The world is full of gun myths, most are born out of pure ignorance. The people who write Hollywood screenplays and direct action sequences aren’t exactly gun people, so it’s somewhat understandable that they botch so much.
However, there are a few myths that seem to float around people who, in theory, should know better. These are the myths that supposed gun people tend to perpetuate.
1. You Don’t Have To Aim A Shotgun
We’ll start with this one because it’s a classic.
The idea is simple. The argument is that a shotgun with a barrel only slightly above legal length will, when fired, put out such a wide swath of hate and shot that aiming the weapon becomes pointless. This is why people like to recommend shotguns to people who want something for home defense, but don’t really want to practice with it.
While the shot does spread out a bit, it’s not nearly as much as some people would like to think. A shotgun can be a little more forgiving in the aiming department than a handgun or a carbine, but you still have to have the gun pointed in the right spot, otherwise, you’re going to miss. There’s no way around that one.
2. The 5.56 Round Was Created To Wound The Enemy, Not Kill Them
The idea is straightforward. The military developed the 5.56 round not so much to kill the enemy, but to wound them. Proponents of this myth state that a wounded man takes more people off the battlefield–the wounded man, stretcher bearer, and medics–whereas killing the enemy only takes one man off the field.
It almost sounds plausible until you remember that wounded people can return to kill you later. Those who remove the wounded man from the field will also return to kill you.
Wounded men are not now, nor have they ever been the goal of our armed forces. Dead enemy soldiers are people who will never menace our people again. Make enough dead enemy soldiers, and the enemy decides peace is preferable to war regardless of the cost, and we win. That’s not nearly as likely to happen if you wound people.
Now, we can debate the lethality of the 5.56 versus, say, 7.62×51 all day long, but to say that the 5.56 round was designed to wound is ridiculous.
3. Knockdown Power
“I’m gonna use me a .45 cuz even it’s got plenty of knockdown power.”
No, it doesn’t. That’s because there’s no such thing.
The idea with knockdown power is that a round is so powerful that it’ll knock down anyone you shoot with that round. However, even a rudimentary understanding of physics should tell you just how wrong this concept is. Newtown’s Third Law states that for every action, there is an equal but opposite reaction. For our purposes here, that means any power strong enough to knock someone down is probably enough to knock the shooter down as well.
Yes, there are various things that can factor into reducing felt recoil, but it still wouldn’t be enough to keep you from hurting every time you pulled the trigger.
