Star Trek: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Phasers
1. They're Totally Not Guns
In Volume 2, Issue 12 of Star Trek: The Magazine, Herman Zimmerman explained that Gene Roddenberry took issue with how some phasers looked similar to guns, specifically the rifles and the pistol grips of type 2 phasers. Presumably, he preferred the aesthetic of the type 1 crickets.
This all tracks with Gene's history of promoting non-violence in the franchise. However, logically it's all a bit confusing, seeing as even a type 1 phaser was vastly more dangerous than even a modern military tank, despite looking like something you'd use to unlock your car.
Of course, the stun setting allows Starfleet officers to non-violently resolve conflicts in a way that a gun could never, but in the wrong hands they have the potential to cause unimaginable destruction. A single misplaced phaser could disrupt the power balance of an entire pre-warp civilisation.