Morrell David - The writers guide to weapons : a practical reference for using firearms and knives in fiction

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THE WRITER'S GUIDE TO WEAPONS. Copyright 2015 by Benjamin Sobieck. Manufactured in the United States of America. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Published by Writers Digest Books, an imprint of F+W Media, Inc., 10151 Carver Road, Suite # 200, Blue Ash, OH 45242. (800) 289-0963. Revised edition.

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The information presented in this guide is to be used only as a reference for writing fiction. It is not a guide for the operation, procurement, manufacture, or transfer of firearms or knives. The author and publisher do not condone illegal activity of any kind, nor are they responsible for any damageintentional or unintentionalto persons or property that may be inspired by this information. Always follow local, state, and federal laws when buying, selling, transferring, possessing, manufacturing, and using firearms and knives or their accessories.

Excluding anyone from recognition is a sin, but there isnt enough space to list the many writers of fiction and nonfiction upon whose shoulders I stood to write this guide. However, a few people deserve special mention for their assistance with this work.

Exceptional gratitude goes to Corey Graff, James Card, Joe Kertzman, and Steve Shackleford for their time and effort as fact-checkers.

Vast libraries of information helped produce the technical side of this guide. Thanks to the teams at Gun Digest, BLADE, Living Ready, Deer & Deer Hunting, Turkey & Turkey Hunting, and Trapper & Predator Caller for the cumulative centuries worth of knowledge. Thank you also for the guidance during my tenure at F+W. To James Duncan and Rachel Randall, my editors, thank you for bringing out the best in this guide. To Phil Sexton, the publisher at Writers Digest, goes my appreciation for believing in my crazy ideas in the first place.

I must also recognize my family. This guide is a testament to the firearm, knife, and outdoors knowledge theyve passed down.

I saved the best for last: Thank you to Meredith, for the times you left me alone to write and for the times you didnt.

Benjamin Sobieck is an online editor and online product manager for a number of weapons and outdoors magazines, including Gun Digest, BLADE, Living Ready, and Modern Shooter. Sobieck is also a crime and thriller author, appearing in such anthologies and journals as Burning Bridges: A Renegade Fiction Anthology, Exiles: An Outsider Anthology,Black Heart Magazine presents Noir, and Out of the Gutter. Hes also worked as a newspaper crime reporter. For more about Sobieck and his crime-fighting creation, detective Maynard Soloman, visit CrimeFictionBook.com .

Many years ago, when I lived in Iowa, a post-office carrier knocked on my door and handed me a special-delivery letter, for which I had to sign a receipt. The letter came from South Africa. I didnt know anyone there, so with great curiosity I opened the envelope and discovered a message from a combat school. An angry message. The teachers and students had been fans of my novels for a long time, I was informed, but they were fans no longer because my latest book made clear that the creator of Rambo knew nothing whatsoever about firearms.

Two hours later, a different post-office carrier knocked on my door and delivered a second special-delivery letter. Again I signed a receipt, and again I noted that the letter came from South Africa. It was from a combat school as well, but from a different combat school. The teachers and students there had been fans of my work also, but they, too, vowed never again to read a word of my wretched prose because it was obvious that I had never fired a handgun in my life and knew nothing about them.

These letters surprised me, not only because they came from so far away and had the same angry message but also because I had, in fact, a lot of experience with firearms, particularly handguns, and did my best to double-check the facts about anything I wrote, especially firearms.

What on earth were these knowledgeable schools complaining about? To my shock, when I looked at the passages they cited, I realized that the schools were right. But it wasnt my fault.

Well, not exactly.

This is what had happened: In my then-recent novel (which I wont name because I dont want anyone looking at the book for the wrong reason, and anyway in most subsequent editions the problem was fixed), I had foolishly decided at the last minute (the very last minute, because the novel was at the galley stage, my final opportunity for corrections) that there were a lot of semi-automatic handguns in the book and for variety maybe I should change one of them to a revolver.

(As an aside, let this be a cautionary tale about not making changes at the galley stage, when a copyeditor will no longer be available to make certain that the changes are consistent with the rest of the text.)

So, presto, a semi-automatic pistol (the ammunition is in a magazine inserted into the weapon) became a revolver (the ammunition is in a rotating cylinder).

But I didnt think to change any other details. Thus, in a major action scene, as my protagonist prepared to scale a wall, he pressed the revolvers safety catch. Later, he released the revolvers safety catch.

Writing those words, I grit my teeth. My chest tenses. My face turns warm with shame. Aarrgh.

Revolvers dont have safety catches (at least none that Im aware of, but Ive learned that if I make absolute statements about firearms, someone will find an exception). There is indeed a button at the side of some revolvers, but its function is to allow the ammunition cylinder to swing open for reloading. When my protagonist pressed that button, in all likelihood he would have caused the cylinder to open, dumping the ammunition onto the ground.

The moral iswhen you write about firearms, you cant be too careful.

You can kill a dog in one of your novels, and youll receive angry e-mails (no need for someone to send a special-delivery letter from a foreign country; these days, an e-mail creates instant gratification). You can make a mistake about a motor vehicle, and youll definitely hear about it. You can make a mistake about a particular type of horse or the distance between two cities or a sports statistic, and youll hear about it, and youll probably receive a one-star review on Amazon because of it.

But no wrath is greater than that of firearms enthusiasts. Even if youve had instruction, Benjamin Sobiecks