The side grip is a technique for shooting a handgun in which the weapon is rotated about ninety degrees and held horizontally instead of vertically (as is normally done). Shooting a gun in this way has no practical benefit under most circumstances and makes proper aiming very difficult, but the style has become somewhat popular in hip hop culture and among street criminals (who do not often use the gun sight) [1] due to its portrayal in American film and television since the early 1990s. [2]
Holding a weapon sideways has long been equated with risky and indiscriminate shooting. For instance, in the 1894 American novel John March, Southerner , by George Washington Cable, [1] a character orates, "No man shall come around here aiming his gun sideways; endangering the throngs of casual bystanders!"
Law enforcement officers will sometimes use the side grip to shoot while holding a riot shield or ballistic shield with their other hand. Because the shield limits the field of view, lifting and tilting the gun may make the sights more visible under these circumstances. [1] Some shooters with issues of ocular dominance will tilt the gun at a 15- to 45-degree angle in order to take advantage of their better eye; the gun held in the left hand and the sights aligned to the right eye, for example. [3]
Although holding a gun sideways makes it hard to control and aim, it does not, as is sometimes believed, make the weapon any more prone to jamming. Because self-loading weapons eject spent cases with a force that is much stronger than gravity, the case will not normally remain stuck in the chamber even if it is ejected upwards. [1]
The side grip has been portrayed in movies since at least the 1960s, notably in the westerns One-Eyed Jacks (1961) and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966). [1] The style's cinematic benefit is that it makes it easier to see both the weapon and the actor's face in a tight camera shot. [1]
The side grip was highly popularized with the 1991 American hood film Boyz n the Hood and 1993 film, Menace II Society . In Menace II Society this technique is shown in the film's opening scene during the armed robbery of a Los Angeles, California convenience store. [4] [1] According to the directors, they witnessed the technique themselves in a 1987 robbery in Detroit, Michigan and used it on film because it struck them as "sloppy, edgy and realistic". [4] Other filmmakers were fast to pick up the gesture, and it soon came to represent "arrogance and cool power" in Hollywood's visual shorthand, [4] being used in a great number of 1990s action and gangster movies including Desperado , Payback , Seven , The Usual Suspects and Copycat . [4] In "46 Long," the second episode of the first season of the HBO series The Sopranos , the outcome of a botched robbery is foreshadowed when one of the men recruited to help is scolded for holding his gun in a side grip.
As a result of its numerous portrayals in American film and television, the side grip is emulated in segments of American popular culture that value coolness and aggressiveness, such as hip hop music and the criminal subculture. As a result, the side grip has been increasingly used in violent armed crime in the United States. [4] [1] The style has become a cliché in rap culture to such an extent that a 2009 New York police statement could describe a criminal as flipping his "gun on its side like a character out of a rap video". [5]
Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows. The word comes from the Latin arcus, meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In modern times, it is mainly a competitive sport and recreational activity. A person who practices archery is typically called an archer, bowman, or toxophilite.
A muzzle brake or recoil compensator is a device connected to, or a feature integral to the construction of, the muzzle or barrel of a firearm or cannon that is intended to redirect a portion of propellant gases to counter recoil and unwanted muzzle rise. Barrels with an integral muzzle brake are often said to be ported.
The Beretta 92 is a series of semi-automatic pistols designed and manufactured by Beretta of Italy. The Beretta 92 was designed in 1975, and production began in 1976. Many variants in several calibers continue to be used to the present.
The Makarov pistol or PM is a Soviet semi-automatic pistol. Under the project leadership of Nikolay Fyodorovich Makarov, it became the Soviet Union's standard military and Militsiya side arm in 1951.
The FN F2000 is a 5.56×45mm NATO bullpup rifle, designed by FN Herstal in Belgium. Its compact bullpup design includes a telescopic sight, a non-adjustable fixed notch and front blade secondary sight. The weapon has fully ambidextrous controls, allowed by a unique ejection system, ejecting spent cartridge casings forward and to the right side of the weapon, through a tube running above the barrel. The F2000 made its debut in March 2001 at the IDEX defence exhibition held in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates.
Point shooting is a practical shooting method where the shooter points a ranged weapon at a target without relying on the use of sights to aim. Emphasis is placed on fast draw and trying to score preemptive hits first. In close quarters combat, where life-threatening situations emerge very quickly, sighted marksmanship techniques become risky, so advocates of point shooting emphasize a less sighting-oriented style that prioritizes the tactical advantages of quick fire superiority and suppression.
A gunstock or often simply stock, the back portion of which is also known as a shoulder stock, a buttstock, or simply a butt, is a part of a long gun that provides structural support, to which the barrel, action, and firing mechanism are attached. The stock also provides a means for the shooter to firmly brace the gun and easily aim with stability by being held against the user's shoulder when shooting the gun, and helps to counter muzzle rise by transmitting recoil straight into the shooter's body.
