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As used by the speaker, a "smoking gun decision" is simply a decision made under extreme duress, as if while a smoking gun were being waved at you by the person asking you for your decision. The first instance that Google Books finds of "smoking gun" in the sense of "irrefutable proof of guilt" appears in the context of the Watergate scandal of ...
Possession of a smoking gun is not ipso facto evidence of guilt. Possession is a fact: it is either true or false that the defendant possesses a smoking gun. Real conservatives do not reject homosexuality per se (in itself) so much as they reject victimology. Homosexuality is a thing: it either exists or it doesn't.
The term "smoking gun" was originally, and is still primarily, a reference to an object or fact that serves as conclusive evidence of a crime or similar act. 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 ...
I don't think this is the meaning you're looking for, but to be 'in someone's back pocket' means they have control over you, perhaps having bribed you. Eg 'The mayor had the police chief in his back pocket' means the mayor could depend on the police chief to act in a way that suited the mayor. –
The oldest meaning of "vicarious," which was first recorded in 1637, is "serving in someone or something’s stead." The word vicarious derives from the Latin noun vicis, which means "change," "alternation," or "stead." "Vicis" is also the source of the English prefix vice- (as in "vice president"), meaning "one that takes the place of."
In this case, although there is no smoking gun, the 'to a tittle' derivation would probably stand up in court as 'beyond reasonable doubt'. So the OED and Phrase Finder agree that the most likely etymology is that the phrase to a T comes from to a tittle. There is also the phrase: to a tittle, with minute exactness, to the smallest particular ...
Lucy realized this was the smoking gun that would convict Robert. This does several things. First, we're highlighting the now-valuable object in question. Second, we're using the cool phrase "smoking gun". Third, we're showing that the result of proof is a conviction. Fourth, we're acknowledging that the conviction is in the character's future ...
Later references in NYTimes refer to it in quotes, like an the name of an archetype for 'claim deception'. It's also used in the singular. I can't see a smoking gun yet, but I suspect it's an actual alternate name to the Nevada Water Co's Bicknell ditch coming into use before the case was heard but after deception. –
No smoking gun emerged from my research, as was indeed too much to hope, but 'round the bend' in the sense of lunacy may have originated from the characteristic appearance of some afflicted with symptoms of 'the bends', perhaps also prompted by the nitrogen narcosis typical of being just around the bend from the bends.
Todd was dancing on the head of a pin because the charges were detailed though uncorroborated, Pence feeling that the charges were lacking support, hence unsubstantiated (e.g., no witnesses, no smoking gun).