Playing with guns is no sort of, erm, game. Despite the use of play in that sentence. It requires the steady hand of a seasoned professional to use effectively, and to prevent accidents. In reality, that means people who have been approved to own a firearm, and done the requisite training and practice in order to stay safe when wielding one. Safe for everyone not at the end of the barrel, anyways. In the movies, that seasoned professional goes about things a little differently. In fact, all it appears to take to become a seasoned professional is somebody telling you that you have to squeeze the trigger instead of pulling it, and to make sure you don't point it anybody you're friendly with. Which is just one of many differences between the way guns work in the real world versus the cinematic. Obviously you can't expect complete realism from an industry which routinely involves a single man taking out armies casts Sam Worthington as a credible leading man, but this is a topic where they seem especially divorced from reality. Considering the way that firearm use in the movies affects and influences how people think about them in real life, it's especially important to educate yourself about how things work for you compared to John McClane. Here are ten things films always get wrong about guns.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
