Mobster’s gun fires tree to smithereens (5)
I believe the answer is:
gates
'smithereens' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are plural nouns.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I don't see?
'mobster's gun fires tree' is the wordplay.
'mobster's gun' becomes 'gat' (I've seen this in another clue).
'fires tree' becomes 'es' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'gat'+'es'='GATES'
'to' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for gates that I've seen before include "Rich American" , "Entrances (for Bill?)" , "Entrance (to Microsoft?)" , "Confines (student) to college; entrances" , "philanthropist" .)