As seen in Frisco:
Speaking of which, our Chronicle used the phrase long gun in the papah, one time at least. It’s useful, ’cause sometimes you don’t know what kind of gun some desperado might have. Sometimes all you can tell is that the weapon is question isn’t a pistol/revolver/handgun, but that it is a rifle or shotgun, you know, usually.
Anywho, that particular phrase was in a headline online for about three hours until it got switched to gun or something less descriptive. Oh well. For a moment there, I thought we’d seen a sea change. IMO, readers could figure things out, but I guess ppl thought it was firearms lingo what could alienate some desired demos or whatnot…