Talk:Doctor gun

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Can anyone provide any verification for this term? I did a web search the other day, and I can't find any reference to the term that's not from Wikipedia. scot 15:47, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

It is a very common term in many of the mailing lists dedicated to small guns (i.e., mouseguns). It is sometimes abbreviated to "Dr. gun", but "doctor gun" is more common. See: [example] for one sample use of this term, or see: [sample#2]. This term has also appeared on the Kel-Tec Owners Group mailing list numerous times over the last few years, too. It is a term that is used predominately by those who use mouseguns. Yaf 04:45, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

What I see there are two copies of the same quote. Even if the term is in wider use in those groups, I don't think that's worthy of an encyclopedia article, as it's just a perjorative term, an implication that the gun is so weak and inaccurate that the only way you're going to disable the target is by being in contact with it (the only firearms that are actually designed to be used in direct contact are those based on powerheads). Terms like "mousegun" and "Saturday night special" are worthy of articles, as those terms have been used extensively in print, but I just don't think "Dr. gun" is. scot 14:34, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

I first heard the term back in the mid 1960's, among rural gun owners (mostly farmers) in the Southern US who especially didn't take to the changes in US gun laws that were coming, and which subsquently occurred in 1968. Of course, that is not attributable by a Google lookup :-) Then again, many in this social group probably don't tend to be computer users, either. I do often see the term used on gun-related mailing lists multiple times per year, on average. The examples I cited previously were just some recent examples that I recalled seeing when they came out. Should it be considered an expression peculiar to a gun sub-culture group, i.e., an argot or jargon, instead of slang? Perhaps. It definitely has a stronger feel to it than mousegun, although Saturday night special is likely an equally pejorative term due to the racial overtones that go with it. As for a claim that a doctor gun is so weak and inaccurate that it must be used up-close and personal, this is not the typical usage I have heard. Rather, it is considered to be a reliable gun that is to be used when in a fight for one's life, often on the ground and grappling, and fired at very close range in contact with the "bad guy", where a larger gun (even a mousegun or a larger Saturday night special) would not be suitable. It is not the weakness or inaccuracy that matters, it is the ultra-small size (and the usually very low attendant cost) that matters. Powerheads are used for underwater protection against sharks in tropical waters, true, but they are clearly an entirely different class of firearm. Doctor guns are not used under water :-) I guess it really comes down to how one views the purpose of Wikipedia. Is Wikipedia only a free rendition of a semi-commercial encyclopedia, or should it be more powerful than this, capturing a wider, more pithy range of expressions, argot, and jargon, in addition to capturing more widely spread slang terminologies? If we are only duplicating the Encyclopedia Britannica, then clearly doctor gun doesn't belong in Wikipedia. On the other hand, if we are capturing the admittedly more fringe elements of society, with their rich argot, then there is value in capturing "doctor gun" as well. Personally, I think the potential of Wikipedia is big enough to encompass capturing slang, jargon, and argot, and not just the words written on an Eighth Grade school level that one would typically see in any large city newspaper, or perhaps at a 12th Grade school level such as in the NY Times, or Chicago Tribune. We have an opportunity to be much more powerful than commercial encyclopedias, if we so choose. Is there another part of Wikipedia for capturing argot and jargon, that is more specific to capturing the richness of the English language? If so, perhaps that is where a "doctor gun" article belongs, rather than here. What say? Yaf 06:07, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Remove Junk Gun reference?

Junk Gun has been merged with Saturday Night Special. Should this "see also" reference be removed?