Gun-Talk Overload

is gabby ready for her close up?Does any one else have trouble shutting off their gun brain? The other night I was watching “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” and as the plot reached its crescendo, all I was thinking was, there’s no way she could have shot that suppressed fully automatic HK in her kitchen and not gotten a face full of smoke. Honestly, I’m incredibly proud of what I’ve learned (and retained) about guns, in such a short period of time. I love to teach new shooters what I know and hold my own when the long time shooters get to chatting. But how do I keep from driving my new bf up the wall, when a movie makes a blatant firearm handling/depiction error? Further, will I ever enjoy an action movie again?

In the new Die Hard, their fully automatic AK’s created no muzzle-rise. This drove me bananas! People who get shot with a .223 round, even when wearing a Kevlar vest, don’t pop back up seconds later. Then again, mowing down a bunch of bad guys with fully automatic spray, doesn’t lay them all out, instantly dead, as is so often the portrayal. Maybe the ease with which Bruce Willis wields full auto, and how he magically hits (and kills his targets) with out really aiming, is part of the reason non-gun people are so freaked out by us.

There are so many misconceptions about guns and shooting promoted by politicos and the media, but the movie industry helps to hammer home, this bad information. I realize it’s called “entertainment” and it’s meant to be a two hour break from reality. However, if you believe that movies are not where many people learn about unfamiliar concepts, I’ll have a bridge to sell you in my next post.

I shared mine, now its your turn, what is the most egregious gun-related mistake you’ve ever witnessed in the movies?

11 Comments

  1. Some of my biggest quibbles are throw away lines in otherwise half-decent pieces. The tv show Castle generally does tv+1 in handling- grips are pretty good, relatively little sweeping, trigger control, etc. that makes it all the more obvious when they do dumb things. Lines like ‘a shotgun full of hollowpoints’ is stupid, .338 Lapua does not make a ‘thwip’ sound when fired, and pointing a laser from the impact, through the hole in the glass ten feet away will not accurately give you the trajectory of a 600 yard shot. It seems to me that truly bad gun handling in movies, I can ignore if its consistent. Its the little bouts of small sins in an otherwise well done piece that throw me.

    1. The ones that have small sins should bother you more, because they are usually the one’s that people look to as truth.

  2. Meh. Everyone should know that Bruce Willis has +20 to his shooting roll and instantly scores critical hits requiring a -20 saving throw against bullets.

    “This drove me bananas! People who get shot with a .223 round, even when wearing a Kevlar vest, don’t pop back up seconds later.”

    Even tho this isn’t just Kevlar ™, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-UNFSZ8VKU shows a guy getting hit in the trauma plate with a 7.62 of some Russian variety (probably 7.62x54R) and he pops up almost immediately.

    The thing that bothers me the most? The clicking noise every gun seems to make when someone picks it up or draws it from their holster. Even GLOCKs.

  3. How about the racking the shotgun every time the make the “we’re going in statement. or the guy threatning to shoot someone while pionting the gun with the hammer down on a 1911.

  4. I cannot turn off my gun brain. I drive my wife (and others) nuts pointing out things done wrong in TV/movies.
    As for not driving the new BF up the wall…Either try to keep it to yourself or get a BF who’s more into firearms.

    I cannot really nail down a single “most egregious gun-related mistake” there are SOOOOO many. That said, one of the things that I see regularly that bothers me the most (aside from muzzle sweeping all willy-nilly) is when a full auto gun (finally) runs empty and yet you hear the gun click multiple times, often at the same ROF that the gun was just firing. As if it somehow magically cocks itself.

  5. In general, blatantly bad gun handling by “experts” in shows who for plausibility, ought to know better.

    Recently, some really sloppy editing in a couple of shows, where character is still “shooting” while his run is clearly in slide-lock, and one where a bad guy tosses away a stolen shotgun because it’s “empty” while there’s still five lovely red shells attached to the side of the gun!

    Also, less a gun thing, and more an aviation thing, but having a stray bullet in an airliner cause an explosive decompression that makes an airliner crash is completely absurd.

  6. “Raiders of the Lost Ark” had a few gems: there’s Indy’s magic S&W 1917 that turns into a 1911 right in the middle of a string of shots, or that the Nazis had MP 40s and P 38s in 1936.

  7. It’s particularly egregious when one actor is doing it right. In the last episode of “Dollhouse”, one guy was running and gunning in a perfect combat glide, while the rest of them were doing the Hollywood ‘run, stop, shoot from the hip, run again’ technique.

  8. my wife for some reason, watches a lot of old war movies, as an old 0331 i get very tired of hearing some hollywood idiot running half a belt through an m1919a4 .30 browning without a pause, “spray and pray” and never mind worrying about burning out a barrel, or the poor sod who humps your ammo while you’re shooting up the scenery.

  9. I always get a kick out of the old movies & tv shows where they show “silenced” revolvers that make a tiny pop! One of the worst I’ve seen recently is a publicity still for the movie “Machine Gun Preacher” where Gerard Butler is walking with an AK resting on his shoulder, muzzle pointing up and back and finger on the trigger! On a different note, you might like the movie “Uncommon Valor” with Gene Hackman & Patrick Swayze, where the producers actually took the time to run the main actors through a week-long firearms tactical training course prior to shooting.

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