by GCA Member Bob Garr

Most of the time, not always, but most of the time movies and television shows get it completely wrong when it comes to anything to do with firearms. Considering all the time, effort and money they put into getting other things right it makes one wonder. They have language and speech coaches, medical experts, historical recreation specialists for architecture, automobiles, clothing and trains. The list is endless. But look at the credits of a movie today, they rarely list an armorer or firearms custodian. And this is for movies that had a plot which heavily relied on gun’s. And if they have a firearms technical advisor it would seem the producers/directors  choose not to listen to him, or the guy only thinks he is an expert. Well, anyway, getting back to the title, and why it “seems” I’m no fun to watch a movie with. To me, and to most all of you, the glaring mistakes, absurdities, and out right lies jump off the screen and just beg me to address them. And yet my wife and family don’t seem to have a problem with this and state that no one cares! Well I care. Let me elaborate by example. I just got finished watching a movie about President Lincoln’s personal bodyguard.  Not a bad movie at all. But, with many firearm inaccuracies. Prime of which was the bodyguards two handed Weaver stance used with his Remington cap and ball revolver. But more so was the positioning of his left hand gripping the bottom front of the trigger guard and the rear of the loading ram. If he ever fired the big Remington this way he’d be lucky to still have all the fingers on his left hand. One that always disappointed me was the stock picture that was in movie theaters and print advertising of Clint Eastwood from the original Dirty Harry movie.  There stands Clint, tweed sports jacket, long hair ( for Clint) steely eyed gaze, arms extended and pointing that big ole S&W model 29 .44 magnum at you. The problem is his grip. 29 in his right hand and his left hand gripping his right wrist! Oh Clint! why did they make you  do that! As an aside, we all know the tag line of ” this being a.44 Magnum and will blow your head clean off”. Well the problem is that Clint admittedly stated in the Dirty Harry movies that he shot special loads, meaning. 44 specials. Which would also come close to blowing your head clean off. But are not .44 Magnums. Then there is the ridiculous, yup, the guy being shot with a handgun , a .357, a .44 and especially a .45 acp, who is lifted off the ground, flies upwards AND backwards 10, 20, 30 feet or more to his obvious death from the guy who shot him with a one handed grip. I guess Newtonian physics don’t apply in Hollywood. Really??? A favorite movie of mine is “The Mechanic” the original Charles Bronson movie, not the remake crap. I will use this as an example of the “gun of unlimited rounds” phenomenon. Bronson and Jan Michael Vincent’s characters take Mossberg 500 12 ga shotguns out to a yacht to do a hit on this fellow. Well, it’s a setup and they have to scuba back to shore where they are pursued by a convoy of mob hitmen. A running shootout occurs in which Bronson and company lay down a barrage of buckshot with those 2 Mossbergs far, far, far beyond their 5 round magazine capacity. And then in typical Hollywood style, when it’s time for the next scene, Bronson, out of ammo, looks down at the 500 and then throws it away in disgust. Why would anyone EVER throw away a weapon because it ran dry??? Not to mention never having to reload! Then we have Bruce Willis / John Mclain’s  Die Hard character  trying to explain to Dennis Franz character that “These guys aren’t crooks, they are terrorists ” because……. wait for it….. They are carrying  Glock 17’s, and that’s a porcelain made gun from Germany that won’t show up on your X – Ray machines. Wow! And Willis was implying that Franzs character was stupid and not informed pertaining to current firearms? It’s hard to find fault with anything from “Saving Private Ryan “. Having an uncle who served with Capt. Dale Dye in Vietnam and knew him in private life.  Capt. Dye not only acted in movies as a military man but was a technical advisor in many great films such as Private Ryan and Platoon to name a few. So it came as a surprise in Private Ryan  to see Barry Peppers character as a sniper positioning himself for a shot, in the rain, remove the scope from his A3 O3 Springfield and swap it for what looks like a very long tube Unertal using  QD mounts. I am not aware of these scopes ever being issued or used in that theater or at that time let alone the Quick Detach mount system shown in the movie. Another faux pas occurred in the town where the Rangers and the 101st Airborne took up defensive positions awaiting a German attack with Infantry and Armor. While lifting a Browning. 