In a message dated 12/31/02 4:01:48 AM Eastern Standard Time,
owner-rara-avis@icomm.ca writes:
<< Andrew Vachss wrote in Pulse magazine several years
ago:
"That's why the Emergency Rooms of big cities are full
of sociopathic
little trigger boys with unique facial damage -- from
shell casings
ejected into their eyes when they held their precious
nines parallel to
the ground, Hollywood style, instead of the way the
pistols were
designed. Movies didn't give them the desire to commit
homicide . . .
but they sure showed them 'how.'"
While my brother believes that this guy was also
imitating TV or movies,
had no gang ties, he said that Vachss was wrong about
the way shell
casings eject. He said that every weapon he has fired
(M-16s and 45s,
as a Marine, but never a nine) ejects the casings
straight sideways, not
backwards or back and to the side (as it would have to
for the casing to
hit the shooter in the face while he held the pistol
sideways). I've
never shot a weapon, so I don't know who to believe. Is
Vachss wrong?
My brother? Are nines different? Can someone with hands
on experience
clear this up?
Mark
>>
I had to laugh reading Vachss comments and think such
hospital cases are possible. While automatics (or
semi-automatics, which is what we are talking about) are
generally designed to throw spent shells to the side, there
will be differences between models and between individual
guns. A slight variation in the mechanics will result in the
gun holding the casing a bit longer which will throw it back
as well as to the side.
But here is what I think is happening. Forget the long guns,
as pistol firing is very different. I have fired many
semi-automatic pistols and own several now including a Colt
Model 1911 caliber 45 like the one I carried in the Army and
like the one Mike Hammer favors. Only experience prepares you
for the "kick" of a big caliber handgun. Hollywood doesn't do
that as they are using wadcutters or low power loads. The
muzzle tends to go up if the shooter is not well-braced and
prepared. I have seen idiots grab a 45 and try to empty it on
rapid fire and the last two or three rounds are damn near
straight up.
So when one of the gang types sticks a magnum out there with
a bent arm and the gun turned sideways, the second and third
rounds could well be ejecting casings straight into his face
from very close range.
Richard Moore
-- # To unsubscribe from the regular list, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to # majordomo@icomm.ca. This will not work for the digest version. # The web pages for the list are at http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/ .
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 31 Dec 2002 EST