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Shooters

(5 Posts)
kittylester Mon 02-Oct-17 07:56:36

Just listening to the news of the shootings in Las Vegas which is awful

But, in the 'old days' a shooter was the weapon and the perpetrator was a gunman. When and why did that change?

M0nica Mon 02-Oct-17 08:30:32

American English

Teetime Mon 02-Oct-17 08:53:26

I know old style London villains used to call it a 'shooter' well they did in films and Americans called it a 'piece'. Heaven knows what anyone calls anything these days. My daughter is off to Las Vegas on Saturday.

Greyduster Mon 02-Oct-17 09:42:20

Perhaps shooter is a new gender-embracing term hmm. What an awful thing to happen, though.

M0nica Mon 02-Oct-17 15:55:42

Sharp-shooter was the old word for what we now call snipers (which word WW1 soldiers borrowed from the Germans) so shooter is just an abbreviation of sharp-shooter, perhaps a shooter who isn't sharp!