Firearm Inaccuracies In Media

[Old Dog]

Filmed gun fight scenes showing reloading (changing magazine with an auto or swapping an empty revolver for a loaded backup of the same model) end up on the cutting room floor to speed up the action. Editors are all about action not accuracy.

Except in the movie THE WAY OF THE GUN. There are folks who have a higher opinion of that movie because it shows reloading in the gunfight sequences and it actually makes the action sequences more intense.

Like I said early in the thread, Michael Mann also gets it right in his movies ... starting with Thief, Heat, Collateral, etc. (even Miami Vice, both the TV show and the movie). If you liked Jimmy Caan in Way of the Gun, you'd like him in Thief (especially if you're a 1911 guy).

 

[cokehayes45]

No disrespect to the OP, but didn't we just go through another version of our quarterly bitch session about how firearms are portrayed in the media?

Whoops, didn't know there was a thread about this already.

 

[Trunk Monkey]

So this isn't gun-related necessarily but I was just watching an episode of Tour of Duty and they were supposed to be out patrolling in the jungle and the point man was like five feet in front of the rest of the formation and the rest of the formation were all about 2 feet apart and walking with their weapons slung

 

[bdickens]

If it makes y'all feel any better, the media gets just basic facts about EVERYTHING wrong.

 

[jakk280rem]

My biggest peeve is the "rapid clicking" sound effect added to make sure the audience knows the hero's machine gun is empty. Like someone actually thinks there's an electric motor in there spinning around. Worst example that pops readily to mind is in I Am Legend.

 

[GAF]

On one of those ID Discovery shows ( Murder TV ) I heard an investigator say Smith&Wesson Highpoint on several occasions during the show. I am sure he meant A High Point in 40 S&W, but most people watching the show would not know that there is not such gun as a S&W High Point.

 

[.308 Norma]

My wife and I were watching a 2-hour episode of Dateline a few nights ago, and we were pleasantly surprised to hear the reporter actually repeat what the police detective told him about a “magazine” (not a “clip”) being found at the scene of the crime. However, just a few minutes later, that same reporter said that the murderer had obviously dropped a “magazine full of bullets” in their rush to flee.
Oh, well. At least he got part of it right.

 

[Hog huntin Harry]

My wife and I were watching a 2-hour episode of Dateline a few nights ago, and we were pleasantly surprised to hear the reporter actually repeat what the police detective told him about a “magazine” (not a “clip”) being found at the scene of the crime. However, just a few minutes later, that same reporter said that the murderer had obviously dropped a “magazine full of bullets” in their rush to flee.
Oh, well. At least he got part of it right.

I wonder why the murderer would stuff a magazine with bullets and not assembled cartridges.....

 

[Trunk Monkey]

My wife and I were watching a 2-hour episode of Dateline a few nights ago, and we were pleasantly surprised to hear the reporter actually repeat what the police detective told him about a “magazine” (not a “clip”) being found at the scene of the crime. However, just a few minutes later, that same reporter said that the murderer had obviously dropped a “magazine full of bullets” in their rush to flee.
Oh, well. At least he got part of it right.

That one is so common I just let it go

 

[Trunk Monkey]

There's another one that has been overlooked. How many movies do you see who are the bad guys are running around in downtown Los Angeles with fully automatic weapons?

I honestly believe that is part of an overall plan to conflate full auto weapons with semi-automatic weapons.

 

[wiscoaster]

Most likely just an ignorance about the difference. I doubt the script writers are smart enough to have such clever ulterior motives.

 

[Trunk Monkey]

Most likely just an ignorance about the difference. I doubt the script writers are smart enough to have such clever ulterior motives.

They actually have a standards division that tells them what to put in their scripts. And I remember reading the one of those standards is that they almost always have to show stories where the homeowner buys a gun for self-defense and then has an epiphany and realizes they don't need it or how unsafe it really makes the home.

See I really don't have a problem believing that they're deliberately showing criminals carrying automatic weapons in order to give the ignorant the idea that our streets are awash with machine guns

 

[wiscoaster]

They actually have a standards division that tells them what to put in their scripts. ...

Well, OK, then, I extend my comment regarding script writers to the people in the "standards" division. Some standards.

 

[Trunk Monkey]

Well, OK, then, I extend my comment regarding script writers to the people in the "standards" division. Some standards.

Dude, I'm not making this up.

I remember a YouTube video that John Schneider (Bo Duke) did. And he talked about how the first season The Dukes of Hazzard was on it was on at 9 O'Clock and because it was on later in the evening there were different standards of what they could show.

The second season they went to 8 O'Clock and everything changed. At 8 o'clock they weren't allowed to point their bow and arrows at anyone. Bo & Luke weren't on parole for moonshining anymore. Uncle Jesse couldn't be a Moonshiner any more, Daisy's shirts and shorts got longer and guns could only be shown in the context of hunting or Law Enforcement.

I'm looking for a link to the article but the broadcast standards and practices board actually put out a policy letter that stated that television shows should have more scripts in which the homeowner buys a gun for home defense and then almost shoots one of the family with it and comes to the conclusion that he's better off without a gun in the home. And that plot line has come up over and over and over and over again in Primetime television. I remember they even did it in that show with Urkel in it and the dad was cop.

They wanted television shows to have scripts that showed that a gun in the home for self-defense was basically useless and that most home owners were too incompetent to defend their homes with firearms.

