To illustrate my earlier point, while I live in London, I grew up in a small village and still regularly visit family in a (different) small village.

In London, when I disclose I participate in the shooting sports, reactions vary from negative (guns are bad; shooting lovely bunnies is bad) through neutral but intrigued (really, actual guns?) to the odd moment when you meet a kindred spirit who seems relieved and pleased to meet someone else who shoots.

Whereas in rural areas, saying you shoot usually is taken as normal: no different from saying you play golf (ugh!), own a car, or sometimes go to the pub for Sunday lunch.

Those attitudes matter much more than whether recreational guns are or aren't "weapons". And we should focus on increasing the number of people with a positive or neutral attitude to our sport, rather than arguing among ourselves about the meaning of nouns.

Having lived a while on the Continent (and respecting linguistic and cultural differences), it is notable that in places like the Netherlands and Germany that all guns there are routinely called weapons, but that does not appear negatively to affect public or political acceptance of the shooting sports.