hired gun vs volunteer

hired gun

noun
  • A person who is employed as an armed guard, enforcer, or mercenary and who is prepared to use gunplay or similar violent methods in order to assert the interests of his or her employer. 

  • A person who is employed to advance the interests of his or her employer, especially in a vigorous manner using such methods as political lobbying, legal advocacy, or persuasion. 

volunteer

noun
  • One who enters into military service voluntarily (but who, when in service, is subject to discipline and regulations like other soldiers), as opposed to a conscript. 

  • A plant that grows spontaneously, without being cultivated on purpose; see volunteer plant in Wikipedia. 

  • A voluntary member of the organized militia of a country, as distinguished from a regular or member of the standing army. 

  • A native or resident of the American state of Tennessee. 

  • One who enters into, or offers themself for, any service of their own free will, especially when done without pay. 

  • A person who acts out of their own will without a legal obligation, such as a donor. 

verb
  • To offer, usually unprompted. 

  • To grow without human sowing or intentional cultivation. 

  • To enlist oneself as a volunteer. 

  • To offer the services of (someone else) to do something. 

  • To do or offer to do something voluntarily. 

How often have the words hired gun and volunteer occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )