Most annoying Gun Myths

[swacje41]

I have been through alot of advance handgun training in my life. Military, police academy, marksmanship training for competition shooting, and even SASS training and none of them advocate starting with a .22...I am not sure where this really started.

It started with the military and the police. Many armies have used .22 rifles as trainers because, as others mentioned, it is much cheaper and the shooter can still get the basics of gunhandling and marksmanship. And many police departments used to start recruits out with .22 revolvers on the range, and then later introduced them to the .38s they would carry on duty.

 

[RNB65]

Guns are bad!

 

[PlayboyPenguin]

swakje21,

I was never trained on a .22 handgun in neither the army nor the police academy. I was trained on a 9mm from day one of handgun training in the military and on a .38 from day one in the police academy.

For the ones that do use .22 caliber handguns, do you think they do it because it is better technique or simply because it is cheaper? The only real adantage to a .22 I can see for training is practicing trigger pulls since there is little recoil. But then I still feel that alot of men get frustrated when you try to teach them on a .22 and loose interest. it might be different for mandatory training for a job but when it come to recreation I think .22 calibers are an unnecessary step.

 

[PlayboyPenguin]

Guns are bad!

Not all guns. I think it comes down to parenting. I must admit a couple of my Rugers do sometimes have bad attitudes and I did catch one smoking once... and I caught my Walther downloading internet porn but those are just guns being guns. It is just a phase.

 

[baranjhn]

This myth amazes me that an airgun can safely/humanely harvest rabbits and squirrels, but the "lowley" .22 short ain't worth beans! My Webley Tracker air-rifle can propel a 14.3 grain .22 caliber pellet to about 650 fps, and knock a squirrel silly! However, when I'm using .22 shorts all the little forest animals have great fun at my expense for using such a worthless cartridge! I guess it's been a fluke that when I use my Browning semi-auto .22 short or my Marlin 39 TDS (with .22 shorts), that many rabbits and squirrels have met their demise. I guess a 27 grain hollowpoint at about 1100 fps, can't cut the mustard. Only a hyper velocity .22 lr can do the job.

 

[ZeSpectre]

While I understand the concept of "time compression" in movies (I.E. making things happen much faster than in real life) I hate the constant showing of 1 shot (pretty much anywhere) and the bad guy just drops stone dead. (I hate it worse when they show the same thing with knife wounds).

 

[Flopsy]

Most annoying myth: "Glocks are ugly."

 

[BigG]

Correction: While I agree with most of the pet peeves, myths, etc. that have been listed.

I do not agree with the several that have asserted that Self Loaders are not Automatics.

The term "automatic" has been used in time honored fashion for more years than most of you have been around to describe self loading shotguns, rifles, and handguns. Just because you have decided to become PC, you don't need to reinvent the language. You can leave that to the Violence Policy Center and other liberal institutions.

The same is true for those who insist that a revolver can never be a pistol. I've heard people go on and on about that. It's not worth getting so worked up about, believe me! A revolver is a form of pistol, get over it. Again,

 

[The Deer Hunter]

Men flying across rooms when they get shot

 

[tenbase]

The same is true for those who insist that a revolver can never be a pistol. I've heard people go on and on about that. It's not worth getting so worked up about, believe me! A revolver is a form of pistol, get over it.

word

 

[Axman]

Men flying across rooms when they get shot

This only happens after they're dead as the fly off into the afterlife!




I get a kick out of the misinformitive myths. "The wind from my .44 Magnum bullet flying past your head will cause you to lose your hearing!" ...etc.

The same is true for those who insist that a revolver can never be a pistol. I've heard people go on and on about that. It's not worth getting so worked up about, believe me! A revolver is a form of pistol, get over it. Again,

This also applies to the clip vs. magazine debate.

 

[mpmarty]

Revolver = pistol, NO??????? How 'bout "pistol packin mamma"?
Semi-autos not automatic, NO??????? How bout that .45 acp (Automatic Colt Pistol)? or 32 acp etc. And those of you impressed with the ma duce round please bear in mind the 8 bore punt guns we used to use on geese, the 460 WM and some of the even larger custom african guns. On and on it goes; what if we had no firearms and mindless thugs simply tossed molotov cocktails into school cafeterias?

 

[Mr White]

My pet peeve myth is that in the heat and noise of a WWII or Korean War battle, enemies could hear the distinctive ping of an enbloc clip ejecting from a Garand and know that the soldier needed to reload.

 

[ProguninTN]

Myths

A lot of good ones here. I will add one. The myth that experienced dealers always know more than their customers.

