Jeopardy! is a beloved and long-running television game show that has been on the air since 1984. Contestants are given answers in the form of questions and have to provide the correct “Who is?” or “What is?” question.
The show uses fun or straightforward categories for organizing the wide-ranging trivia questions. With its extensive fan-created online archive, Jeopardy! has a unique cultural significance and popularity among game shows. Over the years seasons, it has won numerous awards and acclaim.
Since the beloved syndicated show premiered, there have been over 450,000 clues provided to contestants, according to the fan-created website J! Archive. The clues are revealed under sometimes whimsical category names such as “Julius Caesar Salad” (words derived from Julius Caesar) or the more straightforward, like “The Old West.”
In its archive, there are over 30 clues related to firearms throughout history. These clues cover topics like notable guns, their role in settling the American West, infamous characters associated with certain guns, fictional figures and their weapons of choice, and how gun terminology has entered mainstream vernacular. (Can you answer these real “Jeopardy!” clues about U.S. history?)
The clues reference important historical firearms, outlaws and lawmen of the Old West tied to iconic guns, fictional characters paired with their signature firearms, and common phrases like “smoking gun” that originate from gun culture.
THE OLD WEST $100:
rifle
ANIMALS & THE LAW $200:
fish
WEAPONS $200:
rifle
ORGANIZATIONS $200:
National Rifle Association
MUSICALS IN OTHER WORDS $300:
Annie Get Your Gun
WEAPONS $400:
lock, stock & barrel
THE MEXICAN-AMERICAN WAR $400:
dragoons
OHIO BIO $400:
Annie Oakley
THE OLD WEST $400:
Winchester
WHICH CABINET DEPARTMENT? $500:
Treasury
REVERSIBLE COMPOUND WORDS $600:
a gunshot and a shotgun
LET’S ROCK & ROLL! $600:
flint
“AIR” INCLUDED $600:
crosshairs
I BEG YOUR PARDON $600:
Patty Hearst
DIAL M FOR MURDER $600:
machine gun
PUSH BY SAFIRE $800:
a smoking gun
OF THE LAW $800:
a shotgun
ALPHANUMERIC TERMS $800:
an AK-47
HODGEPODGE $1,000:
a musket
HUNTING & FISHING $1,000:
archery
THE SECRET OF HOMONYM $1,000:
bore
GEOLOGY $1,200:
flint
discharge
FIREARMS IN SHOW BIZ $1,600:
Velvet Revolver
WORD ORIGINS $2,000:
blunderbuss
HOUSE PROUD $0:
shotguns
LITERARY FIREARMS $0:
James Bond