Scream and squeal outside, firing gun (8)
I believe the answer is:
shooting
'scream' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't understand how they can define each other.
'squeal outside firing gun' is the wordplay.
'squeal' becomes 'sing' (both can mean to act as an informant).
'outside' is an insertion indicator.
'firing gun' becomes 'hoot' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'sing' placed around 'hoot' is 'SHOOTING'.
'and' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for shooting that I've seen before include "Firing" , "- Jacket; - star" , "gunfire" , "One kind of star" , "Dashing" .)