Any stories of bad advice you received regards guns?

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A lot of advice may be dated than outright “wrong”.

The Jeff Cooper worship is really weird to me but he was probably right about a lot of things in the time of the fleeing felon rule and a lack of modern pistols/rifles in common use.
"fleeing felon rule" ?
 
"fleeing felon rule" ?

In 1985 SCOTUS decided shooting fleeing felons was an unreasonable “seizure” and violated our 4th Amendment rights. I believe most large metro departments had adopted similar policies prior, but for a long time “stop or i’ll shoot” was not a bluff.

The Bill Jordans and Jim Cirillos of the world were not playing by the same rules we have today.

Edit, to stay on topic, taking old books about use of force at their word is bad advice.
 
In 1985 SCOTUS decided shooting fleeing felons was an unreasonable “seizure” and violated our 4th Amendment rights. I believe most large metro departments had adopted similar policies prior, but for a long time “stop or i’ll shoot” was not a bluff.

The Bill Jordans and Jim Cirillos of the world were not playing by the same rules we have today.

Edit, to stay on topic, taking old books about use of force at their word is bad advice.
"Unreasonable" ???????? Let's leave it unspoken about what I'd do to someone who raped my sister, mother, or future wife. Let's just say "unpleasant" would be an understatement.
 
"Unreasonable" ???????? Let's leave it unspoken about what I'd do to someone who raped my sister, mother, or future wife. Let's just say "unpleasant" would be an understatement.

Free advise is sometimes worth what is paid for it. He careful what you say, write.... It can and will be used against you. As some have stayed it shows intent, heck even the fact that you handload your own bullets can be shown as intent.

Sorry not trying to preach, just speaking from experience.
 
Free advise is sometimes worth what is paid for it. He careful what you say, write.... It can and will be used against you. As some have stayed it shows intent, heck even the fact that you handload your own bullets can be shown as intent.

Sorry not trying to preach, just speaking from experience.


Lemme guess. Righteous fury can get you for "intent" now ?
 
No, posting about what your intent would be in certain situations provides LE and the legal system insight into what your intent was if you are ever involved in such a situation--or one similar. Information put on the internet is, for the most part, available forever and if there's ever a situation that warrants it, LE can, and has been known, to search for comments/posts/statements made by persons of interest to help them gain insight into a case.
 
Adding some more tidbits of wisdom I have heard...

“The .38 Special cartridge is a boring waste of time. The .357 isn’t much better..”

“Keeping a magazine completely loaded will never weaken out the spring.”

“These Sarsilmaz 9mm’ers are the new rage in European pistols and you need to get one now before you won’t be able to get your hands on one.” :scrutiny:

“Glocks are plastic garbage.”

“The 1911 is a ‘Man’s’ gun. If you don’t own one you need one. No one will take you seriously if you don’t.”

“Why would anyone want one of those single action revolvers? Are you sure you wouldn’t like something else?”

“The .38 Special started out as a weak black powder round and it didn’t get much better once they made it a smokeless round.”
 
"Buy a Mini-14 instead of an AR. It won't scare the sheeple and is just as accurate as the AR at combat ranges."

Yeah, so I bought two of them in the 80's and 90's and they both were horrible. Combat ranges are apparently from 0 to 50 feet. Bought my first AR in `99 and never looked back.

"Glocks aren't accurate." Two of my four Glocks can do 1" at 25 yards. The third will do 1.5", and the fourth hasn't been accuracy tested, yet.
"Shooting someone in self-defense past 7 yards will get you charged with murder." Just... Duh.
 
"Racking a shotgun means you won't have to shoot it."
I leave mine without one in the chamber only because a tang safety on a shotgun with a pistol grip is awkward under stress. And if someone very quickly has a change of heart while it's racking, great. But you still have to be prepared to pull the trigger before you chamber a round.
 
I got a lot of good advice and excellent moral guidance from my WWII vet father, but when I asked if I could mail order an M-1 carbine for $25 back in the 50s, he explained that the .30 M-1 carbine cartridge was worthless for anything but coyotes and feral cats. Good advice then, but lost opportunity all the same!

But yet Jim Cirilo (sp?) absolutely adored the M1 Carbine, from my understanding.
 
In the beginning, nearly all the legal advice I received about deadly force and carry laws was bad. This was a long time ago, and I finally ended up getting so much conflicting information that I finally had to go to the local library, find their copy of the TX statutes and read the applicable sections. I was amazed at how much of what I had been told by "experts" was completely out in left field.

That was pretty simple. The law is the law, like it or not, difficult to interpret or not, there's just one official copy of it. General gun advice can be had from a lot of different sources and not having a single authoritative source to refer to made things a little trickier. To solve that problem, I just read everything I could find on the topic for a few years. That was enough to get a feel for what was solid, on target information, what was personal opinion with perhaps some potential merit, and what was total garbage.

