Hollywood doesn't think you should have a round chambered?

[WildBill]

oh yeah! I remember watching that as a kid too. Hazzard is actually a family name from way back. Always wanted to name a kid that... It's usually a sticking point with girlfriends!

I can relate to that. Mrs. Hogg threatened to divorced me when I wanted to name our son Boss, Jr.

[WildBill]

foley is doing the motion on the screen for a microphone so the movie sounds more realistic like a car door slamming. and other subtle noise that mics don't pickup are added in after filming

Thanks... I didn't know what foley meant either.

I am one of those people who watch the entire film credits. How else am I going to find out who was the "grip" or the "best boy"?

[KD5NRH]

No. they cannot go all green in every direction, especially from just tapping an enter key on a laptop in an airport terminal.

Of course not; it takes a light rain to do that.

(Though I think they finally got that one rewired to go flashing red after about 6 months of the DOT swearing it couldn't possibly happen. Not sure if they finally decided to believe at least a dozen LEOs who had been out there directing traffic each time it happened, or if they saw it for themselves.)

[srothstein]

Wow, this is interesting. I am glad I am not the only one who does this for my specialty. My wife hates when i watch "Cops" because I keep wanting to call Gerry Goldstein (very good lawyer in San Antonio) and tell him where to find a good civil rights case. I just cannot believe some of the stuff I see on that show made it onto national television. of course, that was why they were never allowed to film in San Antonio - the Chief also did not want that stuff on tv.

But, to show that this is not a new thing, I will point out that there was an old saying when I was in the Army. You could always tell who the lifers were because they were watching the war movies just to look for errors. And it was an old saying when I enlisted in the 70's.

[G.C.Montgomery]

Guys,

Isn't it goofy how in movies the good guy, or bad guy draws their auto and racks the slide just before they shoot? Also when the good guy hands a gun to a non-gun person they always rack the slide for them because a non-gun person doesn't know how to do that. My question is always why isn't a round chambered?? I was watching Terminator 2 last night and the giant biker of whom the terminator took the clothes and bike tried in desperation to rack his slide on his 1911 with a broken hand?? And in Taxi Driver-Easy Andy, when selling his guns to Bickle makes a comment about how stupid it is to have "one in the pipe".

I'm kinda' new to shooting-Have attitudes changed? We were instructed to NEVER carry without a round in the chamber in our CHL class. Was there a time that it was considered ill-advised to have a round chambered?

Embalmo

Hollywood stupidity aside, I'm sure someone has probalby already mentioned there was indeed a time when it might have been ill-advised to have a round under the hammer. This issue really dates back to revolvers made prior to Ruger's invention of the transfer bar safety. Colt, Smith&Wesson and others all implemented similar technology shortly afterward.

The issue was that a hammer/firing-pin at rest was in direct contact with the primer of the round in the chamber in line with the bore. And many, hammer-fired auto-loaders had a similar problem which is one reason to this day, we still advise people not to manually lower the hammer of a 1911 on to a live round. Any impact on the hammer at rest could transfer enough energy to ignite the primer. As such, these guns were not drop safe.

Modern guns don't have these issues. Inertial firing-pins are shorter than the channels in which they are installed and most are retarded by a spring. In addition to this, hammers at rest no longer hold the firing-pin in contact with a live primer and there is generally sufficient clearance to prevent inertia alone from causing the gun through a fall or direct impact on the hammer.

I personally wonder if one major influence of the Hollywood mindset has to do with a number of former Israeli citizens who were heavily involved in the financing and production of these movies. Remember that early IDF firearms were not drop-safe and so early policies/laws basically made it illegal to carry with a round in the chamber. To this day, many of the local Israeli consulate personnel I see in Houston follow these rules...At least those who haven't been shot at by Palestinians.