Do Tell
The sounds of two or three rounds of semi-automatic gunfire peppered 4th Avenue in Salemtown last night just before 10:00. We heard the shots from our house, and like several others we immediately called the police, who showed up in several crusiers in a matter of minutes.
I’ve been around a lot of guns and heard a lot of gun fire. But I doubt that I could distinguish the sound of semi-automatic gunfire from the gunfire of, say, a revolver. I mean, if I heard the bolt clank then maybe. Or if it’s the quite distinctive action sound of a Kalashnakov.
January 23rd, 2007 at 10:17 am
Or the unmistakeable “ping” of an ejected M1 Garand clip…
January 23rd, 2007 at 10:33 am
When I lived in Baltimore, in a lovely old part of town just across a gully from Johns Hopkins University, New Year’s midnight was punctuated year after year with the sound of gunfire as local yahoos emptied out their old ammo, to make room for the new. And after a few years I was indeed able to distinguish the revolvers from the semiautos, sometimes. The revolvers would string out 5 or 6 shots in rapid fire. The semiautos would go for 15 or 17 (9mm Glocks, I presumed) for the most part. The .45s were harder to tell, as their owners either didn’t empty the guns or were less rapid in their shooting. And a power company lineman of my acquaintance had an extensive collection of cartridge casings he picked up from rowhouse alleys when he would go to repair the many, many shot-up transformers, insulators and power lines each holiday. Strange how often a drunk with a gun can accidentally hit something as small as a power line shooting randomly into the air.
January 23rd, 2007 at 4:52 pm
I was going to comment that I’ve learned to distinguish by the quantity of shots, but the quote said only 2 or 3 rounds were fired.
But in general, I’ve found it easier to discharge rounds faster with a semi- than a revolver.
And I am less careful with a semi- because reloading is so easy. So if I were just trying to send lead downrange without regard to accuracy (e.g. fire for effect), it is “easier” to do with a semi-.
Even if I were to carry and use a speed loader, I would prefer to carry 2 or 3 clips/mags than 1 bulky SL on my belt.
And I don’t like dropping things to be found later – sticking an empty clip/mag into my back pocket is a lot easier than trying to get that danged SL back into its slot. Especially considering that if am using a speed loader, I would be in a hurry, probably with my eyes downrange, and wouldn’t want to be looking at my belt to find that stupid spot. It never flaps the same way when empty.
But all of this is also reflected in the price of “throw aways”. Semi-‘s are more in demand, so they cost more. Sometimes twice as much. But in most cases of those things, they are never going to get reloaded, so the majority of this comment is moot.