I Find That People Who Say "My Cop Buddy told Me X So He Would Know."
Except That The Police Aren't Lawyers And a Lot Of The Time, They Don't Actually Know The Laws They Enforce. I Would Bet That a Majority of The People On This Thread Know Gun Laws Better Than your Average Police Officer.
 
I'd say that the average officer is likely to know the deadly force/firearm laws better than the average person. But, in my experience, neither is very likely to have a good handle on the topic nor very likely to give good advice about it. When it comes to general firearm advice, I'd put them about even.

Members of a forum like this one have a chance of absorbing a lot of good information about firearms and the laws that pertain to them. Some take full advantage of that opportunity, some are only interested in very narrowly focused information/topics. And, as in any group of people, some are hidebound when it comes to certain topics and are resistant to other views/information. I'd say that, on average, a member of a forum like this is probably better informed about general firearm knowledge and the laws that pertain to them than the average person or LEO, but the value of a forum like this is, in general, more about collective knowledge.
 
Let's leave it unspoken about what I'd do to someone who[had attacked someone]
Be aware that on may not use deadly force because of what a person has done. The operative word is always "to prevent".

...osting about what your intent would be in certain situations provides LE and the legal system insight into what your intent was if you are ever involved in such a situation--or one similar. Information put on the internet is, for the most part, available forever and if there's ever a situation that warrants it, LE can, and has been known, to search for comments/posts/statements made by persons of interest to help them gain insight into a case.
Indeed. It is evidence, which can indicate state of mind. We have a sticky in ST&T on that.
 
"If you have to draw your weapon just hold it in front of your stomach and shoot, no need to aim." - A CCW instructor teaching my wife (she had asked for me to audit the class because she was a bit nervous). I raised my hand to ask him to clarify the statement and he said that if you have to shoot, don't take a stance and 2-hand your weapon, just hold it in front of your stomach and shoot. So I asked "Is that only when the assailant is close and could take your weapon?" and he said "No, any time you have to draw your weapon".
 
Fascinating thoughts on the pocket .380s, IMO.
I'd say re both those and lightweight 2" .38 Spl revolvers, unless a person is willing to put in the time on those handguns, they're better off avoiding 'em.
Personally, I kind of like 'em, but I try to stop by the range fairly often to see what condition my condition is in.
 
Fascinating thoughts on the pocket .380s, IMO.
I'd say re both those and lightweight 2" .38 Spl revolvers, unless a person is willing to put in the time on those handguns, they're better off avoiding 'em.
Personally, I kind of like 'em, but I try to stop by the range fairly often to see what condition my condition is in.
Aye. Easier to maintain basic competency with a large framed handgun than a small framed handgun.
 
Adding some more tidbits of wisdom I have heard...

“The .38 Special cartridge is a boring waste of time. The .357 isn’t much better..”

“Keeping a magazine completely loaded will never weaken out the spring.”

“These Sarsilmaz 9mm’ers are the new rage in European pistols and you need to get one now before you won’t be able to get your hands on one.” :scrutiny:

“Glocks are plastic garbage.”

“The 1911 is a ‘Man’s’ gun. If you don’t own one you need one. No one will take you seriously if you don’t.”

“Why would anyone want one of those single action revolvers? Are you sure you wouldn’t like something else?”

“The .38 Special started out as a weak black powder round and it didn’t get much better once they made it a smokeless round.”

Those would've been fighting words, regarding the .38 Spl, .357 Mag, single action revolvers, and the 1911.
 
Be aware that on may not use deadly force because of what a person has done. The operative word is always "to prevent".

Indeed. It is evidence, which can indicate state of mind. We have a sticky in ST&T on that.

@Kleanbore to phrase this plainly... your telling me that Joe Bob who just saw his wife/daughter/mother raped is just... supposed to stand there and act like a mewling kitten ? That goes against the entirety of human nature- against the entirety of man's nature. That one would be capable of standing by while his SO is being raped/molested/beaten... I'd question if he was worth his wife's effort to marry.
 
C'mon now , the LCP is not comparable to a J frame. Shooting the former is like trying to aim a Zippo disposable cigarette lighter , the latter is a fine small firearm. The Taurus 85 , while a bit inferior to the S&W trigger-wise , is still a serviceable snub. That makes up most of the snub .38s.

Some of the worst advice I ever got is being told that a J frame is a "belly gun" , only good within 5-7 yards.
The worst advice I ever got was when I told myself I could hit targets just fine with a j frame, as long as I practiced twice as much. (I was high on Hickok45 videos and was exercising poor judgment)

Well, I practiced twice as much, and I turned my j frames from 5 yard guns into 7 yard guns. In my mind’s eye, there is a red gong 80 yards out with a pic of Hickok’s face on it saying “Nanny nanny boo boo.”
 
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