开枪
kāi qiāng · HSK 7
to shoot a gun
🔫 开枪 = 开 (open) + 枪 (gun) — to open fire
开 kāi is the same open as in 开门 (open the door); 枪 qiāng is gun or spear. Put together literally open + gun = to fire a gun.
开 — two hands 廾 + door 门 (open gate)
Originally written 開, showing two hands (廾) lifting the bar (一) off a gate (門) to open it. The simplified form 开 keeps the two-hands element and drops the gate. Core meaning 'to open' extended to 'start, operate, bloom'.
枪 — wood 木 + 仓 cāng (phonetic)
枪 is a semantic-phonetic compound: the wood radical 木 indicates the original meaning—a wooden spear or staff—while 仓 supplies the sound. It first referred to spears and later extended to firearms (guns, rifles) once such weapons appeared, keeping the same character.