this post was submitted on 07 Aug 2025
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I'll try and explain, but let me know if you don't follow. In the US it's common to claim the front passenger seat by saying "I call shotgun!" or simply "Shotgun!" The commenter is playing on a now common refrain where Americans use firearms and terminology to describe basic things. As far as I can tell, it's true. For example: caulk gun, staple gun, nail gun, glue gun, tattoo gun, finger guns, ot phrases like "I'll think about it before I pull the trigger on it." Or "Shoot me your email and I'll get you those photos."
I don't know how prolific this type of thing is in other countries though, so I can only assume we Americans arr outliers due to how deeply ingrained guns are in our culture. Hope this clarifies things a bit, let me know if not.
TLDR: Americans describing so many things: "So imagine a gun, but..."
All the things you listed either shoot projectiles and/or have triggers. What else do you call trigger operated projectile launchers? Also Caulk guns legitimately look like old timey machine guns.
This is my perspective as an American looking in. In other languages there may be terminology used for these items that do not reference firearms.
I am curious if there is a language that calls a nail gun not a gun
Or pneumatic nailer
I don't think any of those things are referred to as a gun in French. Just essentially "stapler", "nailer", "gluer", ect
I might be biased by the question but I spontaneously thought of "pistolet à clous" as the most common term (which indeed translates to nail gun).
I agree with your other examples though, saying "staple gun" would be weird in french
Amazon and their copycats seem to be calling them 'nailers', probably because it's easier to filter out the constructive guns from destructive, prohibited ones. But Amazon is evil so it's probably unrelated
To be fair on this one, based on actual functionality 'air nailer' or 'power hammer' is more accurate than 'nail gun'' anyway. Outside of movies, you can't use it as a gun without enough modification that it's no longer the same tool.
I like < method of creating force > + hammer above nail gun but to your second point. Nail guns can be deadly without modification. Just close up work. They sell these and others like them at big box stores. This would be, in my favored naming convention, a gunpowder hammer.
Tell that to my .22 Ramset.
Ramsets use .22 blanks, not bullets, and would have the same issues being used as a pistol at range as any other powered hammer. Even if you override the safety, and either modify or practice with it enough to be reasonably accurate, you're just not going to do much damage if you're more than an arm's length or two away.
Nails have terrible ballistic performance, and there's nothing in a nailer meant to keep the nail going straight for more than 10cm or so. A nail launched into air (rather than a hard surface) from a nailer would start to tumble almost immediately.
You'd literally be more effective throwing the nailer at an attacker than trying to shoot them with it.
Pssst, the "bullet" is called a "nail" in a "nail gun."
37mms and 40mms also use a .38 blank (or a shotgun primer, depending) to launch, that not "gun" enough for you either just because the propellant and projectile are independent? What about flintlock?
And who says "gun" needs sub-MOA accuracy to be "gun?" The Liberator (both the George Hyde FP-45 produced by the OSS and the Cody Wilson 3d printed one) is notoriously inaccurate, meant to be basically pressed into a nazi back and fired to steal their firearm (or to simply exist as a working proof of concept for Cody's, really). Both still very "gun."
I took the time to watch some videos of people testing this.
Aside from all that, we're talking about a tool designed to push a fastener into material while in contact with said material. A gun is a tool designed to push a bullet into a target at a distance with some level of designed-in accuracy. These are not the same thing. A power nailer can certainly be used as a gun, but it can also be used as a step stool, a ruler, or a door stop. Usage outside intended purpose doesn't change the nature of an object.
Hey, if you want to call your PA nailer a nail gun, that's fine. There's no law requiring accuracy in speech, and of the entire power hammer category a PA nailer is probably closest.
Pneumatic != Powder Actuated. The former is propelled by air, the latter by smokeless gunpowder.
Besides, your video guy just had skill issues. These guys did fine with just a pneumatic, was your guy using a Ryobi or something lol? While that might not be as bad as a real bullet it doesn't look like the clay pigeon 25yd away had fun.
If you want more penetration, increase the powder load from 2-3ish grains to something appropriate for your "bullet" weight (mind weighing some of those nails in grains for me?) Green and yellow aren't even the strongest, let's see what a purple can do (and also can someone weigh those powder charges for me in grains too?) Hell, let's see what a 5.56 blank can do.
Replacing "gun" with "press" for example.
Alternatively, caulker, stapler, nailer, gluer, tattooer, and finger pointers. Fingers also usually don't launch projectiles I think. It's just that gun culture is so embedded in your brain you couldn't think of an alternative.
Note how these are all construction tools, and construction is also usually worked by men there. Yet more traditionally feminine tools don't get the "gun" additive; most will say spray bottle for example rather than spray gun, even though it also has a trigger (a literal gun-like one in some cases) and shoots out a projectile.
I think press works for Caulk and glue. Stapler is used already for the machine that sits on a desk as opposed to the hand held construction style. Finger pointers is certainly descriptive but when people do "finger guns" the thumb usually mimics the hammer action. What else are they miming? Am I so inundated with gun culture I was unable to think of another use for the thumb?
I think bottles were around before firearms but Staple, nail and Caulk guns were not.
They're both staplers - one's just manual and the other isn't.
Spray bottles did not exist before guns, no.
collapsed inline media
Kartuschenpresse aka cartridge press
Cool thx
Bullseye.
First bit is true enough, but we call "shotgun" because that was the guy holding the coach gun for bandit defense. Wish I had a pic of mine, but they're basically a short double-barreled shotgun for warding off robbers and Indians. Coach guns are quickly and easily aimed, powerful at short range, "get the fuck off of me" guns.
The Wild West wasn't as wild as movies make it out, but you were on your fucking own. LOL, no 911. While you're driving the coach, best have a man whose job is looking around and blasting raiders.
tl;dr: Calling shotgun means you're taking the front passenger side in a (historically) defensive role.
Yes, thats part of the why but it's still odd culturally from the perspective of the rest of the world especially since what you're describing occurred 100+ years ago and the terminology has likely only persisted because of the US' gun obsession.
That is a wild stretch of imagination. Loads of things we say, across all countries and languages, persist for centuries after losing their original meanings.
Sure but in this case there are numerous gun related phrases that have persisted in American culture because of this particular affinity.
I like the way you explained this.
Pirate detected.
Hoist the flag high!