What Do Dreams Of Guns Mean?

Dreaming of guns can be an unsettling experience, especially if you have no associations with guns in waking life. 

Guns in dreams have a myriad of meanings, from power, authority, negativity, threatening behavior, dangerous situations, and more. So it’s important to pay attention if you have a dream like this.

Let’s take a look at what a gun can mean in a dream, the spiritual and dream psychology interpretations of a gun dream, as well as the most common dream scenarios involving a gun.

Why Am I Dreaming About Guns?

The dream symbol of a gun can represent many things, so it’s important to look at your dream as a whole, how the gun appeared, and what happened within your dream.

Guns symbolize controlling situations or people through force, underhanded tactics, anger, frustration, and power. 

If you have a dream of a gun, it may be a warning that there’s danger around the corner. It might alternatively represent your own negative emotions, such as repressed injustice, rage, frustration, and feeling powerless or wanting to be a figure of authority.

A violent dream (see also article about dreaming of rape) involving a gun implies that you want to get rid of something from your life. Dreaming of killing someone with a gun represents part of yourself that you want nothing more to do with.

Guns are also connected to your inner intuition. A gun in your dream might signal that a situation in waking life isn’t quite what you think it is, or that you shouldn’t trust it at all. 

It could be that someone isn’t what they seem, or what they say completely doesn’t match up with their words. They might be conspiring against you in some way, or something about them is setting off your subconscious alarm bells.

If you dream of someone shooting you (see also article titled ‘17 Meanings When You Dream About Getting Shot‘) with a gun, this suggests that something in waking life is threatening your sense of security, or something that you’ve always taken for granted will become uncertain.

You might react defensively to a problematic situation, and make things worse, or you’ll struggle to control your impulses in delicate circumstances.

A gun firing normally in your dream is a good sign. It implies a boost in your confidence, power, authority, or assurance that you can get things done.

A misfire on the other hand refers to something knocking your confidence completely, or a situation that makes you feel weak, powerless, or unable to control your own life.

A nightmare where you’re confronted with a crowd of people pointing guns at you is a warning of trouble in waking life. You’ll need to choose your words very, very carefully.

If you dream of using a gun on someone or threatening someone with a gun, this dream is drawing your attention to the effect you have on other people. 

This does not mean that you’re violent towards them, but it does warn you to take care of how your actions affect others.

The Gun Dream Symbol

If you see a gun in your dreams, more often than not this is anxiety from waking life making its way into your dreams. Usually, these worries are connected to the balance of power, control, and standing up for yourself.

You may be feeling inferior or something has hurt your pride, or you desperately want to be protected from waking life, and this is how your subconscious answers you.

A gun in a dream can also be a grim warning sign of danger ahead of you, but this depends on how you felt during the dream, and whether the appearance of the gun leads to violence or not.

Dreaming of carrying a gun refers to your willingness to confront any problem you come across, and to assert yourself if a situation calls for it. You won’t be pushed around.

The action of loading a gun in a dream points to the need to get a better handle on your negative emotions. Anger can be useful in driving you up to a point, and after that, it can get detrimental or even dangerous. 

A dream like this can alternatively point to how you feel prepared for everything, and you know what you most need in a crisis. You always pay attention to your instincts and keep a good eye on what’s going on around you.

If the gun misfires in your dream or fails to fire at all, you’re frustrated, angry, or feeling powerless in a situation in waking life. This dream also denotes a stubborn way of thinking that no longer serves you.

A gun not working properly in your dream tells you that you need to adapt better to a changing situation in waking life. 

While you may feel like you’ve planned everything out, sometimes it’s worth throwing that plan right out of the window. 

In some circumstances, you’re better off just letting your gut guide you rather than trying to stick to a rigid plan of action that may not serve you when things change, as things do.

After all, some of the best things to happen to us in life are the ones we cannot predict. 

Alternatively, a gun misfiring in a dream can point to a fear of impotence, or your sexual desires and needs being deeply tied with your self-esteem and self-image.

If you dream of shooting (see also article titled ‘9 Meanings When You Dream About Shooting‘) someone with a gun, this implies that you have a lot of negativity you need to work through. Maybe a relationship in your waking life is falling apart, or it’s no longer what you want. 

Dreaming of watching yourself shoot someone indicates that you feel you’re a bystander in your own life. Maybe a bizarre situation has come about, and you feel disconnected from everything. Your dream calls on you to find a way to ground yourself once more.

It may also suggest that you need to make sure you control your reactions otherwise you may end up having the wrong one and making something a lot worse than it needs to be. 

Maybe someone will blunder in a way you saw coming, and you’ll be annoyed at their mistake.  

Perhaps you’re not being fully truthful with someone, or you know someone’s not being honest with you, but for whatever reason, you refuse to confront this, and this will lead to its own problems.

Dreaming of someone shooting you represents an argument in waking life or an ongoing issue that you haven’t managed to sort out. 

A dream where someone robs you at gunpoint reflects your worry of something precious being taken from you. 

Common Dreams About Guns And Their Meanings

What Does Shooting In A Dream Mean?

Dreaming of shooting refers to how you are focused on the future. If you dream of shooting a target, whether you miss or hit it refers to success or failure.

A stranger being a shooter in your dream implies that you have been alienating part of you from the rest. You need to figure out a way to reconcile with yourself.

Dreaming Of A Toy Gun

A toy gun in your dream symbolizes a huge potential problem in the future that you’ll narrowly avoid.

