocketknives, .410 shotguns and .22s are not supposed to be used for killing people but some folks have their own ideas. Woody Guthrie, you know, had a label taped to his guitar that said "This machine kills Fascists," but I don't know if he considered his guitar a weapon or not.
 
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