I found this infographic over at True Forensics, and it’s incredible how much information about gunshot injuries is crammed into it. I especially like the bit about penetration patterns of different cartridges. This is one to bookmark, pin or download.
This guest blog post is by Joe Hefferon, the author of Scattergun: A Reckoning in Two Acts, the forthcoming Alice and other crime fiction works you can check out here. He also served 25 years in law enforcement, which flavors his fiction with a heavy dose of realism.
Hefferon originally commented on my post about guns over at Jane Friedman’s blog, where he offered some interesting insights. I invited him to flesh them out with a proper post. Although he tells me he doesn’t want to be seen as a guy you can’t watch movies with, I think his gripes about guns in movies are worth the risk. Enjoy!
~Ben
“Concealed Carry for Women” by Gila Hayes is a great resource for learning how female characters can pack heat.
Choosing a handgun for a female character (or a knife) doesn’t need to be entirely different from selecting one for a male. I think some writers get too caught up on how a female’s firearm should look and not on the basics, such as the character’s hand size and firearms experience. But there’s one area where gender definitely draws a line in the sand: holsters.
Harold Courtright picked up a copy of The Writer’s Guide to Weapons and recently wrote to me about the Smith & Wesson Model 52 he selected for a character. This semi-automatic pistol sports a couple features that make it stand out from run-of-the-mill choices that typically pop up in fiction. I figured I’d highlight them here.
Moon clips hold ammunition in place for insertion into revolver chambers. (Wikimedia image)
TLDR: Yes, revolvers use clips, but write them specifically as “moon clips.”
As covered previously, 99 percent of the time the right term for “detachable thing that holds ammunition” is “magazine,” not “clip.” That’s despite “clip” being used instead of “magazine” in about 99 percent of instances in fiction. It’s an easy fix – just write “mag” or “magazine” whenever you get the itch to use “clip” – but there are a few exceptions. One of those is with revolvers.
The Writer's Guide to Weapons 