The Daily Caller has an article up decrying the mistakes made by movie makers in the way guns are utilized. The author points out so much of what is shown in movies is either wrong or unsafe. This is a feature not a bug. Bear with me on this, while I list the reasons that this is a good thing.
Most responsible gun owners and enthusiasts have had safety protocols beaten into them and reenforced every time they go to the range or go hunting. It doesn’t matter if the lesson was delivered in a classroom by NRA, your kindly drill instructor at boot camp, your daddy or your grandfather. You get it.
Thugs, Hollywood types, and liberals didn’t have this training. This a positive opportunity to cull the herd. This is also a box on the checklist, more on that in a minute.
As a shooter, you are familiar with the nomenclature of weapons and ammunition. Chances are you can differentiate between a revolver and semi-auto pistol. You can identify features of each and explain how each operates. Another box on the checklist.
Safety thingys, clips instead of magazines, automatic weapons for semi automatic are all indicators that you are talking to an idiot. Stop.
As a shooter you can identify the various types of shotgun, common calibers (I know, checkbox) and appropriate ammunition choices. I’m not talking an all inclusive lecture, just basic information. Another checkbox.
Do you really need to carry on a discussion when the other party refers to a .40 caliber pistol as a 40 mm, an implement of war whether it is a grenade launcher or Bofors.
I don’t expect you to be able to convince a liberal that a bayonet lug does nothing to increase the function or lethality of an “assault rifle. Try explaining it to your dog first, if he gets it you might have a shot at a liberal. One more checkbox.
How to aim a gun so that you hit what you are aiming at and relative ranges. Your proficiency with a handgun, rifle, and shotgun is due to the fact that you put in the time and effort to refine and improve your skill level. Yup, another checkbox.
In the opening sequence of “The FBI” A Quinn Martin Production, Efrem Zimbalist Jr, as Inspector Lewis Erskine takes a header off of a dirt berm, does a somersault, draws a 2″ Model ten Smith &Wesson and shoots a bad guy at fifty yards. I’d say not realistic, but for the fact Zimbalist was an FBI man during Director Hoover’s time. Everybody knows they were endowed with super human powers.
Our two heros, below, don’t have that excuse. Here they demonstrate the preferred ghetto shooting stance. One hand for your gun, the other for your weapon.
So what do we do with all these checkboxes? I don’t mind having a reasoned discussion with somebody who is knowledgeable but has an opposing viewpoint. Employment of the checklist will save you time. If your opponent doesn’t tick any of the boxes on the checklist, treat them with the contempt they deserve and walk away. If their ego has convinced the gun grabber that they can argue from a point of ignorance and prevail, there is no basis for discussion. You help to validate their position by acting like they have something intelligent to bring to the table. Laugh at them and walk away. When you read the newspaper, keep the checklist in mind. If that newspaper or writer has no creditability on a topic with which you are familiar, why would you give them creditability on any other topic? If the writer doesn’t pass the muster, what you read is so much bluster and bullshit surrounded with cutesy rhetoric.
Now a dose of real life. Sorry Harold, but but a couple of Texas Narcs shot down a Piper Aztec outside of Sonora, Texas in the late 70’s using a Colt Python and a Browning Hi Power. Ok, Ok, the pilot was on a take off roll, and loaded with 900 pounds of marijuana. The narcs shot up his left engine and he didn’t have enough power to keep it in the air. But as war stories go that’s a shoot down.
I have executed over a thousand narcotics search warrants and about 96% of the time there are firearms present. I don’t know how many 50 cal Desert Eagles, 44.cal Smith & Wesson and Ruger pistols, even a stray automag. I mention these guns because they all had something in common. We would find the gun fully loaded plus a box of ammunition. Typically missing from the box were rounds to load the gun, plus six or seven other rounds. Crooks discovered these things were loud and they weren’t fun to shoot. I know, but it is an acquired taste.
We also found umpteen AK and AR variants with 30, 40, and 100 round magazines again with a limited amount of ammunition. What we never found were 5 gallon buckets full of spent casings just waiting for the reloader.
Some crooks practice shooting. Some refine their skills shooting up each others houses. They have limited opportunities, you probably won’t find them at the local shooting range taking an NRA course. Some of them are smart enough to realize if they show up at the range with their brand new pistol at the same time their parole officer is there, things are not going to go well.
