Don't forget, the NRA is all about gun manufacture, profits. "We do not see mass killings as a tragedy, "we see it as a profit."

Astounding. Death threats from gun rights supporters. Kind of argues for more regulations.

[div class="excerpt"gunsel U.S. slang.

Also gonsil, gunshel, gun(t)zel.

(ad. Yiddish genzel, f. G. gänslein gosling, little goose.)

1.1 A (naïve) youth; a tramp's young companion, male lover; a homosexual youth.

1929, Dashiell Hammett, The Maltese Falcon: 'The boy’s eyes (…) ran over Spade’s body from shoulders to knees, (…) ¶ “Another thing,” Spade repeated, glaring at the boy: “Keep that gunsel away from me while you’re making up your mind. I’ll kill him."'
1931 G. Irwin Amer. Tramp & Underworld Slang 88 Gonsil, a young tramp, not yet taken in hand and bent to his will by an older man. A boy. A passive male homosexual, usually a youth or younger man. Also gunsel.

Check out the Urban Dictionary.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=gunsel

I know it from The Maltese Falcon where Sam Spade calls Wilmer a gunsel, a hood punk with a gun.

These people threatening lawmakers with death because of the lawmakers' position for gun regulations are nothing but gunsels. I know that's a bit of hyperbole, but that's how I feel they are acting.

I wasn't aware of the other definitions. Thank you for increasing my education and my vocabulary, both good things in these days.

However, I always assumed that it did mean something about guns, and in context one could easily make that mistake. According to the urban dictionary, apparently many people have.

I again thank you for correcting me as to its etymology. Another reason to love DU. There's always somebody who knows shit that you do not. Even something as arcane as the etymology of the word gunsel. And I even have a copy of the OED. My bad!

on edit: The supplement to the OED 1 lists the second definition of gunsel as "An informer, a criminal, a gunman." This was the defn I was using.

Your information makes Dashiel Hammett's use of the word in its context ambiguous. There is a kind of ambiguity about Wilmer and Fat Man's relationship. John Huston uses the same word in his film. Wow! Nice choice of words for Hammett. Not so, for me.