Short takes from DFW Writers Con I: guns for writers

I confess, characters in my stories use armament I know nothing about. Sure, I've dropped in the occasional medieval weaponry, and have lately become obsessed with ceramic knives, but guns – not so much. Having no illusions that a long-ago college riflery class qualified me to write about modern weapons, I signed up for the limited space "Introduction to Firearms" workshop offered at this year's Dallas-Fort Worth Writers Conference (DFW Con).

Among the things I love about DFW Con are the special interest classes – chances to hear from such experts as public prosecutors, autopsy surgeons, and crime scene technicians. My choice this year included a chance to handle real, even if unloaded, guns available from the Hurst, Texas, police department, including the Kimber 1911 on our instructor, Hurst PD Sgt. Adam Hooton's belt, a rifle, revolver, and other handguns. (Hooton apologized for the absence of the department's submachine guns. Seems they were out of the armory for repairs on the day of the writing conference.)

image: Pixabay

Perhaps I should add a disclaimer – not all Texans are heavily armed and I, for one, am not advocating the unlimited carrying of firearms. But as a thriller writer, many of my characters are people of less than sterling character, and a good portion of the rest are more likely to shoot holes in their own purses or pants than in human beings. The least I can do is leave them to make their own terrible mistakes with guns instead of compounding those mistakes on my pages.

By the way, I’ll have to stop referring to firearms generically as “guns,” according to our DFWW Conference “minder,” thriller writer (and former police officer and Secret Service agent) Larry Enmon. “It’s a pistol, a revolver, a shotgun, and so on,” he said, repeating a hilarious but too sexist-raunchy to print here slogan designed to teach police recruits the distinction.

Hooton reviewed us on the four rules of gun (sorry, Larry) safety:

1.  All firearms are always loaded
2.  Never let your muzzle cover anything you’re not willing to destroy
3.  Keep your finger off the trigger until the sights are on the target and you’re ready to fire
4.  Be aware of your target and what’s beyond

Then it was time to get our hands on the weaponry. HPD’s modern SWAT rifle looked short and slender compared to my dad’s old .22, but surprisingly heavy in my grip, although Enmon pronounced it “light” as he showed me how to brace my left arm to support it.

The revolver was almost too broad for my hands to fit around it, as well as, again, surprisingly heavy. Probably too big and heavy to fit into my heroine’s stocking garter (spoiler alert for work in progress). This time a fellow writer chimed in with a solution: try a derringer. I’d thought of these as the single-shot weapons of shady 19^th-century cardsharps, but they're still being manufactured, now in handy two-shot versions.

Once our practical classwork was done, it was time to bombard Sgt. Hooton with oddball questions only writers can think of:

Q. How often do firearms change?

A. Although optics such as range finders change every six months, the basic patterns of most firearms are reasonably stable. The basic revolver pattern, for instance, has not changed since its invention in the 19^th century.

Q. What’s the world’s most popular deadly weapon?

A. The AK-47, also known as the “spray and pray” for its power, if not accuracy. (Again, still in the same basic format as the original post-World War II Soviet Kalashnikov iteration.)

Q. Do suppressors (don’t call them silencers!) suppress muzzle flash as well as sound?

A. Not entirely. They don’t completely suppress either noise or muzzle flash. In a pitch-black situation, Hooton said, muzzle flash will still be visible. 

Q. Do car doors stop bullets (as seen in the movies)?

A. Definitely not. Considering that the body of an unarmored vehicle is mostly empty space, do not count on one to protect your characters (or yourself) from bullets. In fact, police refer to squad cars as "purple heart boxes."

Q. On a less-lethal note, how long does taser fire incapacitate a victim/suspect?

A. Count on five-seconds of incapacitation. After that – good luck!

Need more information about firearms and how they work? Class leaders recommended the Blue Book of Gun Values. Although intended as a pricing guide, the Blue Book provides information about weapons, including historic ones. Available online or check your local library. The DFW Writers Conference class also included in-depths videos about how guns work, but as with everything else, videos are widely available on YouTube.

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Next: While waiting to hear back from agents who requested pages of my current opus, I’ll share a few tips about finding the best agent, courtesy of DFW Con’s classes.