If you dream of a replica gun, this implies that an issue will look a lot scarier before you start to try and resolve it. It won’t be as big of a problem as it might look from the start.

If you dream of stealing from someone while threatening them with a toy gun, a long-term project you’ve started won’t turn out well with your current approach. Or, a choice you’ve made won’t be the right one going forward.

Seeing A Child Holding A Gun In Your Dream

What a horrible thought. A dream where a child holds a gun implies that you’re torn between two decisions. You’re at a spiritual crossroads, and you feel equally torn between the two paths.

A dream like this can also imply that you feel disconnected from your past, or it feels like another lifetime entirely.

Dreaming Of Not Being Able To Fire A Gun

Not being able to fire a gun in your dream represents a fast-changing situation or something that’s affecting your confidence. 

You don’t feel steady in these circumstances, but that might just be the fear of change talking. 

You’re more capable of adapting than you might assume. Just because things have been the same for a long time doesn’t mean that change is bad, though it may take a period of adjustment.

Dreaming of panicking while trying to fire a gun, and the gun not firing at all suggests you haven’t thought something through, or you’ve failed to prepare yourself in some way.

Maybe you don’t have enough experience in order to do something that you’re dreaming of. Perhaps that’s a little further down the road than you imagine.

A Stranger Firing A Gun In A Dream

Seeing a stranger firing a gun in your dream suggests that you should be wary of people in waking life. Someone isn’t being truthful, or they’ll give you the completely wrong impression.

Maybe you’ve caught someone out in a lie before, and you’re just waiting for them to do it again. You expect them to act accordingly to what they’ve done in the past, and they won’t surprise you this time, either.

If you dream of a stranger threatening you with a gun, this signifies that an important need or desire just isn’t being met in waking life. This will cause you no end of problems while you ignore them.

Dying in a dream (see also article about dreaming of getting killed) scenario of this type implies there’s a spiritual journey ahead of you, and you’ll come out the other side as a stronger and wiser person.

A Gun Being Pointed At You In A Dream

Dreaming of a gun being pointed at you refers to the fear a changing situation causes, but also the empowerment you get from dealing with it.

If you weren’t afraid in this dream, you won’t have any problem adapting to changing circumstances in waking life. You trust yourself.

If there was an undercurrent of anxiety in this dream, you need to change something in waking life. You feel trapped.

Someone Threatens You With A Gun In A Dream

Dreaming of someone threatening you with a gun implies that any problems in the near future will be to do with other people. 

Someone may come to you for help, or they’ll cause a tricky problem for you which will be difficult to untangle. 

Older dream books suggest that a dream where a gun is pulled on you implies that someone will give you advice that seems useless at first, but it will be valuable going forward.

Dreaming Of Someone You Know Threatening You With A Gun

This dream points to a conflict with this person in waking life. While the gun is the problem in the dream, the person behind it will be the one to cause you trouble.

Your dream warns you to be wary of this person, and make sure that you can trust what they say. 

As a gun is a dangerous object, being threatened with one in your dream points to risk and having to push past fear in waking life. You’ll struggle to control your emotions in this situation, so be careful.

Dreams Involving Gun Violence

Dreams or nightmares involving gun violence represent your fears of what people are capable of, and exactly what fear and powerlessness do to people. 

A dream like this is trying to get your attention. Maybe you’re making a decision out of desperation, rather than taking the time to figure out exactly what it is you want. 

Dreaming Of A Shootout

A shootout in your dream is a reflection of all the problems in waking life ganging up on you all at once. It may also be a way of expressing your underlying anxieties.

Try to remember the context of the dream, what started the fight, and who fired first. These details can further inform the meaning behind your dream.

You may feel attacked in waking life from all sides, or a particularly difficult situation that needs your attention.

Defending yourself in a dream like this is a good sign, as it points to success.

A Gang Shooting In A Dream Meaning

A gang shooting in a dream isn’t a nice experience, but it’s not necessarily a bad sign for the future. Something in waking life feels very difficult to unravel, and this is the fear aspect of your dream.

The people within this dream represent the collective power of your support network, and how you should consider calling on them when you are struggling to deal with something by yourself.

Dreaming of a gang shooting in a drive-by refers to your protective nature, and how you know you don’t need to resort to violence or the threat of it to help those you love, but it helps that you know you’re willing to.

The Spiritual Interpretation Behind Gun Dreams

Spiritually speaking, guns in dreams draw your attention to power, confidence, and the will to act. If you dream of a gun in a gun safe, or a partly assembled gun, this implies that you’re dithering too much. Stop putting off a decision.

Loading a gun in a dream implies that someone will cause you a lot of problems in the near future. 

Threatening someone with a gun in your dream points to feeling powerless, where you’ll be tempted to take something for yourself that doesn’t belong to you, in order to regain that control. This will not end well.

Guns And Dream Psychology

Sigmund Freud theorized that dreams are associated with the unconscious mind and its desires. Guns suggest pent-up sexual tension, aggression, or a fear of impotence.

Final Thoughts

Gun dreams can be full of anxiety, mirroring a situation in waking life that is taking over all the space in your head. 

They can also point to coming danger, a power imbalance, or changing circumstances in waking life that you may struggle with.

This may also be your subconscious’s way of testing how you react to risky situations and fear in general. 

How you react in the dream can mirror how you react to change in waking life, and whether you go with something and try to work it to your advantage, or you try to stop it from happening with everything you have.

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