Most annoying Gun Myths

[Ditchtiger]

Is nobody going to mention what happens if a window gets shot out of an airliner?

 

[Manedwolf]

Oh, yes, that a small bullet hole in a fuselage will depressurize the aircraft. :banghead:

I've explained to so many people that the airsystem outflow is ALREADY a hole in the aircraft that can be closed a bit more to compensate for far more loss, and that the only effect of a bullet hole might be an annoying whistle...until someone stuck something over it.

And the windows are thick Lexan. The inner pane is plastic so the passengers don't scuff it up. But it would not "blow out".

 

[Axman]

Don't forget, the said bullet hole in said aircraft will suck all of the passengers though the hole!

 

[MachIVshooter]

Three of Hollywood's favorites:

1: Automobiles are cover from rifle fire.

2: Handgun rounds will easily penetrate an automobile windshield, incapacitating the driver.

3: Bullets make sparks when they hit steel, concrete or other hard surfaces.

All glocks look the same

They do.

A half-ton Chevy is a half-ton Chevy, whether it is a short bed, long bed, standard, extended or crew cab, 2 or 4 wheel drive. Still the same body style.

 

[carterbeauford]

...the .45 caliber bullet that was designed to tumble end over end, making it more deadly than a spinning bullet. And this came from my dad of all people

I am not aware of any .45 caliber handgun or long gun made today without a rifled barrel, are you?

 

[Silver Bullet]

"It just went off."

 

[Manedwolf]

3: Bullets make sparks when they hit steel, concrete or other hard surfaces.

That actually came about as a result of expediency and price and dramatic emphasis. They didn't have fancy CG earlier in this century to show bullet hits. The cheapest method was and still is tiny charges called "squibs" that can be hidden on a surface and set off electrically to make it look like some projectile is hitting it.

The same goes for gun sounds. Even now, they use much quieter blanks and fill in the sound later, since obviously, they don't want to ruin the actors' hearing with a load approaching the sound levels of "the real thing"...and the microphones might drop out at the impulse noise anyway.

Plus some rounds just don't sound all that impressive. They're too high in pitch to convey "I'm shooting a gun!" to a lot of the audience. So they use a deeper, more impressive sound, and the ever-present ricochet sound effect.

Hence why people are so surprised they first time they fire a 9mm and it goes POP POP, not BANG BANG.

(also why people on the news report that gunfire sounded like firecrackers outside)

 

[wuchak]

Someone who has never picked-up a handgun before can shoot while running, driving a car, riding a motorcycle, etc. and easily hit moving targets.

Someone who is a handgun expert can shoot while running, driving a car, riding a motorcycle, etc. and easily hit moving targets.

If you shoot someone with a shotgun they will fly back 10 feet and be knocked down.

Rifles and shotguns are easy to aim from the hip and this is the preferred shooting method of hunters and solidiers.

All rifles with a scope are "sniper" rifles.

Police are all highly trained expert marksmen.

Anyone who has a passion for football, baseball, basketball, soccer, golf, hockey, NASCAR, etc. is a fan. Anyone with a passion for shooting sports is a "fanatic" and must be slightly unstable to have such interests.

The best way to store your home defense firearm is with the bullets and gun locked in seperate locations with a trigger lock on the gun.

Children cannot be taught to be safe and responsible around firearms because they are especially susceptible to the evil field firearms give off that sucks people in and causes them to become violent.

Karate is a viable defense against a firearm.

Most criminals are just normal people who became criminals due to the influence of guns.

You can discharge a shotgun or .45 inside a house and still hear the slightest sound made 3 rooms away.

 

[Manedwolf]

Anyone who has a passion for football, baseball, basketball, soccer, golf, hockey, NASCAR, etc. is a fan. Anyone with a passion for shooting sports is a "fanatic" and must be slightly unstable to have such interests.

I find that ironic for one simple reason. Fans of the first ones DO NOT DO ANYTHING. They sit on their ever-larger behinds, mostly, shoveling chips in their faces and bellowing at a television. Generally, football fans do not play in games with uniforms. Racing fans do not own a car and race, themselves, even autocross.

Shooting sports enthusiasts are PARTICIPANTS. They go out on a nice day, get outside, and take part in their sport.

Big difference.

 

[Skywarp]

John Moses Browning (God rest his blessed soul) did not design the 1911, God did and handed it down to mankind through the PRophet JMB (God rest his blessed soul) therefore it is blasphemy to consider any other weapon system before the 1911.


Revolvers do not fail

Semi Autos are unreliable.

30-30 bullets are unaffected by brush and leaves

The 30-30 is the most versatile rifle round EVER created

Inertia driven shotguns have to be held very tightly to the body to operate.

A 22 in the hand is better than a 45/9/357/40/10 in the safe.........unless you have a 45/9/357/40/10.

 

[wuchak]

The 30-30 is the most versatile rifle round EVER created

Everyone know the most versatile rifle round is the 30-06.

 

[Erebus]

Karate is a viable defense against a firearm.

Kung Fu is better because you can pull the slide off a handgun before the shooter can react and pull the trigger.

Of coarse I would like to see them try that with a 1911.

 

[RNB65]

Barratt .50cal rifles should be banned becasue they can be used to shoot down airplanes!

 

[jbharned]

That Glock handguns can pass through metal detectors.

 

[ID_shooting]

3: Bullets make sparks when they hit steel, concrete or other hard surfaces.

Errr, some do. One of the places we shoot has a big pile of bassalt as the backstop. We shoot rifles there. I have seen sprks from inpact on 30-06, .308 and 7.62x39. Non were steel core, all new production Wolf or reloads with Hornady bullets.

