nongun

comparative more nongun · superlative most nongun

1. Without a gun.

   The leg on the gun side takes a shorter step than the leg on the nongun side, and the corresponding arm follows a similarly constrained trajectory.

   2019, Malcolm Gladwell, Talking to Strangers, page 304

   2 more examples

   The results for the three oldest age groups are consistent with the hypothesis that gun availability may lead to fewer nongun suicides, but overall suicide rates are not more strongly related to gun ownership for this group than for the younger age categories.

   2004, Jens Ludwig, Philip J. Cook, Evaluating Gun Policy, page 59

   It is a safe bet that police recording of assaults involving firearms has changed less over the past 25 years than the recording and classification of the more heterogeneous category of nongun assaults, including those involving other weapons such as knives or clubs.

   2006, James P. Lynch, Lynn A. Addington, Understanding Crime Statistics, page 260

plural nonguns

1. Something that is not a gun, especially something that resembles a gun or is used instead of a gun.

   Stick to your nonguns. Even if they lock you up.

   1985, Ruth Mueller, The Eye of the Child, page 51

   3 more examples

   For purposes of this section, the term "look-alike firearm" means any imitation of any original firearm which was manufactured, designed, and produced since 1898, including and limited to toy guns, water guns, replica nonguns, and air-soft guns firing nonmetallic projectiles.

   1990, United States Statutes at Large - Volume 102, Part 4, page 3190

   The weapons are classified into three groups: handguns, other guns, and nonguns (which includes no weapon).

   2000, Alfred Blumstein, Joel Wallman, The Crime Drop in America, page 31

   But between 1985 and 1993, there was an increase of more than 130 percent in homicides committed with handguns, with no marked change in the number of homicides committed with long guns and about a 50-percent decrease with nonguns.

   2000, Perspectives on Crime and Justice, page 8