5 Ridiculous Gun Myths Everyone Believes (Thanks to Movies)
Even in gun-crazy America, most of us aren't shooting things as part of our day-to-day routine. So most Americans actually know very little about guns. Hollywood writers realized this a long time ago and, being writers, used it as an excuse to never do any fact-checking ever again.
#5.
Silencers Turn Gunfire Into a Gentle Whisper
Where You've Seen It:
In The Line Of Fire, Die Hard 2, No Country For Old Men, Shooter, practically every James Bond movie.
The Myth:
Cautious spies and assassins know that if you're going to take out a bad guy in an office or a library, be sure to use a silencer. It turns the concussive "bang" into a neutered "ptew."
Above: Stealth.
Itty-bitty handguns aren't the only things you can silence. Giant freaking shotguns can even be fitted with a special silencer that renders them inaudible in quiet suburban neighborhoods.
Also, while silencers look all slick and expensive and fancy, Hollywood says pretty much any long, hollow tube will do the job. Grab a two-liter, stuff it with socks or something, and you can be just as dangerous as Mark Wahlberg in Shooter.
The Problem:
Exploding gunpowder is loud. Really loud. As loud as a jet engine. A little metal tube won't do a whole lot to stop that. This is what a suppressed handgun actually sounds like:
If you can't watch the video, let us sum it up: It still sounds like a freaking handgun. It does not make a soft phut that you could mistake for a kitten landing on a pillow.
An unsilenced gunshot is around 140 to 160 decibels--that's in the range where hearing it once can permanently damage your ears. If you've never had a gun go off next to you, trust us when we say it's loud enough that your whole body will flinch at the sound of it. A silencer can get that all the way down to 120 or 130 decibles, aka the sound of a jackhammer. Still loud enough to cause physical pain if it's close enough to you.
So a silencer really just makes a large gun sound like a smaller gun. If you're James Bond and are sneaking into the enemy's compound with a silenced pistol, you're basically hoping the guards will decide your gun is too small and wimpy to be a serious threat, and leave you be.
Many a GoldenEye guard made this mistake.
So why the hell do silencers even exist? Well, if you're in an outdoor, noisy environment, they can make quite a bit of difference. Specifically, they make it really hard to tell where exactly the shot is coming from, or how far away it is.
And as for silenced shotguns? They do exist. Here's one in action:
Yeah, that actually seemed to make it louder.
#4.
Machine Guns are Magical Death Machines
Where You've Seen It:
Starship Troopers, The Mummy, Max Payne, Commando, every John Woo movie, Scarface.
The Myth:
It's an old joke by now that nobody runs out of bullets in action movies (unless it's suddenly convenient to the plot, that is). Hollywood shows some restraint with revolvers--usually no more than 10 or 11 shots per six-shot cylinder--but damn, do they go hog-wild with anything that fires full-auto. So much so that that most of us have wound up with an utterly ridiculous concept of how those guns work. They're seriously depicting these things firing a hundred times more bullets than they can actually hold.
Because you can't actually see the bullets in a machine gun, Hollywood takes this as a blank check to treat the inside of a gun as a magical bullet factory. So in Commando we see Arnold fire without changing magazines for what seems like half the movie:
The Problem:
If you've watched a news broadcast about U.S. troops in Iraq, or played Modern Warfare, you've seen this gun:
That's an M4 Carbine. It holds 30 bullets. Here is a video of a small child firing one of those on full-auto:
He didn't give up after four seconds because he got tired. He was out of bullets. OK, how about the gun you always see the bad guys using, the AK-47?
Here's somebody firing a real one, full-auto:
Again, empty after four seconds. That's because fully-automatic weapons fire really goddamn fast--around 700 rounds a minute. Only you don't have 700 rounds in the gun, you have 30. So, do the math.
In fact, a U.S. infantryman only carries 210 rounds total, which means a battle conducted with full-auto machine gun fire would be over in less than a minute even if you count the time it takes to switch magazines. Fortunately, they fire on full-auto so rarely that many of the military's rifles don't even have that capability.
"But wait!" you say, "I've seen war footage from Vietnam and Iraq and everywhere else and you can totally hear machine fire chattering in the distance at all times. Somebody's using it, dammit!"
That's true, they're just not shooting people with it. Full-auto is only really used for suppression, that is, to make the bad guys duck their heads and hunker down while your people maneuver into position. In fact, virtually all bullets are used for this. For each insurgent killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, 250,000 shots are fired that hit absolutely nothing. About three tons of ammunition for every one dude killed. Picture Arnold lugging that shit around.
#3.