Nicole duFresne was an American playwright and actress. She was murdered on a sidewalk on Manhattan's Lower East Side when a group of seven teens accosted and mugged a group consisting of duFresne, her fiancé Jeffrey Sparks, her close friend Mary Jane Gibson and Gibson's boyfriend Scott Nath sometime after 3:00 a.m. on January 27, 2005.
The Jatimatic is a Finnish 9×19mm Parabellum submachine gun developed in the late 1970s and early 1980s by Jali Timari. The submachine gun made its debut in 1983. The Jatimatic was manufactured in very limited numbers initially by Tampereen Asepaja Oy of Tampere and later—Oy Golden Gun Ltd. The firearm was designed primarily for police, security forces and armored vehicle crews. It was never adopted into service by the Finnish Defence Forces, although the later GG-95 PDW version was tested by the FDF in the 1990s.
The Menacer is a light gun peripheral released by Sega in 1992 for its Sega Genesis and Sega CD video game consoles. It was created in response to Nintendo's Super Scope and as Sega's successor to the Master System Light Phaser. The gun is built from three detachable parts, and communicates with the television via an infrared sensor. The Menacer was announced at the May 1992 Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago and was released later that year. The gun was bundled with a pack-in six-game cartridge of mostly shooting gallery games. Sega also released a Menacer bundle with Terminator 2: The Arcade Game.
The Karabiner Modell 1931 is a magazine-fed, straight-pull bolt-action rifle. It was the standard-issue rifle of the Swiss armed forces from 1933 until 1958 though examples remained in service into the 1970s. It has a 6-round removable magazine, and is chambered for the 7.5×55mm Swiss Gewehrpatrone 1911 or GP 11, a cartridge with ballistic qualities similar to the 7.62×51mm NATO/.308 Winchester cartridge. Each rifle included a 6-round detachable box magazine with matching stamped serial number. A stripper clip can be used to load the magazine from the top of the receiver.
The Steyr M is a series of semi-automatic pistols developed by Steyr Mannlicher GmbH & Co KG of Austria for police services and the civilian shooting market. Design work on the new pistol began in the early 1990s and the final product known as the M9 was officially unveiled in the spring of 1999. The M40 version chambered in .40 S&W was developed before the M9, followed later by the M357 and two smaller variants of the M9 and M40 designated the S9 and S40 respectively. These pistols were developed primarily for concealed carry and have a shortened barrel, slide, smaller frame and a reduced magazine capacity. In 2013, the Steyr M (Medium) and S (Small) form factors were complemented by the L (Large) sized series and the C (Compact) sized series both available in 9×19mm Parabellum and .40 S&W chamberings as the L9-A1, L40-A1, C9-A1 and C40-A1.
The F1 is a 9x19mm Australian submachine gun manufactured by the Lithgow Small Arms Factory. First issued to Australian troops in July 1963, it replaced the Owen machine carbine.
The SIG Sauer P230 is a small, semi-automatic handgun chambered in .32 ACP or .380 Auto. It was designed by SIG Sauer of Eckernförde, Germany. It was imported into the United States by SIGARMS in 1985. In 1996 it was replaced by the model P232.
The modern technique is a method for using a handgun for self-defense, originated by firearms expert Jeff Cooper. The modern technique uses a two-handed grip on the pistol and brings the weapon to eye level so that the sights may be used to aim at the target. This method was developed by Cooper into a teachable system beginning in the 1950s, based on the techniques of shooters like Jack Weaver, Mike Rousseau and others, after experiments with older techniques such as point shooting. The method was codified in book form in 1991 in The Modern Technique of the Pistol by Gregory B. Morrison and Cooper.
The following are terms related to firearms and ammunition topics.
The CPW is a multi-caliber submachine gun developed by ST Kinetics as a PDW-class firearm. The prototype is chambered in 9×19mm Parabellum, but the manufacturer assures that the weapon's modular design allows for a simple caliber conversion to either 5.7×28mm or 4.6×30mm.
A weapon mount is an assembly or mechanism used to hold a weapon onto a platform in order for it to function at maximum capacity. Weapon mounts can be broken down into two categories: static mounts and non-static mounts.
Strafing in video games is a maneuver which involves moving a controlled character or entity sideways relative to the direction it is facing. This may be done for a variety of reasons, depending on the type of game; for example, in a first-person shooter, strafing would allow one to continue tracking and firing at an opponent while moving in another direction.
A laser sight is a device attached or integral to a firearm to aid target acquisition. Unlike optical and iron sights where the user looks through the device to aim at the target, laser sights project a beam onto the target, providing a visual reference point.