Worst Handgun Myths/Fallacies

[roy reali]

You can't miss with a shotgun.

[GunLoverr]

That inexpensive NEW (low end) guns are automatically "junk."

[Martowski]

Wow... I've never heard the grooves in rifling myth. I guess all those smoothbore muskets in use from the dawn of firearms - mid 19th century must have exploded 100% of the time, then.

[Bigfatts]

That a Glock is the only hand gun that will shoot in the mud/water/sand.

[Samurai]

Recoil myths:

1. If you shoot a .45 without a good grip on the trigger, it will fly up, hit you on the forehead, and send you flying backward through the wall.

2. If you shoot a 12 gauge with the butt pressed hard against your shoulder, it will break your arm, collar bone, rib cage, and spine, and send you flying backward through the wall.

Knockback myths:

1. If you shoot a guy with a .45, it will send him flying backward through the wall.

2. If you shoot a guy with a .45, his whole chest will explode, his arms and legs will fall off, his eyes will pop out of his head, and you'll leave a trench behind him the size of the Grand Canyon ... and he will go flying backward through the wall.

Bleed-out myths:

1. If a guy dives at you, and you shoot him in the big toe with a .45, he will be dead before he hits the floor.

2. If you shoot a guy in the center of mass (for that matter, in the head) with a .45, he will fall down instantly dead and not move.

3. If you shoot a guy with a .45, the blood spray will be so large that he will be blinded and not be able to see you to attack you any more. Also, at the sheer terror of having been shot, he will voluntarilly leap backward through the wall.

[El Barto]

Favorite Gun Myth: The .223 was designed to tumble as it flies though the air so that it maximizes damage when it hit and it ricochets/tracks around inside of you. First time I heard this was from a Torpedoman during a gun qual shoot in the Navy.

On guns and kids: I think Darth said it best. It depends on your assessment of your own children. I teach mine about guns and the importance of gun safety but I have a RSC to reinforce my teachings. In my opinion, my 9 year old is not ready to take shooting. She has issues with paying attention but when she matures a bit, I will take her.

[dixierifleman]

Also, at the sheer terror of having been shot, he will voluntarilly leap backward through the wall.

my new favorite.

i heard all this last night from an online video gamer.

"a glock is deadly at close range"
"gettin shot with a glock is like gettin shot with a shotgun"

then i asked him if he knew his firearms

"oh yea i know guns"
"glocks are very powerful, but innacurate"

then i asked him what caliber a G18 is

"i dont know the caliber of the glock(he kept referin to it like theres only one), i only know coalition weapons"

i had a good laugh

[Martowski]

El Barto: I've heard that same one about the .223, that it was designed to be more "deadly" by tumbling.

Dixierifleman: sounds like that person's knowledge of firearms is based on how the computer game he's playing chooses to portray them. I'll bet he's never actually fired a Glock in his life, but probably knows real well how it performs in "Rainbow Six"!

[FirstFreedom]

Bill, good list, except:

12. The 9mm round is as effective, or more so, than a .45ACP [...]. (no flames, please)

It is! (that's not a "flame" per se).

[Daves-got-guns]

video games these days give everybody a warped perception that a 12 gauge will knock a man back 5 feet, when those old laws of physics sort of disprove that. I participated in a forum not too long ago with a idiot would claimed up and down that his .45 would knock a man to the ground, and he just didnt get it. Alot of people get their "ballistic" knowhow from the movies, and btw that gun totin video gamer probably didnt know that paticular glock is illegal, chambered in 9mm and is only inaccurate in full auto. Don't care for glocks too much, but still just pointing out things how i see fit. I too have heard that myth about the .223 tumbling about, and bought into it until i thought about how these varmint precision rifles were sooo damn good, then i figured it was all b/s. Only way i can figure a bullet MIGHT tumble is with the wrong bullet weight for twist, even so i still doubt it. I dont generally miss with my shotgun, well unless im trap shooting then maybe lol.

[skeeter1]

Don't ever let anyone fool you,

Its only a .22, he can't hurt you with that

.22s might be small compared to the big iron, but they're not toys. Treat them by the same rules as you would any other firearm.

[Mark54g]

That's why it is a myth. I would not let somebody hit me with an acorn and angry words, let alone a .22 and a smile.

[jhco50]

Ok, I am one to disagree with you. All 3 of my children were started at 5 years old. By the time they were 7 or 8 they could shoot with the best of them. My son (now 36) is in California guarding at the capital. It was not only enjoyable to teach them to shoot, but they did know what a bullet would do. I started pounding the safety aspects, and in the boys case showed him what a bullet would do with a rabbit. No, I didn't worry about the bedside gun.

People thinking kids are all just bumps on the arse of life need to wake up, they are not dumb. I didn't start my grandson until he was 6, but he loves to shoot and goes everytime I go. He is now almost 12 and still knows not to touch a gun unattended by an adult.

=============================================Quote=====
Two handgun fallacies that I must ad to this list is one alot of gun owners are guilty of perpetuating.

1. That small children are not strong enough to rack the slide on an auto-loader or pull the heavy trigger on a revolver so it is safe to have the gun in the house unsecured.

