How much do gun goofs in books bother you?

[mjkten]

You see in the Reacher series where he says the killer must be a Pro, used a 9mm with 95 grain bullets, " those are subsonic "...

As much as I enjoyed the books, that was certainly a cringe worthy moment. A bit like having Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher in the first movie attempt at portraying him.

 

[Mike Matteson]

Hard to get too upset though with entertainment goofs when we have a president who states a 9mm will blow the lungs right out of a person and the supposed journalists go right along with it.

Dumber and Dumb. I always love it, when D. Biden get done with his speech and sticks out his hand, and nobody there. Everybody is trying too figure out what he said.

 

[Lasiter]

Reacher Book One is full of unforgiveable gun goofs. Lee Child is a lazy writer, a former TV guy. (The first Tom Cruise Reacher movie is pretty good gun-wise.) Michael Connelly (Harry Bosch) makes firearms goofs in every book he writes, but I like his writing otherwise.
No, I don't think these goofs are okay when 5 minutes on Google or Wikipedia will give you a correct version of your firearm. I write fiction and, "It's Fiction," is not an acceptable excuse to me. Would it be okay for Connelly to write, "Harry Bosch had to make a left turn onto Wilshire. He grabbed his car's circular turning lever and tugged left." ???
Here's the deal with ex-newspaper journalists and ex-TV guys: One, they start out thinking anyone can write a mystery -- they have little respect for mystery writers. Two, they are usually liberals, liberals who think anyone who owns/uses/understands guns is a knuckle-dragging jerk. So, they take pride in NOT knowing anything about guns. I spoke with an L.A. area forensics guy who knew Connelly. I asked, "Didn't you guys try to help Michael with the gun stuff?" He replied, yes, but Michael wasn't interested in help with guns. Long ago I wrote an article about these gun goofs. You can read a pdf version on my website. Click on the GUNS tomato and read Firearms and Writers.
www.jimguigli.com

 

[forkedhornpete]

Just saw Dirty Harry again, it's been a long time, the "crazy killer gun nut" was shooting a 3006 and always left his empties behind. His shooting rest was poor also and I wish I could get my hands on his evil "silencer". I notice all the little things, make me chuckle, but not annoyed.
What realty makes me laugh is when the shooter in movie is right handed and aims with the left eye. I think my wife is more annoyed than me when I point out the flaws.

 

[Mike Matteson]

If we walked like the movies show. We would have all been dead in Vietnam. I love how they show the salad on the left side of an Army Dress Uniform. I at times wonder what war they were in. The real thing is most people don't know what they are looking at. M-60 with maybe 10 round or less in the chain and continues to shot for another 5 minutes. They can use 600 round per minute.
Just like in the Army. The boys doing the paper work were kill 40 gooks a minutes with there Rem Typewriters.

 

[memtb]

I posted this previously on this exact question on another forum! My opinion is the same as it was an hour or so ado!

Probably more than it should! I love the Joe Pickett series by CJ Box, but some of the firearm related stuff is almost unbearable! The bad thing is he gives credit to some law enforcement/game & fish personal for their contributions pertaining to firearm data. Continues to give me great faith in our law enforcement personnel! memtb

 

[Lasiter]

I posted this previously on this exact question on another forum! My opinion is the same as it was an hour or so ado!

Probably more than it should! I love the Joe Pickett series by CJ Box, but some of the firearm related stuff is almost unbearable! The bad thing is he gives credit to some law enforcement/game & fish personal for their contributions pertaining to firearm data. Continues to give me great faith in our law enforcement personnel! memtb

Don't blame LEOs. I'm sure he ignored or didn't understand what they told him. As I said in my post above, many writers refuse/don't want information about guns, etc. You can lead a liberal to information but you can't make him think.

 

[C-130 Dude]

We've all seen the endless parade of film gun goofs. In a similar vein, if one reads enough fictional works, well gun goofs will be encountered. I've seen them in both mainstream, successful authors and more obscure writers.
For example, I recently read the first of the Dirty Harry novels (not novelizations, different stories) and started a second before wandering back to the nonfiction stack. (Oh, they are utter pulp trash, but that is one of the appeals.) What was odd for a quintessentially "gun guy" film and book series, there was a lot of goofs. And I don't mean just the wacky ones like a gigantic .44 Magnum revolver with an equally huge silencer hanging off it. Naturally, there are others, often in the horror genre, that I read from time to time.
But I've meandered enough. Do the goofs ruin the book for you? Or, nah, no biggie? What were some authors and genres you found surprising to find such therein?

It's amazing just how brain dead some folks can be when they spout off drivil about a gun issue acting like they know exactly just what they are going on about. My main pet pieve these days is when people state that an, "AR15 is an assault weapon". What crap. I never met a Military person that would go into a shooting fight in the past 40 years or so that would do so with a single shot weapon. (My apologies to you one shot, one kill guys out there. You guys can do as you wish ). We may not use burst or full auto all the time, but we could if needed. A single shot AR15 is an "assault weapon", not for me it's not. Enough of my ramping up soap box. Stay safe and have fun!

 

[7magcreedmoor]

I read one wherein the protagonist made his 30-30 into a half-mile superkiller by using handloads with "twice as much powder" in them. I howled and rolled outta my chair...

 

[Harry Knutz]

It's amazing just how brain dead some folks can be when they spout off drivil about a gun issue acting like they know exactly just what they are going on about. My main pet pieve these days is when people state that an, "AR15 is an assault weapon". What crap. I never met a Military person that would go into a shooting fight in the past 40 years or so that would do so with a single shot weapon. (My apologies to you one shot, one kill guys out there. You guys can do as you wish ). We may not use burst or full auto all the time, but we could if needed. A single shot AR15 is an "assault weapon", not for me it's not. Enough of my ramping up soap box. Stay safe and have fun!

AR-14 comes to mind!

 

[Lenny Foffa]

The goofs annoy me a bit , but I really enjoy when the studio and the production companies take real care to get it right. The Guns, the ammo and the actor being trained to actually use it and appear to actually be comfortable with it. The John Wick series of three movies come to mind. I think his training in shooting Three Gun added to the realism. I enjoyed it.

 

[SALTINE WARRIOR]

Not at all. Why read nonfiction?

 

[Scott E Ames]

Doesn't bother me too much but it does out all of Hollywood as a bunch of mindless posers.
I try not to let things drive me crazy as some days that can be a really short drive!

 

[hunter0528]

Always makes for a good laugh, including the lack of reloading.