Question for NRA instructors about the "W" word

For me, there is a fine line when calling a firearm a weapon. I never call firearms weapons. When I talk to people, I say that your mind is the weapon and everything else is a tool. A gun can be a recreational tool. It can be used for hunting and gathering food. But it can also be used as a personal defense tool. The same with a knife. A surgeon uses a knife to operate on someone, but we don't think of them as 'weapons' when the doctor is cutting someone's body open during a procedure.
 
I did a quick search and I was unable to find anything related. I have a pet peeve.....I was watching the wheelchair video from the When seconds count thread and the guy in the video kept referring to his gun as a weapon.

Now I think we can all agree that almost anything can be used as a weapon but continually calling firearms weapons give them a negative connotation.

I call my guns what they are either by name i.e. glock, AR or 357 or I refer to them generally as firearms. Even when I carry I have a license to carry firearms. I would only consider my firearms a weapon if I were to use it in defense, otherwise it is a firearm.

What are your thoughts? Do you own firearms or weapons?

I am with you.

For me it is a question of nomenclature versus intent.
What I own are all firearms. In my mind, that means they contain and direct an explosion to move a projectile. Thus,the fire part. The arms part implies one method of their potential use.

What I don't refer to them as is "weapons".
The only reason for that is that I have not had to shoot a man with it.
And that is the intent, or use part of it. I mostly shoot clays, cans, and other targets. Thus, to me, it is more of a tool for recreation.

Even if I were to use it for self-defense, it would still be referred to as firearm. Mostly, because there are bunch of people out there that would take the term "weapon" and read into it that I was somehow on the offensive.

EC is dead-non. But I would modify his statement by saying anything has the POTENTIAL to be used as a weapon.
 
i call one of the AK's the "purple polish people punisher".

they are just words, guns are just tools, it's about intent.

neither word makes me particularly butthurt.
 
What atilla said...weapon is an item used to inflict harm on others...firearm is a weapon only if "intended" to harm...

A pencil is a weapon if I intend to jamb it through your jugular. [shocked]
 
Firearm or gun, depending on the audience. Gun people I use "gun" and not gun people I use "firearm" because it's a little less scary.

I don't refer to my pocket knife as a weapon, but I suppose I could injure someone with it if I had to. Same goes for my fireplace poker.
 
In the military its a weapon. You hear it at the range 'place your weapon on safe' 'rotate the selector from safe to fire' da da da. Its beaten into your brain that your rifle or pistol is a weapon. Just did a NRA course, after 6 years of being a weapon it was darn near impossible to not call a Sig a weapon. But I get the idea. When I am a civilian and my Sig, Springfield or Savage are all firearms, not weapons anymore
 
I own firearms for defensive and recreational purposes. True weapons have shiny domes and have lots traitors inside them.
 
I agree! I use firearm or I'll name it directly (glock 23, colt .45...)
I'm sure this was brought up before, but it was funny to hear the media during the Marathon Bombings referring to the police with assault rifles! At some point the media starting calling them long guns and rifles.
So the cops don't have assault rifles, only law abiding citizens!
 
I agree! I use firearm or I'll name it directly (glock 23, colt .45...)
I'm sure this was brought up before, but it was funny to hear the media during the Marathon Bombings referring to the police with assault rifles! At some point the media starting calling them long guns and rifles.
So the cops don't have assault rifles, only law abiding citizens!

Excellent point about the media manipulation related to the police firearms vs. privately owned.....
 
http://www.northeastshooters.com/vb...e-quot-W-quot-word?highlight=eddie+weapon+gun

I'll stand by my post that I made in that thread:

My past military training has all but removed the word "gun" in my conversations, it's a bit of training that has "stuck" to this very day.

I've taken a number of courses of the past 3 years, and I've rid myself of the "w" word as well.

I always use the term firearm, even in casual conversation.

Truth is, there are a number of items in front of me on my desk right now that I could use "as a" weapon. I refuse to lump my respect, admiration, and enthusiasm for firearms into such a general category.
 
Thanks for that thread link. If a moderator wants to they can combine the threads. Didn't think to search under 'that "W" word'...lol

I merged that pile of stuff together with this pile. Frankly this is one of those "debates" that will never be ended, its semantics wars. The NRA mantra has always been that "weapon" is bad but I think that is just being disingenuous. Anything can be a weapon, including a firearm. This doesn't mean that firearms are exclusively or only weapons, although it makes someone sound like a douchebag if they say "I carry a gun for protection but it's not a weapon" That to me rings of BS- much in the same as the BS inherent in the statement of "All guns are always loaded" (Even Jeff cooper acknowledges halfway that statement is ****ing stupid- by saying "Even if it is not, they should be treated as such" at least he acknowledges that the statement can be factually incorrect while conveying the necessary safety nostrum in the process.) Trying to sell someone on a concept by selling them a bold faced lie (particularly with people with more than a few functioning brain cells) s going to make them question your motives and intent.

-Mike
 
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More brainwashed NRA garbage. If it was designed as a weapon, its a weapon. If its being utilized as a weapon, its a weapon. My garand is my favorite weapon, incidentally my favorite rifle as well. My sig is a weapon I carry on ky person for use against other people or animals in a worst case scenario. Guns designed around being utilized against people or animals (ie not a ruger mk III) are weapons, and its NRA garbage to say otherwise.

2A is for weapons, not for tools. Get over it.

Mike

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More brainwashed NRA garbage. If it was designed as a weapon, its a weapon. If its being utilized as a weapon, its a weapon. My garand is my favorite weapon, incidentally my favorite rifle as well. My sig is a weapon I carry on ky person for use against other people or animals in a worst case scenario. Guns designed around being utilized against people or animals (ie not a ruger mk III) are weapons, and its NRA garbage to say otherwise.

2A is for weapons, not for tools. Get over it.

Mike

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The arms weren't intended for fighting people, you're clearly right.

Mike

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It is all about perceived image. The word weapon has a poor connotation. Don't feed the sheeple
 
You make it worse by suggesting our right to own "toys" is greater than what they perceive as the lives of others. We own weapons so we can defend ourselves. Period. All other things guns are used for is not why they are a protected item of ownership. Our ability to protect ourselves with weapons is the reason we accept the perceived side effects of an armed society. Not so we can poke holes in paper.

You are contributing to weapons having a negative connotation by furthering this rediculous guns are not weaoons BS. How about teaching the positives of a good guy having a WEAPON at their disposal?

Mike



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I look at it like this, if its a rifle, call it a rifle, or by its actual name (AR-15, AK-47, saiga 12 and so on) if its a pistol or a revolver, call it a pistol or revolver,

I would also say calling it a hand gun or the use of the actual model name proper here as well, but to be calling your hand gun or rifle just a "weapon" is quite vague and since anything can be a weapon, it would be like you calling your chainsaw "that wood cutting thing"

If you use the term weapon, its not like I'm going to care, hell I have said it from time to time, but like it was stated the term weapon puts a unrealistic fear in some people.

so just call it by its modal name or class of firearm and avoid all arguments
 
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