German has a French pistol (3)
I believe the answer is:
gun
'pistol' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'german has a french' is the wordplay.
'german' becomes 'g' (abbreviation**).
'has' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'a french' becomes 'un' ('a' in French).
'g'+'un'='GUN'
(Other definitions for gun that I've seen before include "Artillery piece" , "Revolver" , "Rev up" , "Shooter" , "Hired killer" .)