by One of my biggest pet peeves is reading a book and then the author writes something stupid about firearms. I don’t mean when he or she calls for gun control which is stupid in and of itself. I mean when the details about the firearm are so egregiously wrong that I want to throw the book against the wall. You find it in novels ranging from thrillers to who-done-its.
I think we’ve all read books where the protagonist pulls his Glock and pushes the safety off. Ummm, safety? I have new examples and both are by the same author.
I am reading a series by Mark A. Hewitt featuring a former Marine pilot named Duncan Hunter as the leading man who now contracts to fly a heavily modified Lockheed YO-3A Quiet Star for the CIA. Hewitt gets the facts about the plane correct especially in the limited number. Reportedly only 11 were ever manufactured for the military. They were designed to be low-level, ultra-quiet observation prop planes that only flew at night to find the Viet Cong in the Vietnam War.
So why if he can get all those details correct, does he write this?
One by one, the four security women extracted their service weapons and racked the slides of their .38 Berettas to chamber a round. Once locked and loaded the weapons were safetied and returned to the holsters on their hips.
P. 287, No Need to Know, Mark A. Hewitt
A .38 Beretta? Does he mean the Model 38?
Obviously not as it could never be “holstered”. I think what he means is one of the small Beretta semi-autos like the Beretta 85 FS Cheetah in .380 ACP.
There is this from when his protagonist Hunter is about to face off against two ex-Libyan special forces killers.
He unclipped and withdrew the Colt Python from his shoulder holster. Once it was cocked and had the safety off, he switched on the laser light, his finger rested on the trigger. He strained to see the red dot of the targeting laser…
p.420-421, Shoot Down, Mark A. Hewitt
Now tell me where the safety is located on that Python! While there are laser grips for revolvers, I am still trying to find one for the Python. I know Crimson Trace doesn’t make one nor does Viridian.
What gets me about Hewitt in particular is that he is a former military pilot who spent 21 years in the Marine Corps and has a graduate degree from the Naval War College. He also worked with the US Border Patrol, the Air Force, and what appears to be the CIA. While planes are definitely his thing, if he was a Marine officer he went to the Basic School where he would have learned a little bit about firearms.
If there is an author out there who wants or needs to include firearms in his or her novel and is unsure of the details, ask me or any of my gun blogger friends who are published authors. I know any one of us would be more than willing to help you get it right. We don’t want to read dumb stuff about guns anymore than you want to look ignorant.
Deal?
I checked all four of my Pythons and none of them has a safety OR a laser… sigh…
The same with my Glocks! I’ve been ripped off!
But, it could be worse: We now have this alleged USMC retired Col saying shit like this:
https://www.captainsjournal.com/2023/02/12/colonel-tucker-usmc-ret-testifies-a-single-round-from-an-ar-15-can-sever-the-upper-body-from-the-lower-body/
Frankly, I’d like to see the bona fides of this ‘Col’.
I’ve read many such mistakes, and I agree about wanting to throw the book!
In the case you mention above, what the hell can you expect from an Air Wing officer? Instead I give a bad review, try to get a refund, and never buy a book from them again. I remember one where the AR-15s were fired with the stocks folded, and they were carrying 40mm pistols.
As a consumer of audio books I’ve also found many mistakes. Obviously the narrator had ZERO military experience, and the editor/producer didn’t know or didn’t care. Corpsman pronounced as “corpse-man” or the USMC pronounced “Marine Corp” or “Marine Corpse” rather than “core”. Also MK-19 (or other weapon) called a M. K. 19 instead of a mark 19. One of the most tedious was one “performer” who didn’t know the ranks. LCDR was spoken as L-C-D-R rather than saying “Lieutenant Commander”. Likewise MSGT, LCOL, and SGTMAJ. Details matter!
Apparently your audio book was narrated by Obama.
In the case mentioned, the author was allegedly a Marine Officer….
And never mind the time this Air Force officer was told by an alleged US Marine Firearms Instructor that the AK-47 uses the same round as an M60 Machine Gun….
And then there are the times where the protagonist chambers a round more than once while preparing for upcoming incident. Dude, you just ejected a perfectly good round onto the ground and didn’t notice?
Also, four security women? And why do they ready their weapons “one by one”? And who “extracts” a firearm? “Safety” as a verb (as in “safety your weapons”)?
I don’t know that I’d make it through the first chapter.
The worst one that I read was in the mid to late’90s of a female FBI agent using a full auto Browning Hi-Power.
This is why I don’t talk all technical about rifles and guns in Cries of the Savanna! When I hear gun talk, it is like listening to a foreign language! But, you would think an author would do research before writing about them.
It is a peeve of mine as well. I’d happily proof stories with firearms and or law enforcement content if any writers ever take you up on your offer. If I don’t know, I can find someone to ask.
My favorite is when a bad guy, usually armed with a Glock, shoots the gun empty while chasing the good guy, and the good guy knows the gun is empty when he hears it click, usually several times. Apparently it’s against writer law to actually shoot an autopistol and learn about the slide locking to the rear.
But what do I know, I’m not a published author!
In my extensive reading, I’ve found that only about 3 authors always get guns right, and 2 of them are dead. At least I can flame these books on Amazon.