5 Ridiculous Gun Myths Everyone Believes (Thanks to Movies)
#2.
Gratuitous Cocking
Where You've Seen It:
Boondock Saints, Die Hard, Reservoir Dogs, all the movies on this list.
The Myth:
Movies treat the cocking of a gun like an exclamation point. When Hardass McBadCop interrogates the lone surviving henchman, you can safely assume that, at some point, he's going to make his gun go "clickety-clack" to let the poor schmuck know he means business. The sound of a clicking gun is so ominous that the MacManus brothers use it to close out their fruity little prayer in Boondock Saints:
The Problem:
That "click" is the sound of a hammer being cocked back, and movies seem to be saying, "This means the gun is ready to fire now, baby!" It doesn't mean that, however. It doesn't mean anything. The gun was already good to go.
For instance, the guns our hunky Irish assassins are using up there (the Beretta 92F--the same gun John McClane uses in Die Hard), is made so that pulling the trigger also cocks the hammer for you, to save you the extra step and the extra two seconds during which you could get shot. The "cocking the gun to show you mean business" must date back to Westerns, back when those old revolvers forced you to cock them between each shot (something that was made obsolete 150 years ago--so, yeah, Hollywood is even slower to catch up with gun technology than they are computers).
They've hacked your car!
By the way, when you fire one of these guns like the Saints have up there, it's made so that it leaves the hammer cocked back in between shots (the reason is it makes the trigger a little easier to pull). We bring this up because that means the MacManus brothers purposefully de-cocked their guns before shooting that mobster, just so they could make that sound.
It gets sillier. When movies show somebody with a gun that doesn't have a hammer back there to be cocked (like a shotgun or assault rifle) they substitute either the pumping of the shotgun or pulling back the slide on the automatic. It's the only way to get a cool clicking sound for dramatic effect.
The problem is that on these guns, that only serves the purpose of ejecting an empty shell and sliding a new bullet into the chamber--something that already happened the last time you fired it. So every cool "click" would be accompanied by the somewhat-less cool sound of one of your perfectly good bullets falling to the floor.
#1.
Bullets Explode Everything
Where You've Seen It:
Jaws, Casino Royale, Matrix Reloaded.
The Myth:
In the movies, bullets and anything mildly flammable have a matter/anti-matter relationship. The second hot lead touches a car's gas tank, it and everyone inside are going up in flames. This is incredibly convenient for those times when Morpheus needs to flash-fry two creepy dreadlocked albinos or a Buick full of raw bacon.
We bet crisp, bleached dreadlocks taste like Sun Chips.
Propane, hydrogen and oxygen work the same way. As long as it is packed in a pressurized metal cylinder, you can be sure shooting it will result in an explosion large enough to blow through any jam the screenwriter gets the protagonist into. Shoot an oxygen tank in a shark's mouth and he'll blow like he's spent all week munching on dynamite.
The Problem:
The manufacturers of automobiles and pressurized containers really don't like liability lawsuits. If their products could be turned into a fireball the size of a city block with nothing more than a sudden impact or puncture, every car accident would look like the Fourth of July, every pile-up would look like a Michael Bay movie.
The Mythbusters famously demonstrated the falsehood of both the "shoot the gas tank" myth and a ton of other gun myths in two of their episodes. As it turns out, you actually have to coax a car into exploding by doing things in a very particular way. If you can punch a small hole in the tank, light a fire outside of it, and vaporize the gas inside to the point that the tank over-pressurizes, then you could probably get it to light. Assuming you use special tracer bullets.
Not those kind.
What's so illogical about Hollywood's "handguns can explode a car" principle is that their bullets can't penetrate anything else. Here's John Cusack hiding behind a shelf of potato chips at a convenience store, safe from the dozens of bullets slamming into them:
And if the good guy takes cover behind a car door? Hell, he might as well be holed up in Fort Knox. Ironically, while guns are useless for exploding a gas tank, they'll punch through a car door with ease.
Everything we know is wrong. If those of us raised on action movies have to fend off a Red Dawn-style invasion, it's going to be a total clusterfuck.
Robert Evans writes for I4U News and has a blog at http://towelcave.blogspot.com/
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Actually, regarding #2, yes, it does eject the bullet curretly loaded in the chamber... if there *is* a bullet loaded in the chamber. Some people leave their chambers empty for safety purposes, so in that case, the weapon must be racked before firing. Also, after emptying a mag, when the next mag is loaded, the weapon would need to be racked again in order to chamber the first bullet. So, it's not a completely bogus thing to do, though it is over-emphasized in movies.
ReplyAbout the bulletproof vests: the reason that they are more or less useless is because most civilian grade vests are level 3A which is designed to handle small arms fire, though even military grade vests aren't capable of taking on repeated barrage from an AK47 like we saw in back to the future (they'd stop a good number of the bullets but the raw force generated from them combined with the fact that some bullets would have penetrated means Doc would have still died, or at least sustained extreme injury requiring surgery), now there are vests out there that can take on an AK47 magazine, such as the dragon skin, but those are either in their experimental stages or too expensive to be widely distributed throughout the entire military.
ReplyMy 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!