My niche was that I’d teach the basics of safe gun handling, marksmanship, firearm maintenance and home security to my students. In no way have I ever claimed to be some sort of combat master, a tactical whiz. But the theory is hardly all that difficult to understand.

It is perfectly understandable yet unfortunate that people will seek to gain an understanding of firearms, and how they are used, from entertainment. I said “unfortunate” because movies, TV and novels seek to give the consumer a thrilling escape from their mundane routine. They are not documentaries, and will stretch or ignore the way things really work in favor of telling a ripping good yarn. This means they almost always get things terribly wrong.

In the 1970’s, action heroes would routinely walk languidly into gunfights without apparent thought to using cover.

Bullets fired at the hero would magically miss every time, or produce only minor wounds that could be stitched up in a few minutes by the paramedics.

Conversely, every round lit off by the protagonists would magically find their mark just about every time, and would always produce at least a disabling injury. The most powerful hand cannons available at the time would be fired one-handed, yet the good guys never seemed to have a problem controlling muzzle flip or acquiring pin-point accuracy.

Anyone who was involved in the shooting sports for even a few months would know that this was all fantasy, but the people just starting out would think that this is the way things are done. It would drive the instructors of the day crazy trying to convince new shooters to take cover, steady your aim, expose as little as your body as possible to unfriendly fire.

And, of course, don’t even think of talking to any criminal attackers in order to deliver clever bon mots. They wouldn’t hear you anyway, because someone always starts screaming their fool head off just as soon as the bullets start to fly. Might even be you!

That was in the 1970’s, and I’ve come across some of that even today. But the 1990’s really screwed things up.

Action movies from Hong Kong started to make a splash. Directors and writers who went to that particular school cut their teeth on chop-socky kung-fu schlock, films that pushed the envelope on stunts. Physics need not apply in wire work.

This callous disregard for basic reality was gleefully embraced when the film crews turned their attention to shoot-em-ups. The 1970’s action films from the US might have disdained the use of cover or basic marksmanship techniques, but at least the stars weren’t hurtling through the air while pumping out rounds like a machine gun made out of meat.

And so we finally get to the subject of this essay. It is known in the trade by many names, but I like to call it The Two Gun Salute!!!

Sliding down a bannister on your back while wielding a handgun in both fists? Child’s play. At times the heroes of these films are performing serious acrobatic stunts while using their guns, twisting and turning and flipping around while mowing down the mooks with accuracy that Olympic level marksman couldn’t reproduce on the firing range where no one is shooting back. The fact that the actor pictured above is using a handrail as support proves that he is a pussy.

But at leats the movies have real actors in them. Video games are even worse.

Two submachine guns at once. Sure, why not? It isn’t as if anyone really has to pay real money for all that wasted ammo.

Lucky for me, most of my students were past their first blush of youth. Wisdom might not come with age, but at least it is easier after getting a few years under your belt to be able to tell the bullshit from the peanut butter. Even so, I had a few that wanted to try what they had seen on late night video while at the range, using real bullets!

My experience in this is that you aren’t going to be able to talk anyone out of it if they want to pull this stunt. Put your foot down, claim that your experience has taught you the folly of even trying, and they’ll just wait until you aren’t around before they start blasting the landscape. Better if you set some limits, control the exercise, in order to maintain safety while still allowing them to get it out of their system.

First off, jumping around and falling through the air while firing a gun wasn’t going to happen! There was no way I’d budge on this condition.

The method I used was to set the target out to ten feet, a very close distance even for a beginner. Then I would stand behind the student, with my hands on their shoulders, and have them face the target with their guns in their hands. When I gave the go signal, they could go ahead and try to put as many rounds in the ten ring as they could in as short a time as possible.

That isn’t one of my students, just a picture I picked up off the Interwebs. Pretty good one, actually. See the spent cartridge case suspended in air in front of the shooter’s nose?

Still, it is pretty close to what I would set up. Note that both guns are chambered for the decidedly weak .22 Long Rifle cartridge. Muzzle flip would be very light, and it would be possible to keep control of the guns at all times.

It also seems that she is firing at a single target, although even that simple task was beginning to get away from her when the picture was snapped. Judging by the barrel alignment, the right hand is shooting at the breastbone whole the left hand is poking holes in the feet.

This extreme spread of shot placement is pretty much par for the course. Even excellent shots will usually place one or two rounds on target, and the rest kind of wander all over the place.

Please note that this isn’t because there is something inherently difficult about firing a handgun, because it is a simple and fun activity that just about anyone can learn to perform safely and effectively. But, fun and simple aside, it does take a bit of concentration to do right. No one can focus on the sights of two guns at the same time.

There is, however, some circumstances where the two gun salute might actually work.

Some of the people who take part in Cowboy Action Shooting have been experimenting with using two guns at once, mainly because they are limited to using handgun designs that existed back in the 19th Century. Although double action revolvers were around in those passed away days, they were rare. Most handguns of the time were single action affairs, where the gun had to be cocked before every shot. It is possible to train your hands to cock one gun, while aiming and shooting the other. This still produces rates of fire below what is routinely achieved with modern designs, but it is one way to use those older guns to the most of their potential.

Long time readers will notice that this is a theme I explore every so often. (“How many posts can he write about the same subject, anyway? I can’t figure out how he keeps from boring himself to tears!”) But I’ve recently received an Email from someone, asking me for practical advice on shooting a gun from each hand. I figured it wouldn’t hurt if I went though it again.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 6:15 am and is filed under Gun Handling, Movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.