I like the ideas so far. All the opinions are good. I do have something I think is worth mentioning.
Picking what word to use that ACCURATELY describes what happens - no matter how 'horrible' the word is, to me, says you understand the danger and are taking the responsibility. To pick a word that protects us from the anti-gun nazi's, and makes it sound nice and fluffy, to me is sticking your head in the sand like an ostrich, pretending nothing bad can happen, and leaving no one to be responsible for their actions. We can't afford that.
That sounds to me, awfully close to an attempt at being politically correct. That is something, none of us are.
I understand the argument of relating it to a traffic accident. Could be semantics, although I will mention that in Texas, the wording has changed and there are no more traffic accidents. They have been referred to as 'crashes' since about 2005/2006. To denote someone, or something had caused the crash. Some states have changed theres to 'collision' in similar format.
It reminds me about a conversation I had many years ago. Referring to someone by their color, I said ... "so&so is black" and the other party was mortified as though I had used 'the evil "N" word'. I was corrected to use the term, "African-american". Being I knew the person of subject, I responded, he's not from Africa. He's never been to Africa, he's a U.S. citizen! Charlize Theron is African-American, and she's as white as I am! The person seemed to be stunned and understood at the same time.
Likewise, with guns (and really anything) calling it what it is, is nothing to be scared of. If we have to use a horrible ugly word to help further our cause by educating and holding responsible gun handlers, then so be it. Ultimately its for the good. Yes we're going to get some black eyes over a few idiots. But this late in the game, worrying about being PC on a topic that is already labeled 'extremist' is at best laughable.