Bulletproof Vests Are Magical Force Fields
Somehow your best laid plans have gone awry, and now a bunch of Libyans in a Volkswagen van are out for your blood. They plan to shoot you repeatedly with their AK-47s, but you have an ace in the hole: a bulletproof vest.
In movies, body armor (made from a material called Kevlar) turns most guns from magical death-wands to hilariously overbuilt Airsoft rifles. A burst of fire from an AK-47 at point-blank range would turn most men's torsos into gooey paste suitable for spreading on crackers, but add a slab of Kevlar and you might as well have a Gandalf's magic protection bubble glowing around your torso.
"It's OK; protagonists never get shot in the head!"
The Problem:
In the real word, the vest that protected Back to the Future's Emmett Brown from the terrorists would only have been useful for its ability to keep all of his bits in one convenient (for the mortician) package. In fact, despite an additional 25 years of armor development, no body armor today would be able to protect Doc from that kind of assault.
The type of bulletproof vest you can actually conceal under your clothes provides exceptional protection against most handguns. But against an assault rifle like the terrorists were using up there? It's only slightly more effective than body paint and prayers to Khorne.
Prayers to Khorne and giant suits of armor synergize fairly well, though.
Our troops do have their own body armor, meant to protect against that sort of thing. It's much heavier and more rigid. But even it's only rated for effectiveness at further than 14 meters distance. When police wear body armor (45 percent do not) they don't tend to wear full military body armor. Probably because it weighs 33 freaking pounds and costs thousands of dollars. Since less than one percent of gun crimes involve military-style rifles, this is generally a pretty safe trade-off.
Generally.
My favorite bit of Entertainment Business Gun BS is not from a movie, but from a video game: Metal Gear Solid. In the game, one character mentions that she was able to handle and fire a .50 mm caliber Desert Eagle and age EIGHT. Don't get me wrong, it's a great game, but my disbelief was not suspended for even a microsecond.
Reply#2 is referring to the difference between single and double action triggers. There are still lots of single action pistols, where the hammer must be manually cocked. Almost all 1911 pistols are single action. Also, even double action pistols can be manually cocked to alter the trigger pull. 92FS is also the M9, standard issue sidearm for US troops.
Replypart of the problem with number 2 is that they don't account for a recently reloaded gun. SOP with a semi-auto handgun like that is to load it, chamber a round, pull the hammer back, then fire. yes, in many movies, it's silly and unnecessary, however, in their case, they probably out a new magazine in and needed to pull the hammer back so it would be easier to shoot. Either that, or they did decock their guns, put them on safety while they carried them so they didn't accidently shoot themsleves in the face trying to drag the bad guy into position, then released the safety, cocked their gun and blew the guy away.
ReplyOr its a movie and they wanted to add a dramatic effect.
You are confused bud. What he is referring to is the fact that a 92FS is a double action trigger. Meaning pulling the trigger also cocks the hammer for you. You do not need to c**k it manually. You just shoot. Initial trigger pull is heavier when firing the first round bc of this. Subsequent shots will cause the slide to recoil and re-cock the hammer, so after the first shot the weapon becomes single action, and the trigger pull is reduced.
PS- whose SOP are you referring to specifically? LOL
Not just dramatic gun cocks. In almost every movie, guns make clicking clacking noises just by holding them up and pointing them. If guns really did that, they wouldn't be very stealthy. Swords and knives make fschwing sounds by just waving them around slowly or drawing them from a sheath. Just waving a real machete or butcher knife around at home should prove this is not true, and so obviously not true that it increases the stupid quotient by any movie by +5 right there. Any logical flaw a 12 year old boy notices the first time he watches a movie means the movie should automatically tank.
ReplyYou actually can duct tape a 2liter bottle onto the end of a pistol and it will silence one shot as all the sound will be the bottle poping not as loud as an actaual silencer with subsonic rounds but in a pinch will work just fine....or if you still want to stay quiet use a .22 cal pistol with a silencer and shoot in the back of the head the bullet will go in but wont come out the other side as there is not enough velocity from a .22 to come out the otherside...the bullet will just rattle around inside the brain scrambling and killing the person. ANy questions or comments just let me know...I cannot divulge all of my Army background but I have the experience and if you are knowledgeable you will know what i'm saying is true!
ReplyThe bottle will explode with such force that you will definitely hear it. The sound is carried through the air. A silencer is designed to absorb sound like a muffler. It has baffled and its case can contain the force. Also you can shoot someone anywhere as long as your at a decent range and your round won't exit a human body. I don't need killing advice from someone on the internet who turns punctuate into leet-speak.
