No, guns are not weapons until you decide to use them as one. They are tools. Just like a car is not a weapon until someone decides to run down a crowd of people.
I do not own weapons, I own tools for sport shooting and hunting.
correct. guns are tools...designed to kill.
A hammer is also a tool, it is designed to hammer a nail, but has many other uses. Some, in fact, also use a hammer to kill people, but it is not designed to do that.
I would not suggest using a gun to hammer a nail. Not because it is dangerous, but because it would be ineffective. That is not what is designed to do. I also would not suggest trying to apply paint with a gun, or prying up some rotten wood with a gun. It's also not good for picking your teeth (a knife does this pretty well, among other things; though caution is advised)
A hammer, however, is also relatively effective at killing a person when properly applied to do so. It can do other things, of course. It is fair to call a a hammer a multi-use tool. Likewise, a knife is a multi-use tool. It can be applied towards many daily uses and, in fact, some knives are very effective at killing.
A gun is not a multi-use tool. It is designed only to kill. If it is not called a weapon (a tool designed for killing), then it would not be called a gun. It would be inaccurate to call a hammer a weapon, because it is not designed to that. Certainly, it can be used as such, but this is not its only use. Likewise, along this line, it would probably be inaccurate to call a knife a weapon. Many are used as weapons, but many are not ever used as such. Plenty of knives are completely ineffective at killing, in fact.
Therefore, a gun is designed and created to be a weapon and it only ever is a weapon, whether or not it rests on your table unused or is administered in the dispensing of home justice against a suspected perp. Suggesting otherwise is silly and stupid.
Whether or not you're shooting paper targets or buffalo or squatters, it is a killing tool first and only. shooting at paper is merely the necessary practice one should engage in for the purpose of the weapon: dispensing death.
I suggest avoiding the game of semantics when it is played so poorly.
And there is no reason to not admit as much. Why wouldn't you? A gun is a weapon is a weapon is a weapon. Stop being afraid of exactly what it is supposed to do. Treat it with respect. Isn't that what the gun folks say? It really does say something about those that are so invested in protecting their weapons that they go so far out of the way to deny that they are, in fact, weapons. Why is this?
Why is one so worried about themselves or their weapons, to live in this denial? I have weapons in my closet at home. I know exactly what they are for.