They did the same thing with cigarettes. Fred and Barney used to do commercials for Winston's in the middle of the Flintstones. Now no one in Hollywood smokes

 

[theotherwaldo]

They wanted television shows to have scripts that showed that a gun in the home for self-defense was basically useless and that most home owners were too incompetent to defend their homes with firearms.

Yep.
Television viewers must be assumed to be stupid, incompetent sheep.
After all, they DO watch television... .

 

[Tommygunn]

Yep.
Television viewers must be assumed to be stupid, incompetent sheep.
After all, they DO watch television... .

I really wanted to viciously dispute this ..... but upon calm reflection, I realized I had no ammunition with which to dispute!
Sadly, you have a point.

 

[Deanimator]

I'm not sure, but I think there may be some inaccuracies regarding rocketry and the Martian eco system in "Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars".

Happy's .38 revolver seems pretty realistic though...

 

[welldoya]

Not sure about this one - maybe wandering off-topic a bit:
I was watching a Turkish program where the main character was in a public park (in Istanbul) with a bb-gun (pistol) shooting balloons floating in the water. People all around, kids playing, nobody seemed to care. I can't picture that happening in the US without someone panicking - just wondering if anyone knows if that's normal in Turkey?

I lived in Ankara Turkey from 1971 to 1973 and we weren’t even allowed to own a rifle, shotguns only. I never saw a handgun except those carried by police.
I was watching one of those shows about serial killers the other day and the guy was shooting people with a blued Colt Trooper MKlll.
Later in the show they said the killer used a S&W 686.

 

[Deanimator]

The other day I saw a reinactment of French soldiers executing Mata Hari... with M1 Garands.

 

[wiscoaster]

The other day I saw a reinactment of French soldiers executing Mata Hari... with M1 Garands.

Well, weren't they lucky to be so well-equipped in 1917!!

 

[BlueHeelerFl]

Dude, I'm not making this up.

I remember a YouTube video that John Schneider (Bo Duke) did. And he talked about how the first season The Dukes of Hazzard was on it was on at 9 O'Clock and because it was on later in the evening there were different standards of what they could show.

The second season they went to 8 O'Clock and everything changed. At 8 o'clock they weren't allowed to point their bow and arrows at anyone. Bo & Luke weren't on parole for moonshining anymore. Uncle Jesse couldn't be a Moonshiner any more, Daisy's shirts and shorts got longer and guns could only be shown in the context of hunting or Law Enforcement.

I'm looking for a link to the article but the broadcast standards and practices board actually put out a policy letter that stated that television shows should have more scripts in which the homeowner buys a gun for home defense and then almost shoots one of the family with it and comes to the conclusion that he's better off without a gun in the home. And that plot line has come up over and over and over and over again in Primetime television. I remember they even did it in that show with Urkel in it and the dad was cop.

They wanted television shows to have scripts that showed that a gun in the home for self-defense was basically useless and that most home owners were too incompetent to defend their homes with firearms.

They did the same thing with cigarettes. Fred and Barney used to do commercials for Winston's in the middle of the Flintstones. Now no one in Hollywood smokes

I remember an old sitcom with Ted Knight where he buys a handgun for self defense. He thinks he hears someone breaking in and confronts him. Turns out it's his daughter Sneaking in in the middle of the night. They whole family is traumatized abd he vows to get rid of the gun

 

[BlueHeelerFl]

My wife and I were watching a 2-hour episode of Dateline a few nights ago, and we were pleasantly surprised to hear the reporter actually repeat what the police detective told him about a “magazine” (not a “clip”) being found at the scene of the crime. However, just a few minutes later, that same reporter said that the murderer had obviously dropped a “magazine full of bullets” in their rush to flee.
Oh, well. At least he got part of it right.

Sadly I have heard police news conferences where they call mags clips.

 

[doubleh]

I have been watching the inaccuracies in movies and tv for so long I just ignore it and watch for the basic story. I don't get my undies pulled up over the use of clip, bullet, etc. and understand this stuff is highly dramatized for ratings and has little in common with real life. I used to say no one would watch a show that was realistic because it would be so boring. Even the reality shows that are everywhere on tv are scripted to keep them from being boring. I read a comment about Longmier when it was a new show about how it didn't protray real law enforcement in Wyoming. Duh. You think anyone would watch the sherriff and deputies chasing cows off the road?

Just to annoy my wife when we are watching a western and the actors are firing their 30 shot single actions without aiming I sometimes holler out, "He just killed the sky". It gets a reaction every time but I won't repeat what it is. Now everyone, good guys and bad guys, carry fully automatic weapons that fire hundreds of rounds from a 20 or 30 round mag to keep things interesting.Single actions are too slow and don't hold enough ammo for the younger generation. If real life was like in tv and movies no one would be alive today as all our ancestors would have been killed off long ago.

 

[Deanimator]

Well, weren't they lucky to be so well-equipped in 1917!!

You'd think the French would have done better, faster...

 

[Deanimator]

I always enjoyed how on the original "Hawii 5-0", Jack Lord could take a 90deg deflection shot, offhand, from the hip, on a car going 70mph, hit every time, and blow the wheel and tire off of the car like he was using a 40mm Bofors gun. Strangely, Lord was an anti-gun zealot...