I'm sure you were tasked with multiple missions that involved .22 assassination during your 2 yr enlistment as an 88M. Hahahahaha. Idiot.
Well ... you are wrong... try the new Osprey wet silencer on any subsonic round (THe Glock - I assume it is a 9mm - is NOT subsonic)... try it with the subsonic .45 acp, a more potent round than the 9mmm anyway... you won't notice it in the next room... And btw I have listened to it live, I have shot it (Kimber .45acp), and I know the difference, having shot numerous guns and hand loaded for over 30 years... I was under the same misconception as you... until I HEARD the difference... INHO any round under 1100fps muzzle velocity will go PHEWT! with a quality suppressor.
ReplyNice try Osprey salesman.
It may have been mentioned in one of the other 2052 comments, but I'll put my two cents in on it. While yes, no gun can ever really be 'silenced' the video of the suppressed Glock 36 is misleading, because what you are hearing is the round breaking the sound barrier. If you use sub-sonic ammunition the gun is much quieter than that video, though still not the compressed air Hollywood sound.
ReplyThere is a new military grade body armor coming out soon (for the army, not civilians) called dragon hide. The stuff is basically layers of scales made from alternating layers of ceramic and Kevlar.
ReplyIt can literally stand up to ANYTHING you throw at it. YOu can watch test of it on youtube where the tester puts a whole magazine of pisols ammo, a clip of AK-47 ammo, and an M16 clip into one and not a single round made it through. Then they took that same vest and put it on a dummy and put it on top of a live frag grenade. When the grenade went off it shredded several layers of scales, but not a single piece made it through the vest.
It will be able to literally turn a marine into a human tank capable of taking DOZENS of round to the torso, back, and chest with no ill effect.
Dragon Skin has been around for a while and it's sort of failed to live up to it's hype. The military specifically banned it's use after the glue holding the armor disks to the vest delaminated in the desert heat of Iraq and lowland Afghanistan, and on top of that it was found it offered poor protection from the real threat faced by soldiers on patrol- IEDs. This is because it's possible for projectiles to bypass the armor disks when they strike the vest at a low angle, essentially sliding up and between them which easily cuts through the armor.
I think the disconnect between these two comments is that Defengar is speaking of the *new* dragon hide and he's correct, while enemy_spy is talking of the *old* dragon hide and is also correct.
It wasn't outright banned and some contractors are using it to get from place to place in high gunfights. There's apparently/supposedly high hopes the new incarnation will have better durability, though still not as useful for IEDs, would make a rather large impact in suburban battle.
Boondock Saints is my favorite movie... That was just too far man. I was at one point considering buying a poster that showed them in that same position as the picture in black and white with the prayer in between them. It was super bad ass looking.
ReplyI own said poster, and yes it is super bad ass looking.
you know...things were going just fine and dandy...i was mildly amused...and then...
Replyf**k YOU!! THE SAINT'S PRAYER IS NOT FRUITY!
now i just wanna punch robert evans in the balls until he coughs one up.
guess he's just jealous because the McManus brothers' nut hairs are cooler than he is.
(or maybe it's just wishful thinking? he did refer to the saints as "hunky"...)
You can get almost silent suppressed weapons. See the British WW2 De Lisle Carbine and Welrod. Although both were only effective at short range they were a very quiet "Psst" sound. On the De Lisle the bolt-action to load a new round was louder than the gunshot.
ReplyYou require a sub-sonic bullet, a large, hopefully barrel-length suppressor, and a really small caliber. Why did the above guns listed work? They hit all 3 points.
Replying to cgun - small diameter (caliber) is better for sound suppression, true but this is because a smaller case yields less gas, but the real secret to suppression is a subsonic bullet (less than 1100fps sea level at the muzzle) I have fired .45acp pistol and .300 Blackout rifle, both with subsonic ammunition, using suppressor and I was AMAZED!!!!
I wouldent really think a suppresor on a revolver would do much to begin with. (Talking about the 1st picture btw)
ReplySince you're talking about gun myths, you should probably stop saying silencer in #5, as well as switching between suppressed and silenced in #5. They aren't the same, and there is only one, suppressed, so only say suppressed from now on, and maybe even include that as a myth.
Reply Hide All See All 3 RepliesBoth the U.S. DOJ and the ATF refer to suppressors as "silencers". It may be misleading, but it is an accepted colloquial, if not otherwise established, equivalent. Argue semantics until you are blue in the face ("It's a SUPPRESSOR and your law says SILENCER!"), it is what it is: both!
Only that "suppressed" is more accurate considering it doesn't do much "silencing" at all ...
