5 Ridiculous Gun Myths Everyone Believes (Thanks to Movies)

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What other movies are like Heat and Collateral?
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Both of those are Michael Mann movies, and he uses people like Jim Zubiena to get the bang-bang parts right.

Arfcom and ShootingUSA made up a list of the Top Ten Movie Gunsfights awhile back, and it's pretty good.

  1. The bank robbery scene from "Heat"
  2. Master Sgt.Gordon and Sgt.1st Class Shughart's final battle from "Blackhawk Down"
  3. The last fight scene in "The Kingdom"
  4. The Battle of la Drang Valley from "We Were Soldiers"
  5. The assault/chase scene from "Ronin"
  6. The end of "Tears of the Sun"
  7. The Brécort Manor assault scene from "Band Of Brothers"
  8. The final shootout from "Quigley Down Under"
  9. The final shootout in "Léon" (The Professional)
  10. The three-way gun fight from "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly"

The only issue I have with the list is that Besson stole a lot of his stuff from John Woo. I'd swap out the gunfight in "Leon" (which is still an awesome, awesome movie) with the staircase shootout from "Untouchables".
 
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I don't really follow directors, so I looked up Michael Mann. I see he also directed "The Kingdom" which is one of my favorite movies, especially the gun use. If you watch the DVD extras, they actually filmed the entire rescue/room clearing scene from each actors point of view. There's about 45 minutes of material of which only maybe 6 or 7 minutes made it into the movie. It's neat to watch each character's actions and tactics as they go through the building, knowing that this footage never even made it into the movie, but they still use (mostly) correct room clearing tactics and weapon handling. There's not music at all too so it really does just seem like a cameraman is following some people clearing a building.
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Yeah, I thought The Kingdom was one of the more realistic movies I've seen as far as personal gun handling. The good guys handled the weapons like they were shooting real firearms and knew what they were doing, rather than waving movie props around. And I'm not ashamed to say I cried at the end. Dang, that was a powerful movie.

And the gun handling in it is certainly a huge contrast to that cheesy scene from the Ahnold movie (Commando?) embedded in the article linked in the OP.
 
I love cracked, but number two is total crap. that video they have they obviously were not using sub-sonic ammunition. you can hear the echo from the bullet breaking the sound barrier.
 
Hawthorne2k what movie is that Jim Zubiena clip from? I think that building is the Atlantis from the opening trailer to Miami Vice.

And...

Although it is depressing that the best article on this subject is published in the equivalent of Mad magazine, I think I got over this when I realized that the Daily Show and Colbert Report are two of the best sources of news.
 
Way of the Gun had 1911s that actually held the correct amount of ammo and had decent reloading.
I loved Blackhawk Down (own the movie and book). The one part of the scene with Shughart and Gordon that seemed unrealistic was when Shughart dropped 2 running Somolians with 2 shots in about a half second, but I don't have enough trigger time with a M14, maybe they are that controllable.
 
Here's my personal list that makes me cringe.

1. Shooting a gun with a can.

It makes things quieter but it is not totally silent. Don't forget, the action of the gun is going back and forth and the sound of the bullet hitting drywall, dirt, or bad guy #8 still makes noise!

2. Bottomless magazine.

I compete with my submachine gun and when I see the long protracted gun battle, I wonder where is the wheelbarrow full of ammunition that they are carting around to feed their SMG.

3. Cocking noises.

A Glock, does not cock. A 1911 carried hammer down is reckless to begin with because nearly everyone has heard the story of "That Guy who thumbs down the hammer on his 1911 and shot his dishwasher". Plus, cocking a 1911 with one hand is awkward enough to begin with.

That having been said, a recent episode of Deadliest Catch where Jonathan Hillstrand charges an AR15 gets the sound RIGHT because they dont mess with it.

4. Hearing protection

Everyone has these long protracted gun battles indoors and are able to have a normal conversation during said gun battle. Including cool dry wit soundbites. Even with earplugs, when the IPSC guys at my club build a shoot house out of visqueen and 1x2's, it is LOUD. Anyone having a shootout indoors should be screaming WHAT? I CANT HEAR YOU afterwards.

5. Every gun in movie is 100% reliable

Murphys law dictates that something is going to go wrong eventually. I'd love to see a bad guy have a stovepipe or some malfunction eventually. The last time I saw a gun jam in a movie was the ending scene in the Blues Brothers with Henry Gibson's luger.

Thats my list!
 
