Gunned down in the attempt (4)
I believe the answer is:
shot
'attempt' is the definition.
(I know that attempt can be written as shot)
'gunned down in the' is the wordplay.
'gunned down in' becomes 'sho' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'the' becomes 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects).
'sho'+'t'='SHOT'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for shot that I've seen before include "completely gone" , "Small drink of liquor" , "Small drink of spirits" , "Fired a gun" , "Fired; turn" .)