Not to mention the ORIGINAL was called the "Maxim Silencer." Calling it a suppressor came later.
So these 'Machine Guns' you speak of are actually Assault Rifles. Besides that it's a god article, if not a little pedantic. Good none the less.
Reply Hide All See All 7 RepliesYou're retarded. Seriously. I know that you think you're a firearms expert because you play Call of Duty, but please, stop being so retarded. Truth is, any gun that has fully automatic capabilities is considered a machine gun. Just because Call of Duty lists the M4 under Assault Rifles, does not mean it's not a machine gun.
Also, the M4 in Black Ops isn't a regular M4, it's a Commando. Google the difference before you mouth off.
My phone's being retarded and lost my nice long post about how wrong xinfinitix is and why. Long story short, Donnelly is right all around.
Techncally they are actually classed as Assault Rifles. This is not information from Call of Duty, it's info from an actual soldier, who is fighting in Afghanistan as I type.
oh come on, you mean to tell me you think some soldier or marine is going to know better than a teenage call of duty player? please....
Technically, the Assault Rifle of which you speak is, by definition, a machine gun. It uses springs or gas to mechanically load another round from it's clip, as your standard "Machine Gun" would do. The difference? Assault Rifles are very small machine guns. The end.
Lol at roflplanes who doesn't realize that, you know, Black Ops isn't the only COD game and the M4 was in all three modern warfare's, so he probably was talking about those.
Jesus, this list is stupid. Everyone already knows this. And umh, btw; sometimes in movies they focus on making it cool, not ultra realistic. I see others have commented on the cocking-thing, so I won't have to. Mythbusters can go to hell, too.
Reply Hide All See All 5 RepliesGotta say I concur... everyone knows this s**t and just accepts hollywood. Especially ridiculousness like Arnold. If Arnold is on screen I don't WANT him reloading.
yeah would.have been better to title this "X gun myths people with down syndrome wouldn't believe"
Uh, no. I've run into more than my share of people who call bullshit when bullets punch through their plywood target. They're simply misinformed, and if you don't know better, then you're better informed than them. Also, picking on down's syndrome? You're a heartless bastard, for future reference.
Well I didn't know the thing about the car door ....
Not that a normal pistol could puncture both sides of the car, that is.
I've had an awful lot of people tell me they can't understand why I'd want a suppressor for hunting (ie not going deaf.) Most people really do buy into the "suppressors make any gun whisper-quite and are an assassins tool that should be illegal" thing
Add New Commentthe reason all of these things are in movies is because they are cool, and cool movies sell better the lame ones. its the only god damn reason. like the no country for old men, the shotgun silencer, its cool, hes supposed to be some bad ass hit man, so whats more bad ass then a shotgun with a silencer. and the bullet proof vests is just so they can explain how he survived 2 hrs of gunfights. and the cocking of the guns, it sounds cool, and as the sniper in the movie phonebooth said its scary, and the shooting a hundred rounds before reloading is because people would rather see a shootout then someone reloading every 10 seconds. and the blowing stuff up while shooting it, explosions are awesome so f**k you. and thats it, this stuff makes movies awesome, and awesome movies sell
ReplyYou, sir, are totally tubular. Radical, man.
While I do think some of the things are ccol, Arnie having infinite ammo is cool, I certainly don't think gun cocking is cool. Most times it happens I usually cringe. It's done purely for dramatic effect and I don't like it. If the directors really wated to intensify the scene, they could just have the "bad cop" fire off a shot in front of the crook's head or something like that.That would instill more fear than cocking a gun that doesn't need to be cocked. The Assault on Precinct 13 film had me cringing almost the whole way through as all the charactrs seemed to do was c**k their guns.
Anyway, I am not complaining about unrealistic action films or anything, but I do think realistic action films could be just as entertaining if done correctly. Some war films like Saving Private Ryan and Black Hawk Down have realistic action scenes and they are entertaining. I know they are not action films but they do show that it is possible to have a realistic and entertaining action sequence. Ghost in the Shell has characters who reload when they are supposed to and those action sequences are still entertaining, so it can be done.
Well written. In my experience in the US Army, and personal shooting at a local range, it is all true.
ReplyI still get annoyed at the who Armor Penetrating Ammo myth.
My biggest pet peeve of movie guns is the racket they make. They're all so noisy, anytime anyone moves a gun it rattles like it's gonna fall to pieces.
ReplySaid that a few posts down. Thumbs up because we have the same beef!