Now, copper and lead should not spark, so my guess is that the inpact of the bullet was causing rock fragments to spark off the side of the rock. The point is, make in impressive light show in the late evening.

 

[Snap]

Three pages and not one mention of the classic "Anyone with a gun is compensating for something..." I once heard somebody say that it had been statistically proven that gun owners had smaller penises than the rest of the population. Of course, he made this claim with no evidence whatsoever.

 

[Gun Wielding Maniac]

Now, copper and lead should not spark, so my guess is that the inpact of the bullet was causing rock fragments to spark off the side of the rock. The point is, make in impressive light show in the late evening.

Most of the wolf ammo is bi-metal jacketed. IE, there is some steel in there. Now, they do produce copper jacketed ammo, but it is in the minority.

I've seen showers of sparks when shooting 5.45x39mm Wolf at steel silhouettes at night. Very cool.

Never in the daytime though.

 

[xd9fan]

"No HCI campaign more clearly demonstrates the elitist beliefs underlying the campaign to eradicate gun ownership. Given the qualifications required of permit holders, HCI and the media can only believe that common, law-abiding citizens are seething cauldrons of homicidal rage, ready to kill to avenge any slight to their dignity, eager to seek out and summarily execute the lawless. Only lack of immediate access to a gun restrains them and prevents the blood from flowing in the streets. They are so mentally and morally deficient that they would mistake a permit to carry a weapon in self-defense as a state-sanctioned license to kill at will."

Jeffery Synder from essay "Nation Of Cowards"

 

[otasan]

M16 bullets

I used to hear from various macho men that 5.56mm bullets tumble end-over-end in flight. I would tell them that the thousands of bullet holes I have seen in targets at military ranges employing the 5.56mm, the holes were all quite round.

LOL!

 

[JMusic]

History Prof your right that shot to the gun should have not been performed. The shot was I believe around 65 yds. The problem with making the shot is simple. If the round was to bank into the suspect and kill him was the shot made to disarm or was there a true need to use deadly force. If deadly force was needed why not shoot to a fatal area.

Shotgun and ch- chunk. That story is told over and over. Thats why I cock my shotgun real slow!

Jim

 

[razorburn]

Newton's Laws apply here, but what is conserved is momentum. The momentum of the bullet as it leaves the barrel and the momentum of the recoiling firearm are equal, minus whatever was soaked up by the action. However, momentum is equal to mass times velocity; kinetic energy is equal to one half mass times the velocity squared, so the much higher velocity of the bullet grants it disproportionate kinetic energy, even though the gun is heavier.

Here's an example: Suppose we have a 32 oz. revolver (using a revolver to avoid the issue of a semi-auto action absorbing some momentum) shooting 125-grain projectiles at 1400 fps. To keep the units consistent, let's convert the revolver's weight to grains: 32 oz = 2 lbs x 7000 grains / 1 lb. = 1,400 grains.

First we get the momentum of the projectile:

p = m * v --> p = 125 grains * 1,400 fps --> p = 175,000 grains * ft/sec

Momentum will be equal and opposite, so we plug that into the momentum equation for the gun to get the gun's recoil velcity:

p = m * v --> 175,000 grains * ft/sec = 14,000 grains * v --> 175,000 grains / 14,000 grains = v ft/sec --> v = 12.5 ft/sec

Since we have the masses and velocities of both bullet and gun, we now drop them into the equations for kinetic energy:

KE = 0.5 * m * v^2

KE(bullet) = 0.5 * 125 grains * 1,400^2 ft/sec --> KE(bullet) = 0.5 * 125 grains * 1,960,000 ft/sec = 122,500,000 grains * ft/sec

KE(gun) = 0.5 * 14,000 grains * 12.5^2 ft/sec --> KE(gun) = 0.5 * 14,000 grains * 156.25 ft/sec --> KE(gun) = 1,093,750 grains * ft/sec

Hope that helps clear things up.

Where did you get the figures for the revolvers weight and recoil velocity from? If you use quantitative observed data, we have to know where you got them from.

Edit-oops, nevermind, you figured it using the assumption that momentum of the two were equal. But you can't prove something by doing an equation based off that what you're trying to prove is true. You'd need the weights and velocity of the gun and bullet measured independently, then compared in relation to KE and momentum. Not figured out using a formula where you assume the point you're trying to prove is true. All you proved was that velocity has a 4x larger role in KE than mass, which we already knew.

 

[hirundo82]

"For handguns rounds, bullet expansion is the most important factor when it comes to lethality." (Not true. Depth of penetration is the most important factor.)

I'd argue that shot placement is more important as long as you get a basic minimum of penetration.

As for another--really more of an anti lie than a myth--guns in the hands of criminals are incredibly dangerous and you should not resist and give them whatever they want, but a citizen legally using a weapon is incompetent and is more likely to injure himself and a busload of kindergarteners with their puppies than stop a crime using his (or her) lawfully carried weapon.

 

[Starter52]

This is the most interesting thread I've seen on THR in ages.

My favorite (an old one) "If you shoot someone with a hollowpoint bullet at point blank range, the bullet will go through without mushrooming because it is going too fast."

 

[wuchak]

But you can't prove something by doing an equation based off that what you're trying to prove is true.

Sir Isaac Newton proved this several hundred years ago and it became his Third Law of Motion. Note that it is a Law of Science, not a hypothesis or theory. It is always true that "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." If you think that for some reason Newtonian physics don't apply to bullets it would be up to you to prove that is the case.

 

[JMusic]

Another myth is if you "miss" someone and hit someone else you are neglegent and will be sued. What do you think happens when you shoot through someone and hit another.

Jim