My recent column on the language of gun-related legislation seems to have tapped into the zeitgeist. The talking heads now refer mostly to gun violence, and Peter Baker’s recent New York Times column points out that “Gun control advocates these days generally do not use the term gun control; instead, they talk about curbing gun violence, recognizing that ‘control’ stirs opposition among legal gun owners who fear their rights being trampled.”
That same column, meanwhile, observes that the language of guns permeates our discourse. Certainly, some of the phrases Baker cites—no silver bullet, gun at the head, shooting for Tuesday—refer directly to guns. But others are not specific to firearms, and I find it intriguing that we now think so regularly of guns as our central projectile launcher that we lump all such phrases with “gun vocabulary.”
Take point blank, central…