The Pitters' Place

There's a cliché I've seen way too often, and it really bugs me, so I'm hoping someone (Hi Brandon) can help explain it.

Whenever someone is holding someone else at gunpoint, eventually the person will either make a move, or say something like "you don't have the guts to shoot me" or whatever. And when he does, the person with the gun will then cock it to show that he's serious.

So what's this actually about? Most guns I've fired don't require any pre-cocking, pulling the trigger does it all in one motion. It seems that there's only 2 possibilities, depending on the type of gun:

1. Cocking the gun does nothing at all. Pulling the trigger would have cocked it and fired anyway.

2. The gun must be cocked manually to be fired. If this is the case, then holding someone at gunpoint with the non-cocked gun is stupid. The person could attack you or reach for his own gun because you weren't ready to actually fire.

So is the cocking just for show, like I think it is? It just always looks so weird to me, almost as if the person is saying "ok, so before I wasn't really holding you at gunpoint, but now that I've cocked the gun, I really am. Good thing you didn't attack me before I cocked the gun".

I don't know anything about guns but I've heard this explained somewhere. I used to think it was some dumb narrative device to add tension, but I think someone said cocking certain guns just makes the trigger more sensitive. Meaning the gun was able to be fired pre-cock but you'd need to pull the trigger harder.

Gendo wrote:There's a cliché I've seen way too often, and it really bugs me, so I'm hoping someone (Hi Brandon) can help explain it.

Whenever someone is holding someone else at gunpoint, eventually the person will either make a move, or say something like "you don't have the guts to shoot me" or whatever. And when he does, the person with the gun will then cock it to show that he's serious.

So what's this actually about? Most guns I've fired don't require any pre-cocking, pulling the trigger does it all in one motion. It seems that there's only 2 possibilities, depending on the type of gun:

1. Cocking the gun does nothing at all. Pulling the trigger would have cocked it and fired anyway.

2. The gun must be cocked manually to be fired. If this is the case, then holding someone at gunpoint with the non-cocked gun is stupid. The person could attack you or reach for his own gun because you weren't ready to actually fire.

So is the cocking just for show, like I think it is? It just always looks so weird to me, almost as if the person is saying "ok, so before I wasn't really holding you at gunpoint, but now that I've cocked the gun, I really am. Good thing you didn't attack me before I cocked the gun".

Just for show. It's the equivalent of actors turning the wheel all the damn time while driving a car even if they're just going straight.

Most modern revolvers are double-action, meaning that pulling the trigger both cocks the hammer and fires the round. There are still a few single-action revolvers made which require manually cocking the hammer and then pulling the trigger. Cocking the hammer on a double-action revolver will give you a slight advantage in the amount of time it takes to fire the first shot but this advantage would be less than a tenth of a second.

If it's a revolver, then usually what Castor said. If it's not, then what they're doing is chambering a round, in which case they're retarded for holding someone at gunpoint without chambering a round first. I think.

Brandon will certainly know more about this than I will, but I have some experience with guns. I own a .357 that fires without being cocked, but if I pull back the hammer it's much easier to shoot. I own an SKS that won't shoot unless you chamber a round first, which I believe is how most semi automatic weapons operate.

Movies are usually full of shit when it comes to gunfire anyway.

Well yeah, if it's a semi-auto you do have to chamber that first round. But that's not the same as cocking the hammer.

Right, but I've seen both in the type of situation Gendo mentioned - cock the hammer or pull back the slide while holding an uncooperative victim at gunpoint. I think I've seen a movie where a guy chambered two rounds to make sure the audience knew he really meant business, when all he was actually doing was wasting a round.

I think it was Cine who told me he saw a guy at a shooting range one time who tried to show off by working the slide on a shotgun and ejected a fresh shell.