 

[Manedwolf]

My pet peeve myth is that in the heat and noise of a WWII or Korean War battle, enemies could hear the distinctive ping of an enbloc clip ejecting from a Garand and know that the soldier needed to reload.

That just reminds me of a vintage comic I'd seen, wherein someone in a gunfight stopped shooting for a moment, yelled "CLICK!", then opened fire on the bad guy when they popped up to see if they'd run out of ammo.

 

[tenbase]

Just thought of another gun myth, also perpetuated by non-gunnie types, and even some gunnies.

The assumption that all guns are registered, and/or you have to have some sort of license/permit to buy/have/carry/look at/think about them. I realize this is true to varying degree in some of the more enlightened, nuanced urban enclaves within the US, but thankfully Virginia is not one of them.


"Oooh, thats a sweet gun. Is it registered? Do you have a permit for it?"


, No, and no! Then I get the look. (or sometimes the look...though sometimes I'll get the entire ...... enlightenment sequence)


Yep. It would be nice if people wouldn't automatically assume everything is restricted by the gov and we are merely permitted to do this and that.

Of course it would be even nicer if that weren't seemingly true.

*slips and falls off soapbox, hits head, doesn't spill beer*

 

[The Grand Inquisitor]

You can't hit the broad side of a barn with an AK.

If that's true, then I encourage you to stand 200 yards downrange whence I fire my Maadi. Provided you are still alive, I think your opinion concerning the AK's accuracy will have changed.

100% spot on.

I'm so tired of hearing about how the AK was designed to accomidate the average illiterate and brain dead Russian. The AK is totally inaccurate and is only useful for playing around with.

The truth is is that the Kalashnikov is a brilliant design and has totally re-defined the way small-arms conflicts are fought. The AK has allowed for an accurate, reliable, and mostly easy to produce weapon to be employed by under-privilaged groups so that they may fight against whoever is oppressing and holding them down.

Unforuntately, many Americans have been on the wrong end of Kalashnikov rifles, but the Kalashnikov has also been employed by the East Timorese struggle against the violent and murderous Indonesian state - the same goes for other smaller hot zones brewing up around the world.

There is still a stigma in the US against the AK - a great many Americans that grew up during the Cold War (myself included) saw the AK as the right arm of the Soviet military - while that is true, the AK is far more than the issue rifle for a single nation, it's a phenomenon.

 

[TimboKhan]

The assumption that all guns are registered, and/or you have to have some sort of license/permit to buy/have/carry/look at/think about them. I realize this is true to varying degree in some of the more enlightened, nuanced urban enclaves within the US, but thankfully Virginia is not one of them.

I explained to a buddy of mine not once, not twice, but 5 times that you don't have to register a gun in Colorado. I also had to explain that target shooting didn't require a hunters safety card.

 

[Redneck with a 40]

Here's one that really bothers me:

Law abiding citizens carrying guns will result in the "wild, wild west shoot-outs" in the street, over trivial arguments.

Florida has only revoked 157 CCW permits out of 1.1 million issued, so much for that statement.

 

[LadySmith]

I heard this one today at the range from an assistant firearms instructor:
"The way those 9mm are made, if you hit a guy in the chest the bullet can travel around and come out of his big toe."

 

[Duach Laidir]

I have just read the entire post.
Brilliant.
But my favourite didn't get a mention,

"Don't shoot at long range as it strains the barrel"

 

[BigG]

Quote:
The same is true for those who insist that a revolver can never be a pistol. I've heard people go on and on about that. It's not worth getting so worked up about, believe me! A revolver is a form of pistol, get over it. Again,

This also applies to the clip vs. magazine debate.

__________________

I've seen the Remington magazines packaged for sale. Guess what they're marked? "MODEL 760 CLIP 30'06"

 

[Phil DeGraves]

"Don't shoot at long range as it strains the barrel"

That is beautiful!

I wonder if the AK suffers from the perception of soldiers that are fighting poorly trained individuals. I hear from soldiers back from Iraq how inaccurate the AK is, when actually it's just that the majority of the people they are up against don't know how to operate the thing properly and can't shoot worth a darn.

 

[ZeSpectre]

Ooh, just remembered another one...

Hollywood movie stuff,
Good guy shoots a fairly big gun in a confined space (car, small room, elevator, etc) and a few seconds later can still hear the stair or floor creak or the cocking of another gun that lets him/her know right were to shoot the next badguy.

 

[Gordon Fink]

The assumption that all guns are registered, and/or you have to have some sort of license/permit to buy/have/carry/look at/think about them.…

Where sales from licensed dealers are concerned, this is not a myth at all.

~G. Fink