Air rifle or air gun?

[gtfreight]

Air Gun is fine, it's not a pistol. Long gun is fine too. Air Rifle should have rifling.
Is all a hobby so relax.

I get annoyed when they are called air weapons. It's only a weapon if intended to be used for violent acts, or done violent acts. No one calls a table leg a weapon, though they can be one.

I hadn't even thought of this before, I would call any long gun a rifle whether it's barrel is rifled or not. Excellent point.

There's been a recent thread on another forum about airguns being weapons which got quite involved (I should have contributed but I didn't).
My opinion is similar to yours and whilst in law they considered "air weapons", my view of a weapon is something that is designed to kill or injure another person and I can't say that an airgun is, though it can be used as one. I would also say a hunting rifle isn't a weapon as it's specifically designed to hunt quarry whereas an AK47 is designed to be used in armed conflict so that is a weapon.
I think a lot of things can be used as weapons even though they're designed for something else.