I question how much the writer has shot before for two reasons:
Reply Hide All See All 4 Replies1. Trigger pull is probably the most important part of shooting a handgun accurately. The guns that c**k on the first trigger pull can throw off your aim considerably, and the differing trigger pull for all subsequent shots has the added bonus of likely throwing off your aim because it's hard to adjust. A consistent trigger pull is invaluable. Was it necessary in Boondock Saints to c**k the gun? Probably not. But that certainly does not make it a "movie myth." Another reason it's not a movie myth is that keeping a gun uncocked is safer. I carry two handguns, neither of which have safeties. I normally NEVER jack a round in the chamber, unless I am at the range or happen to be in North Philly (or similar environs). If, God forbid, I would need to use one of them on a normal day, I would have to c**k the gun. Just like in the movies.
2. Shotguns are loud. Really, really loud. Gloriously loud. If you think the suppressor on that shotgun didn't do anything, I encourage you to stand next to a Remington 870 one day for comparison.
Jesus. We can't even write "cock?" Cracked isn't exactly a family site, you know.
The bit about the Boondock saints isn't about how they didn't need to c**k the guns because the guns would still have fired, it's because they didn't need to c**k them because they were already cocked. It's about how they uncocked the guns after firing purely so they could REcock them at the end of that f*****g prayer.
Yeah, bobolequiff FTW- They had already killed everyone in the room, and since they didn't reload AND still had a round in the chamber, then it'll shoot. Logic on the Internet FTW
not to mention, bobblequeef, don't forget...
"that f*****g prayer" is the coolest thing you have ever heard
The cocking the gun myth isn't a myth at all. Especially when your using mags, you should NEVER load one in the chamber unless you know your going to use that gun then and there. So lets say you have a 9mm with a 10 round mag, you load the mag. That gun is NOT ready to fire, there is no bullet in the chamber and it HAS to be cocked and loaded. The trigger does not load a round, it is either done by hand or automatically by carbine or spring.
Reply Hide All See All 6 RepliesI see others caught the silencer myth as being wrong too, cause with a silencer your supposed to use subsonic rounds. If not it can be dangerous.
[edit] Just out of question, did you even research this? You own guns right? You should also know that in a 6 shooter, at least some (smart) people, it was common to load only 5 rounds. The reason is because the hammer wrests on the bullet, which is extremely dangerous as if the gun falls or gets a hefty enough tap it can and will go off. New models don't requre that but true replicas still do.
I think he was talking more about cocking the hammer, not pulling the slide back. Sure, if there is no round in the chamber, then you need to pull the slide back which will c**k the gun, but in these movies, they always pull back the hammer. It is rare to see our gun-toter pulling the slide back.
First, the article is correct on the silencer myth. Second, the cocking, or loading a round in the chamber, is based on Hollywood movies having them recock the damned gun even when there is a round in the chamber for the sole purpose of effect. By the time it is done in Hollywood, the damned thing has already been fired, rounds chambered, etc. Just recharging it or recocking it does is eject an actual bullet. The article is also very correct with that, as well. It is one of my ultimate Hollywood pet peeves. Why walk into a potential hostile environment if you haven't already chambered a round? Hell, ask an on duty cop if he has a round chambered just on patrol or walking around. The answer is yes.
In reply to your edit, the issue wasn't with a 6-shooter firing 5 shots, it was with a 6-shooter firing 10 shots. Because bullets are magic now.
"cause with a silencer your supposed to use subsonic rounds. If not it can be dangerous." That is not true. There may be SOME models that recommend subsonic rounds (I know of none). Far more either don't care or specifically recommend against it. Gem-Tech suppressors, for instance, issued the following statement: "Our rifle suppressors are designed for use with full power Milspec/SAAMI loadings. While subsonic ammunition will provide better sonic performance, it is generally very expensive, will not cycle the action of an AR-15, provides poor terminal ballistics and limited range, and may not properly stabilize in your barrel." It is worth noting that subsonics will give you better sonic performance ALWAYS at the cost of range, even without suppression. Subsonic rounds in an suppressed MP5 would be worthless as well, as it already bleeds the gasses off, expressing normally supersonic ammo at subsonic speeds.
Carrying without a round in the chamber is dumb. It's slow and without benefit. Any decent holster will encase the trigger, which is all that is necessary.
Don't you not pull the slide back instead of cocking though? Im no gun expert but I thought they were two different things. The cocking is more of a safety mechanism.
I don't know much about the Boodcock Saints but I have seen a range of other films where the cocking is completely unnecessary. What seems to be worse in those films, is that any time a big firefight kicks off, they don't c**k at all, they just fire. It's only at the convenient moments that the guns are cocked for cheap dramatic effect.