The Gun Shots has a great post on Hollywood’s weird fascination/hatred complex when it comes to guns.
Of course worship and ignorance go hand in hand. Hollywood’s cluelessness about firearms is not unlike that of the prehistoric shaman who is convinced that the best way to stop the ground from shaking and the lava from flowing is to toss a virgin into the volcano’s smoking maw.
Now that is a great quote. I must say, I really do like the way that this blog is shaping up – imagine that, hunters and shooters getting along just fine. There are a couple of other gems in this particular entry, especially when Snow (the author) examines a promo poster for Shoot ’em Up, in which something is wrong with a character’s rifle.
If this keeps up, The Gun Shots are going to have me wearing cammo and going after deer.
I wonder if there is any money in a business that shows movie makers how to not look like idiots when using firearms. I doubt it because every movie with a gun in it appears to intentionally break all 4 rules. Like that poster in your link, finger on the trigger seems to be the #1 error made.
I was surprised once when watching an episode of Heroes. The cop was scanning a room, keeping his weapon pointed at the floor, finger off the trigger (even though someone had just gotten killed and he knew the killer was in the same room). I’m betting the actor might have known a little about firearms because it was correct.
Movies usually depict that “bigger/better always wins”, which is why there are so many full-autos in their stories.
Robb:
I was noticing the same thing while watching a rebroadcast of Rambo a while back – the National Guardsmen searching the river valley were carrying their M16s with their fingers off the triggers.
I wonder if they used actual guardsmen as extras for that?
I’ve noticed recently that several TV shows (including BSG and Firefly) have been really good about following the 4 rules. In particular on BSG I wonder if they have a hard-ass armourer, or had an incident. EVERY time I’ve noticed a gun on there, the finger has been off the trigger – including at least once where the marines were nominally clearing a room.