Do we buy weapons or firearms?

laws typically determine what defines that word as in a weapon. I call knives cutting tools not weapons as an example, but laws can call it a weapon. depending on its length and edges and how it opens, etc.

apply that to firearms as well.

IMO, it all has to do with intended usage. If it's for killing people, any item is a weapon. For any other usage, it's a firearm.

I don't think it really matters but I do differentiate.
If it's for self defense or concealed carry, I call it a weapon.
If it's for hunting or pleasure, it's a gun or a firearm.

I call it a tool. It comes with a tool pouch and a tool belt. It is for special work that no one wants to do but it has to be done.

I personally refer to the guns I buy for self/home defense as weapons.
The rest are just guns, that’s just how I break it down but I don’t really think it matters. It’s mainly just semantics isn’t it?

Interestingly, many of my guns were (past tense) weapons. My Mosin, Garand, 303 Enfield etc were literally “weapons of war” as the freedom haters love to say. Now they are just collectibles that I enjoy target shooting with.

Meanwhile my NAA 22 is a weapon.

I think it also depends on background. In the military (at least when I was in) anything that went bang was called a weapon. I often catch myself conflicted about which is the more acceptable way depending on who I'm having the conversation with. In today's climate, and the way people seem to only pick up on context when it suits their point, firearm is probably the way to go. Any firearm I own has the potential to be deployed as a weapon just the same a my Stanley hammer, the 9 iron, or whatever other tool that happens to be available to stop whatever attack is launched at me or my family.

I'd say yes and no for my purchases YMMV

Always a firearm. If used for self defense or aggression then it becomes a weapon.

It depends on context. A hammer is just a tool until you hit somebody with it, then its a weapon. Same with firearms.

They are all tools. In my irresponsible youth, I was involved in an altercation in an establishment that ended up on the floor. During the fracas, I hit my attacker with a dispenser for paper napkins. Is a napkin dispenser a weapon? When I joined the military, drill sgt told us WE were weapons. I tend to believe that guy.

rust collector said:

The weapon terminology comes mostly from military and LEO use. The more specific term is firearm, as weapons include armor, aircraft, halberds, trade sanctions and pathogens. I like to be specific when I can.

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I agree. It seems like some people forget that words get taking out of context for the purposes of utilizing the worst possible meaning to fit their own agenda. So it is important to pay attention to the literal definition of the words we say.

If I own for social work, I regard it as a weapon. If I own it for hunting, plinking, collecting, or competition, I refer to it as a firearm or by the class of firearm that it falls into.

I use “weapon” to refer to firearms. If it can hurt man, or animal, it is a weapon. I will also use the word “tool,” in reference to serious-use firearms. I reckon that a range toy is a range toy, but it is still a weapon. Safety-mindedness requires us to remember that all firearms, all weapons, can hurt us, or others, if misused. Defensive weapon, hunting weapon, sporting weapon. It all makes sense, to my brain. I will not bow to what I see as “politically correctness” making its way into my speech.

Regarding PC, I have noticed that it is trendy to refer such things as tennis racquets and camera lenses as “weapons.” So, yeah, my firearm is a weapon, too, because it is a weapon.

I am probably less likely to use “weapon,” if the firearm is specifically designed to punch paper, or break clay.

If someone chides me, for using “weapon” to refer to a firearm, I will remind them that an archeology or history textbook will use “weapon” to refer to prehistoric and ancient bows, arrows, spears, atlatls, and such, in the hunting context.

The “rules” of writing a well-composed paper discourage the over-use of any one word, with too short of a space. So, one item may be a firearm, a tool, a weapon, and an implement, within one paragraph.

OK, time to walk my weaponized, tactical rat terrier. (OK, she is an early warning system, not a weapon. Unless a rat invades.)

Cast iron skillet is a useful implement unless it's in the hands of an angry woman......then it becomes a "weapon". Intent changes everything.

I own weapons, each and every one. Or to use the older word, "arms".

I own a lot of Firearms and have yet to use any of them as a Weapon? (Even in the military unless a Sidewinder Missle constitutes a Firearm.

Do we buy weapons or firearms?

Yes.

Whatever floats your boat.

I went through these very discussions with other instructors in the past as well and found them to be silly and unworthy of serious discussions.

Firearms, weapons, arms, call them whatever you want.

Treat them all with the respect they should be given and use them appropriately as the circumstances dictate. That is what we should be filling little ears with.

I purchase and own firearms. If I need to use one to defend myself I use it as a weapon. The same as if I were to use a shovel, baseball bat, or Estwing 24 oz framing hammer to protect myself. It's all about what one uses an object for.

As “objects” they are guns/firearms. As tools their intended use dictates their label.
All my guns are firearms, only one is a weapon, the one I carry.

I couldn't care less what anyone calls then. Arms. Weapons. Gun. Smoke wagon. Even shotty or gat although I do cringe a little on those. I don't think I've ever called one a weapon but its splitting hairs.
Same for the revolver-pistol argument. I dont even care about the magazine/clip argument, although a good friend of mine had to wear a hair clip all day once in the police academy for using the term.

I live in the south. Been here in the Appalachian mountains all my life. If I bothered correcting people for their language I'd never get anything done. Looking out the winder. Building a far. Smoke going up the chimley. Ustacould? Lol. Weapon vs armament vs firearm is of little importance to me. The media has moved past the point of using such light terms now anyway. Its assault weapons now.

hso said:

and happily point out that many if not most firearms had their origins in designs for military or law enforcement

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Id agree most were made for that purpose. If not then they were based on a Browning patent that was. Lol

hso said:

If it is absurd for someone to think of guns as having only the purpose of killing people

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I would also point out that its probably a small fraction of a single percent of the guns in America that have killed anything. Much less a person. And even less an innocent person.

Id love to know the percent that have never been fired since the week they were brought home if at all.