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Here is the parallel passage that makes it more clear that we are talking about killing.
1 Chronicles 20
20:1 And it came to pass, that after the year was expired, at the time that kings go out to battle, Joab led forth the power of the army, and wasted the country of the children of Ammon, and came and besieged Rabbah. But David tarried at Jerusalem. And Joab smote Rabbah, and destroyed it.

20:2 And David took the crown of their king from off his head, and found it to weigh a talent of gold, and there were precious stones in it; and it was set upon David's head: and he brought also exceeding much spoil out of the city.

20:3 And he brought out the people that were in it, and cut them with saws, and with harrows of iron, and with axes. Even so dealt David with all the cities of the children of Ammon. And David and all the people returned to Jerusalem.

Here is Farrell Till's take:
YOEL
By the way, Farrell- all of those translations have big translation flaws.
(for example- the prefix bet is never "to" nor "under" - the lamed prefix
means "to". Do you have ANY translations which have my interpretation?

After considering it- it looks pretty obvious to me now, once you put the
pieces together. My translation presumes much less, virtually nothing.


Although the NIV made some mistakes, especially in the part about "making"
bricks instead of making them pass bricks, they seem to have the best
translation from the ones you showed.


TILL
Here are some translations of 2 Samuel 12:31 that I have in my personal library:


RSV: "And he brought forth the people who were in it, and set them to labor
with saws and iron picks and iron axes, and made them toil at the
brickkilns; and thus he did to all the cities of the Ammonites."


NRSV: "He brought out the people who were in it, and set them to work with
saws and iron picks and iron axes, or sent them to the brickworks. Thus he
did to all the cities of the Ammonites."


NRSV, "He also brought out the people who were in it, and set them under
saws, sharp iron instruments, and iron axes, and made them pass through the
brickkiln. And thus he did to all the cities of the sons of Ammon."


REB, "He brought out its inhabitants and set them to work with saws and
other iron tools, sharp and toothed, and made them labour at the
brick-kilns. David did this to all the Ammonite towns."


NAB, "[He brought out immense booty from the city] and also led away the
inhabitants, whom he assigned to work with saws, iron picks, and iron axes,
or put to work at the brickmold. This is what he did to all the Ammonite
cities."


NWT, "And the people that were in it, he brought out that he might put them
at sawing stones and at sharp instruments of iron and at axes of iron, and
he made them serve at brickmaking. And that was the way he proceeded to do
to all the cities of the sons of Ammon."


Amplified Bible, "And he brought forth the people who were there, and put
them to [work with] saws and iron threshing sledges and axes, and made them
labor at the brickkiln. And he did this to all the Ammonite cities."


Good News Bible, "[He also took a large amount of loot from the city] and
put its people to work with saws, iron hoes, and iron axes, and forced them
to work at making bricks. He did the same to the people of all the other
towns of Ammon."


Revised Berkeley Version, "And the people that were in it he brought out and
put to labour with saws and iron picks and axes, forcing them to keep
working at the brickmolds. This he did to all the cities of the Ammonites."


Brenton's English translation of the Septuagint renders it, "And he brought
forth the people that were in it, and put them under the saw, and under iron
harrows, and axes of iron, and made them pass through the brick-kiln, and
thus he did to all the cities of the children of Ammon."


The translators obviously disagree over this verse, but I find it hard to
believe that it describes constructive forced labor that David extracted
from the Ammonite captives. Chapter 8 details some of David's victories, in
which he was ruthless in his treatment of captives. After a battle with
Moabites, he laid the captives down in three lines, killed two lines, and
intimated the people in the other line to become servants that paid tribute
to him. After David defeated the king of Zobah, he hocked all of the
chariot horses. The man certainly seemed barbaric enough to treat captives
in the way implied by the ASV and KJV.