2. That a small child can be "taught" to not touch a handgun if the parent expains the ramifications to them so it is safe to leave a handgun unsecured around them.

I know some people will pipe up and say "I taught my 6yr old to not touch guns" but I hate to break it to you. Children do not have the same forthought and reasoning abilities that we have as adults. Children, especially under the age of 10, often act first and think second. So not matter what they supposedly "know is right or wrong" can sometimes not amount to a hill of beans.

Sixshooter

[Mark P.]

Here's one I like.

Me: "A .22 is great for practice and target shooting but is inadequate for self-defense and stopping an attacker."

He who shall not be named: "Yeah, well more people have died from a .22 than any other caliber."

Me: "And what does that prove?"

Him: "I tell you want, shoot youself in the foot with a .22 and tell me if you want to attack someone afterwards."

I am not kidding. This is the same guy who thinks my Walther P99 is a pice of crap and his Glock 19 is the best handgun ever made and I quote one last one:

Him: "Glocks never jam. That's why most cops use them, because they are the most reliable guns ever made. I got a great deal on mine from my friend who is a Glock Rep."

[ExtremeDooty]

The Owner where I work said this just this morning.
"If you have a handgun, you use it. There's only one purpose for a handgun and that's to kill people." And he is absolutely convinced of this.:barf:

My GM and I gave him a little lip, but since I'm addicted to eating and living indoors, I could only go so far.

[G-Cym]

Actually Martowski, some video games, such as the aforementioned "Rainbow Six"(and most other Tom Clancy games) go to great lengths to make the guns in their games look, feel, and act as close to the real thing as possible. Of course other games like the old Duke Nukem, or modern games like Halo, do make guns to be wildly unrealistic. I would say most games do indeed fall into the "unrealistic" category. But don't group all game together. Some are pretty close to the real thing.

[AFshooter]

"If you have a handgun, you use it. There's only one purpose for a handgun and that's to kill people." And he is absolutely convinced of this.

I have also heard this from some people at work.
Really makes me sick what the media has done to this country.
Of course handguns are weapons. Nobody is arguing that. But to tell me that the only reason I have one is to commit murder is highly offensive. :barf:

The best comeback to nearly all such lunacy is:
I'd rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it.

Ask him if he agrees.

I asked a fellow anti-gun leaning crew member if he would rather see an intruder murder his family or use a firearm to protect them.
He was asking me about what kind of gun would be best for home protection the next day.

[AFshooter]

Best place to find gun fallacies:

Brady Campaign website "Facts" page.

Brady quote of the day:
"the .30-06 round pierced her bullet-proof vest."
Speaking about the rifle used...
"We need to ban these types of weapons."

:barf: :barf: :barf:

[Daves-got-guns]

ban 30-06 class rifles? ban liberals. I think anybody who is anti gun should goto canada, and bask in the safeness there. Generally speaking, if somebody is wearing body armor, and they get shot in the face, should we not ban that caliber too? sorry to hear that mark, alot of people think the glock is the finest fighting handgun ever made blah blah. Nowadays almost all autoloaders within a specific price range are very reliable, do the same thing with the same bullets and glock has a problem with kabooms, you can always drop that on him like a ton of bricks. Thats the problem i have with most "glocks" it is the owner, not the gun.

[GoSlash27]

.50BMG is a "terrorist weapon"
Kinetic energy=effectiveness
"stopping power"

[texgunner]

shotguns. Like how they're believed to have a 10ft diameter pattern at a distance of five yards

I have a good friend that believes this and flat refuses to believe otherwise. Funny thing is when I invited him to the range so he could prove it, he declined.

[treg]

1. Longer barrels are more accurate.

2. "modern ammo" and bullets are the best thing since sliced bread.

2. "so and so" shouldn't be allowed to have a gun.

[Daves-got-guns]

hah, i shoot trap atleast twice a week, and with a 10 foot pattern at 5 yards i would hit nothing (moreso then i already do) and it wouldnt make much sense for hunters to kill deer at 20 yards, that would be a 40 foot spread with those kind of physics! i hate it how people will say that a .50 cal is a terrorist weapon, and that it'll fire from the hip in full auto etc. .50 cal is a pretty hard gun to get ahold of, for the cost of it you could supply a pretty good "platoon" with ak's and ammo to go with it, and im not saying ban ak's because i own one im just saying they're alot easier to get ahold of and the typical "mall terrorist" mak-90 is flooded on the market. Lib's are everywhere, they will use any statistic fake or improvised to get guns away, because they think the general populas can't handle firearms, when we've been doing it for centuries. I have been seriously shooting for about 5 years, and i shot my first .22 when i was 6. Even back then i understood what a .22 could do, cause while we were shooting at a 85 ish yard target those .22s could still reach out that far.

[PSP]

my top 3

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1. Longer barrels are more accurate.

2. "modern ammo" and bullets are the best thing since sliced bread.

2. "so and so" shouldn't be allowed to have a gun.

1. is true to a point
2. is true in comparison
3. Is definitely true...some folks should not have weapons.

[Mark54g]

Another one from TV/movies

Guns are deathrays. One good hit and the badguy drops like a sack of potatoes.