Have you noticed how totally flummoxed these mass shooters get when their super duper mega high capacity magazine malfunctions, Colorado comes to mind but there are a couple of others. In the movies, guns only jam when the bad guy is trying to shoot the good guy. In the movies the bad guy ends up throwing his gun at the good guy.
Those of us who have spent time on the range know how to deal with malfunctions. We know how to reload efficiently no matter what platform we are using. We have tried and discarded gimmicks on the range and settled for what works for carry.
We used to call Dirty Harry movies and the genre training films. Mr Hutchison is correct there is a lot of misinformation out there and I give credit to trained shooters to be able to differentiate between their training and Hollywood. Can you imagine how high the body count in Mexico would be if the drug gangs stopped imitating Antonio Banderas in “Desperado” ?
Mr. Hutchinson I’m willing to concede that things aren’t black and white and settle for various shades of gray. If I can’t win the hearts and minds of the anti gun crowd with accurate information then, I prefer that they keep operating under false premises.
GUNS AND GEAR
Why Movie Gun Mistakes Matter
HAROLD HUTCHISON
2:24 PM 12/15/2015
Of COURSE Sean Connery got to wield the near-Howdah cut-down double-barrel 12-gauge.
You go to the movies to see a James Bond flick – or some action flick. You’re enjoying the film – and then it happens. The star mishandles a firearm – breaking one of the rules of firearms safety. For one such example, see the 1996 movie Broken Arrow. In that film Christian Slater’s character, Riley Hale, decocks a revolver by pulling the trigger and thumbing the hammer down while it is pointed at the direction of the park ranger, played by Samantha Mathis.
Just about anyone reading this article can probably tell that this sort of thing was weapons-grade stupid. They could probably even recite the safety rules violated (pointing the firearm in an unsafe direction, finger on the trigger when there is no intention to discharge the firearm). But Broken Arrow picked up over $70 million in the United States during its run in theaters.
So what? You might ask. Well, consider this: Over 16 million people saw that film in theaters, based on 1996’s average ticket price of $4.42. In addition to Christian Slater’s demonstration of how not to safely handle a firearm, viewers also got an unrealistic idea of what guns could do – and that affects your Second Amendment rights. Let’s take a look at another scene in that movie.
Near the end, Vic Deakins, the villain of the piece that was brilliantly played by John Travolta (who was unfairly snubbed for an Oscar nomination that year), uses a Beretta 93R (which fires the 9mm NATO round) to shoot down a UH-1 Iroquois helicopter. Now, that scene shows some real issues as well. The Beretta 93R, being a full-auto machine pistol, is just not available – even for Air Force personnel. Thanks to provisions of the 1968 Gun Control Act, full-auto firearms cannot be imported for civilian use. That’s for starters. But those 16 million viewers also saw that Beretta help shoot down a helicopter.
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Lately, in the wake of San Bernardino (not to mention other mass shootings in the past), gun-grabbers have made noises about banning so-called “assault weapon” – and they often will toss in the phrase “high-powered” as well. The scene where Deakins and Kelly shoot down the chopper with a pair of 9mm firearms (a Beretta pistol and an MP5) helps feed into that false perception, especially as gun-grabbers follow the advice of Josh Sugarmann, who in a 1988 “report” noted, “The weapons’ menacing looks, coupled with the public’s confusion over fully automatic machine guns versus semi-automatic assault weapons—anything that looks like a machine gun is assumed to be a machine gun—can only increase the chance of public support for restrictions on these weapons.”
These portrayals of firearms in Hollywood don’t just affect people’s perceptions of gun control. Those same 16 million Americans are also potential jury members. Think about the recent video showing cops firing 33 rounds at a person who was openly carrying a gun in Los Angeles County. Now imagine, some of those people, whose only experience with firearms is what they’ve seen on movie screens, could be on that panel that is deciding your fate after you used a firearm to defend yourself.
This is why it is important to take apart Hollywood’s portrayal of firearms, and note what they got wrong. Your freedom could depend on it.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2015/12/15/why-movie-gun-mistakes-matter/#ixzz3umqXIeMi