Should flare guns fall into firearms classification?

BUR #27899 has been rejected.

create implication flare_gun -> handgun

Wikipedia said:
A flare gun, also known as a Very pistol or signal pistol, is a large-bore handgun...
Flare guns may be used for the destruction of flammable material, or in an anti-personnel role.

GreyOmega said:
Doing that will have them implicate the weapon tag, if that's an issue.

That's the point, it can be lethal on short range.

I understood. For the same reason non-lethal or less lethal devices like this do not imply tags that imply weapon. I.e. smoke grenade or flashbang.

Doing that will have them implicate the weapon tag, if that's an issue.

World_Funeral said:

That's the point, it can be lethal on short range.

So can a sufficiently speedily thrown hamster, I don't think that distinction should matter much.

World_Funeral said:
That's the point, it can be lethal on short range.

You could say the same thing about a kitchen knife. Just because something can be used as a weapon doesn't mean it should imply weapon if that's not its primary function and purpose.

This would set precedent that if it could be used as a weapon, then it is a weapon even if that isn't the primary purpose of it.

Flare guns may be used for the destruction of flammable material, or in an anti-personnel role.

This is a bit misleading, as the Wikipedia article section this is brought in is then focused on modified flare guns with modifications to turn them into grenade launchers or conversion kits to let them fire conventional bullets/shot.

I think generally this question could be answered with "would someone who is searching with the handgun tag be looking for posts that include a flare gun"? Which for me, is a no.

I wasn't sure about this, but after looking through flare gun, it doesn't seem that odd of any implication. 45 of the 60 posts are already tagged gun, handgun, and/or weapon, and to be honest, as someone who's not a gun nut, a large of number of them don't look all that different from an actual firearm.

I think it's easy to say a flare gun isn't a weapon, but visually only a handful of the posts we currently have actually look like something that might not be classified as a weapon, and a lot of them are being presented in a way that makes it feel like they're intended to be perceived as a weapon.

The bulk update request #27899 (forum #287044) has been rejected by @World_Funeral.