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Wise_A
I disagree with your argument, but in light of your hippie coworker, I certainly understand it. However:
They are weapons. Terminology hang ups are fine, everybody has them about something. But I really don’t think calling a firearm a weapon is in any way inaccurate. It’s not a tennis racquet or golf club or a hammer. It is a weapon.
It’s interesting: some tennis coaches talk about specific techniques or strategies as being “weapons” when an athlete has perfected it. Some even call the player’s opponent “the enemy” and I just have to choke back laughing in their faces. It’s a freaking rubber ball getting batted over a net! I mean, it’s a fun game and I love coaching the high school team, but it isn’t warfare, there are no weapons and no enemies. If I worked at the other school, I would love and serve those kids the same as the ones I work with.
But a rifle or a pistol or a shotgun? Those *are*, by definition, weapons. Use makes them offensive, defensive, hunting, target, or whatever, but underneath it all they are weapons, a part of the “keep and bear arms” that go along with swords, spears, bows and arrows, and so on.
Sure, they are tools as well, and useful for a variety of things besides offensively killing people, but insisting that they aren’t weapons because they are also those other things is disingenuous.