Sometimes I see people on r/guns or elsewhere get defensive (heh) about the use of the word "weapon." Gun communities are known for insisting on absolute semantic accuracy, as anyone who has uttered a word that sounds like "clip" knows - it's just a part of the experience. This, I believe, stems from the folks in Washington and state legislatures often being comically ill-informed on guns, and that lack of information occasionally leading to shitty laws. Precision and clarity in language is always important. But the "weapon" thing is different to me.
I see the hesitation in calling it a weapon. Weapons are for killing. You can go to jail for committing "assault with a deadly weapon." Nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons. They're things for criminals, homicidal dictators, cops, and militaries, not for the average citizen. Weapons don't have to be guns (or bombs, or tanks, or etc), of course - a sledgehammer or utility knife in my garage can be a weapon if I use it in a certain way. Were I properly trained, I could even say (non-ironically) that "my fists are lethal weapons." What ties all this together is that a weapon is something that was designed for or is used purely for the purpose of hurting or killing.
So if we go around calling our guns "weapons" we're admitting that they're for hurting or killing things. Someone who has a closet full of AR-15s that serve no purpose other than looking cool and punching holes in paper ("turning money into noise" is a particularly apt description I saw on Something Awful's gun board) takes issue with the characterization that he has a closet full of weapons, because he has no plans to kill anyone or anything with them. He may even be a pacifist, the sort to keep them under lock and key and not even use them if he's threatened during a home invasion. Are those then weapons?
On the other hand (and this is the side I lean toward) yes - the AR15s, my shotgun and 9mm, the long-range shooter's .308 bolt-action rifle - they're weapons. They exist because someone a long time ago learned that projectiles can hurt and kill, and projectiles that are a certain shape and propelled with a certain velocity can hurt and kill very well, and then a few millennia of science and engineering got us to the firearms we have today. Their existence and continued enhancement and refinement can be credited to the desire to kill other humans in the most efficient way possible. I hesitate to include my .22 rifle, or a .22 target pistol, but they're the beneficiaries of the same science and engineering - they exist because hurting, killing, and war exist. Furthermore I don't ever really see someone calling a 10/22 a "weapon."
I think getting touchy about calling a gun a weapon is going too far. It's too much in the direction of trying to make guns seem like something they're not. Yes an AR-15 can be used for sporting purposes (putting holes in paper, or feral hogs), so it's a "modern sporting rifle" but it's terrific for home defense as well - the bullets are less likely to overpenetrate through walls, the collapsible stock means more people in your house can use it comfortably, and a 30-round mag is surely a greater capacity than the cheap Hi-Point being wielded by the guy breaking into your home. Refusing to call a gun a weapon is using language to neuter the object.
It's equally dumb when people say well, if my AR-15 is a weapon then so's my baseball bat or my kitchen knife. This is a stupid position to take. A bat can be used to bash someone's head in, but it exists because of a leisure activity. A knife can stab, but it exists because we like to cut our food before cooking. An AR-15 can be a safe queen or it can never be used to shoot at anything other than paper, but it exists because it works pretty well at killing people.
The 18.5" barrel shotgun loaded with 00 buck that you keep under your bed is there for one reason - to use against someone who breaks in. The Glock 19 loaded with hollow points that you concealed carry when you're in a bad neighborhood is there for one reason - to defend yourself or others in the event of an attack. You want to say that they're not weapons because you don't want to use them as weapons (neither do I), but that's what you have them for. Stop allowing the uneasiness of others to control the conversation- they won't stop their efforts to ban it just because you call it a modern sporting rifle. If that's what you like to call it then knock yourself out, but don't dogpile on someone just because they called it a weapon.
