Assault Weapons vs. Assault Rifles vs. What You’ve Heard

May 18, 2015March 11, 2016 / Ben / 8 Comments

When it comes to researching firearms for a story, don’t go by looks. One of these is a genuine assault rifle, and it’s limited to military use. The other is a model any U.S. civilian with a clean record could own, and is not an assault rifle. Can you tell the difference? Leave a comment with your guesses. (Photos via Colt and Gun Digest)

One of my favorite crime writers, Benjamin Whitmer, author of my pick for the best crime novel of 2014, Cry Father, made a post on his website today that caught my eye. It mentions a bit about politics and the president, two subjects I try to avoid on this blog, but I couldn’t ignore his excellent point about the terms “assault weapons” and “assault rifles.”

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How Gun Smoke Can Shape a Scene

May 14, 2015September 3, 2015 / Ben / Leave a comment

Handguns usually kick out more smoke per shot given there isn’t a long barrel to trap the smoke as it dissipates. This is especially true with cheap ammunition. Generally speaking, if your character can afford or has access to premium ammunition, there won’t be as much smoke because the powder burns cleaner. In that way, the amount of smoke might be an indicator of who the character is in a gunfight scene. Scrappy characters using cheap ammo would be surrounded by more smoke, and professional gunfighters would be clouded in less. (Photo by milan6 via sxc.hu)

Crime writer James Pierson dropped a question into the comments on the What’s that Smell? Cordite vs. Gunpowder vs. Propellant article, and I thought it’d be helpful to turn it into its own post. As always, I’m happy to help with any writerly questions on guns and knives. Just leave a comment or use the submission form.

Here’s James’s question:

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What’s that Smell? Cordite vs. Gunpowder vs. Propellant

April 30, 2015December 7, 2016 / Ben / 64 Comments

**TLDR: Avoid depicting cordite, use gunpowder as a default, reference propellant to look like a smarty pants.**

Gunpowder propellant cordite fiction writing

Modern gunpowder (aka propellant) doesn’t always look like a powder. It’s still OK to call it gunpowder when writing, though.

When articles debunk common firearm tropes in fiction, they usually mention how the “smell of cordite” isn’t in the air after a gunfight. Cordite’s heyday as the substance that makes a gun go bang started in the late 1800s and ended with the close of World War II. That means scenes set after 1945 wouldn’t include cordite.

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Can a Pillow be Used Like a Silencer for a Gun?

April 28, 2015March 11, 2016 / Ben / 4 Comments

Silencers (aka suppressors) usually receive some goosing up in the physics department when they’re used in fiction. But what about the old pillow-as-silencer trope? Is there any truth to that?

Short answer: no. Pillows do a bad job of containing the explosive gases released by a gunshot. Hell, they can barely contain snoring.

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How Loud is a Silencer?

April 28, 2015December 7, 2016 / Ben / 8 Comments

Here’s a handy chart detailing the noise levels of silenced (aka “suppressed”) firearms. This is excerpted from an infographic from Silencerco.

The takeaway: silencers/suppressors aren’t as convenient as fiction would like to think. Get creative in those stealthy scenes. What other ways are there to be silent but deadly? (er, wait…)