30 cal light machine gun by rope up to men in a church bell tower, you can see that the feed tray cover was not secured and pops open getting  bashed and banged on its way up the church steeple. It is my understanding from conversations my uncle had with Capt. Dye that this was unintentional but was left in as it could have happened. My uncle had been a MGnySgt and retired as a Captian in the USMC and he spotted it right away.  I have to believe Capt. Dye caught this one also. And any Grunt or Jarhead worth his salt would cringe at the thought of allowing that to happen and the chewing out they would incur from their respective NCO’s. Another beauty is watching U.S Cavalry movies of the 1880’s period and notice all the 94 Winchesters being used. Or the Civil War shows using Colt 1873 Pacemakers. I especially get a kick from WW1 movies where EVERY  U.S solder has a 1903 A3. NOT a 1917 Enfield. Also silly are the Mexican Banditos wraped in cartridge belts filled with .30-30 Winchester rounds while they are shooting Model 92’s. I’m gonna throw in what is probably one of the stupidest dramatizations ever shown.  In the movie Predator, the guy holding and firing a Minigun with the feeding device and back pack of ammo strapped to his back!!!! Besides the fact that it would fire for only a few seconds, and weigh a ton. Where the hell is the power supply? These things don’t run on dry cells or AA batteries. Cool but really absurd! My next observation is less about guns, but more to do with hypocrisy. The Lethal Weapon series of films is replete with gun violence and questionable gun use and safety. So how much of a smug hypocrite are you to then have a scene where during a car chase the main character speeds by a bus that has an anti gun, anti NRA add plastered along its side? Now for my all time jump up off the couch and loudly proclaim “that doesn’t happen, it doesn’t work that way!!!” You have any given person, usually with a machine gun, which can be a model designed and made AFTER 1986, spraying down a car, or a fence, or factory or even a gas station. And as the magic bullets impact, say a plastic car body, they erupt in a shower of sparks that reminds me of cutting with an acetylene torch. While we’re on this vein of nonsense keep in mind how every explosion, especially in military movies, erupts in giant balls and plumes of fire. A fragmentation grenade, huge ball of fire. Block of C-4 explosive, a larger ball of fire, a Milan, TOW or RPG hitting a log and earth emplacement, yup a giant ball of fire. And last but not least you have what I call the A – Team syndrome.  Here you have guys firing from the hip, full auto Mini – 14’s. Should that not be an AC-556 model? Anyway, firing from the aforementioned endless magazine for a ridiculous amount of time without the benefit of cover or concealment, and not a SINGLE person in a crowd of bad guys is hit!!!! EVER.  Am I  missing something? So there you have it. The tip of the iceberg. These are the errors and misconceptions we are up against. This is what many people believe to be the truth. Just as most believe that you just walk away from a gun shot wound with your arm in a sling or a 4″×4″ gauze pad on your left side, as no good guy ever gets hit in the vitals. Except for the medic in Private Ryan, who was shot by an MG-42 in the liver, a very traumatic, dramatic and empathy evoking scene to say the least. Watching the squad try to “fix” him was very disturbing and one that brought a tear to your eye followed by an all too human response of righteous anger.  Exactly the same responses as the squad. This one Spielberg got right, this WAS the reality of war. Good people die, people can die horrible deaths, and we not only are just bystanders unable to really affect the outcome.  But ultimately we must put it behind us and move on or succumb to the same fate by not being focused on our own survival and the destruction of the enemy. I’m sure you all have your own examples of glaringly obvious firearms mistakes in movies. I just wanted to get the ball rolling so to speak. One thing to voice when someone tells you to sit down, no one cares it’s just a movie, is this. People rarely tolerate it when movies portray a Dr. saying or doing something that’s wrong.  Or remarks that are historical blunders. And if a remark was incorrectly made relating to any hot topic left, liberal leaning issues, the media would be covering it. The point here is that movies have any number of experts for all sorts of subject matter. But if a film is made that centers around firearms, close is usually good enough. Why confuse the masses with the facts and the truth. And people wonder why the gun culture has such a negative image.