Hawthorne2k what movie is that Jim Zubiena clip from? I think that building is the Atlantis from the opening trailer to Miami Vice.
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It's from the "Return of Calderon" episode of Miami Vice, although Zubiena also makes a brief appearance as an FBI armorer in "Manhunter", the first of the Hannibal Lecter movies.
 
I have a comment in regard to the movie 'SHOOTER'. Not nessasarilly a myth or anything but has anybody ever noticed that toward the end when the old man senator 'Charls Meechum' drops his concealed carry piece to the ground and the girl 'Sarah' picks it up to shoot her captor she only fires four shots before the slide locks back? Looked to me like the gun was a Taurus something or other, point being Im pretty sure there are no 4 shot capacity semi-automatic handguns.
 
It was a Taurus. Just because the slide locks back don't mean it's out of ammo. :neener: :D

The last shootout in Way of the Gun, save for the Galil that remains perfectly level on FA while fired from the shoulder, was pretty realistic. The dozen or so revolver speedloaders in the guy's pocket would've made his jacket fit funny, though. ;)
 
Fo those who think soda bottles work well as silencers. How long did they last? Did they cover the sights? Did blasting through the bottom of the bottle degrade your accuracy at all? Unless a silencer reduces noise and does not degrade your ability to hit the target, it is not working well.

Ranb
 
Funny article, mostly true. The only thing I take issue with is this:

"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 is not uncommon to purposely decock a DA/SA gun when carrying it. In fact if you want the safety on, you usually have to decock it.

Another often perpetuated myth I see a lot is that bullets knock people back when shot. I mean WAY back, like getting launched from a giant sling shot. In all the real videos I have seen of gunfights that resulted in a clean kill so to speak (hate to be graphic) people slump to the ground in a heap. They also don't explode, unless hit dead center by artillery.
 
^ Mythbusters actually tested that myth. Mythbusters, I think, is actually subtly good for gun ownership.
 
Mythbusters, I think, is actually subtly good for gun ownership.
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Mythbusters are OVERTLY good for gun ownership. No one's done more to de-mythify firearms than Adam and Jayme have, and their safety practices have been, for the most part (coughcurvingbulletcough) first-rate.
 
What about RPG and other grenade rounds that fly through the air like slow moving bottle rockets and can be dodged and outran
 
Hawthorne2k said:
Mythbusters are OVERTLY good for gun ownership. No one's done more to de-mythify firearms than Adam and Jayme have, and their safety practices have been, for the most part (coughcurvingbulletcough) first-rate.
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True, but in their defense, they were testing a myth, the person firing the gun was wearing body armor and the others were behind a bulletproof blast shield. Sure it was unconventional, but I'm fairly sure that they followed the four rules and they had additional safety measures. I think it is reasonably arguable that their setup was as safe if not safer than many shooting games.

That said, it would be a horrible horrible idea to replicate that test at your own range.
 
And propane bottles do explode when shot at. Well maybe not explode but the send 6ft ball of fire into the air. Then they shoot flame like a blow torch out the hole. Till you shoot it again and get another big fireball. You can repeat this process a handfull of times till the propane has run out and your left with tiny lil pilot light blue flames coming out all over the tank as they go out one by one.
 
Cracked.com is one of my favorite sites. The guy that wrote that article forgot to bring the funny. I never even grinned, much less laughed, when I read it. It didn't read like something from a humor site. Rather, it read like the same tired ranting about movie gun errors that you can find in great steaming mounds on any gun discussion board, including this one.
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Ding! Ding! Ding! Yeah have to agree with that one. Also like Cracked.com, but there was little/no funny in that article. Informative? Yes to the general public. Accurate? Very much so. Funny? Eh....
 
What is as bad as the gun effects in movies is the sound effects in war movies: a shell or bomb exploding five miles away makes an immediate BOOM! when it would take ~25 seconds before the boom is heard.

Worse is the fact that they show an assault rifle (documented with a cyclic rate of ~600 rounds a minute) firing 600 rounds in a minute without reloading, when the cyclic rate actually means that the 30 round magazine would last about 3 seconds full auto.
 
For those old enough to remember the show, there was an episode of Shaft where Richard Roundtree takes a shot out the window using a rifle with a potato stuck on the end of the barrel to silence the shot. I highly suggest you don't try it.
 
I'd love to see a bad guy have a stovepipe or some malfunction eventually. The last time I saw a gun jam in a movie was the ending scene in the Blues Brothers with Henry Gibson's luger.
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Watch "Way of the Gun." In the first gunfight of the movie, Benecio Del Toro is moving across a parking lot keeping his aggressors heads down with a Mossberg 590. Halfway through it doesn't fire and he has to shake a stuck shell out and rack in another.
 
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