Smoking gun

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title: "Smoking gun" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["metaphors-referring-to-war-and-violence", "metaphors-referring-to-objects", "evidence", "forensic-evidence", "smoke", "english-phrases"] description: "Metaphor for conclusive evidence of an act" topic_path: "history/military" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoking_gun" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Metaphor for conclusive evidence of an act ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/Smoking_Gun_Paget.jpg" caption="Illustration by [[Sidney Paget]] (1893)."] ::

The term "smoking gun" is a reference to an object or fact that serves as conclusive evidence of a crime or similar act, just short of being caught in flagrante delicto. "Smoking gun" refers to the strongest kind of circumstantial evidence, as opposed to direct evidence. Direct evidence would be eyewitness testimony of someone who saw an actus reus (the actual alleged act), while connected events (the preceding chase, etc.) are considered circumstantial.

Phrase origin

The phrase originally came from the idea that finding a very recently fired (hence smoking) gun on the person of a suspect wanted for shooting someone would in that situation be nearly unshakable proof of having committed the crime. A variant of the phrase (as "smoking pistol") is used in the Sherlock Holmes story, "The Adventure of the Gloria Scott" (1893).

Extended meaning

In addition to this, its meaning has evolved in uses completely unrelated to criminal activity: for example, scientific evidence that is highly suggestive in favor of a particular hypothesis is sometimes called "smoking gun evidence".

References

References

1. Walton, Douglas. (2010). "Legal Argumentation and Evidence". Penn State Press.
2. Safire, William. (26 January 2003). "Smoking Gun". [[The New York Times]].
3. "Smoking Gun".

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