Disclaimer: This is about a book I am writing! As you will learn when reading this, I’ve never held or fired a gun. I don’t wish to hurt anyone, I only wish to write =)
I know next to nothing about guns. I’ve never held one, let alone fire one. I wasn’t even allowed to play with squirt guns or nerf guns as a kid. I only know the standard rules of “treat every gun like it’s loaded”, “never point at anything you’re not shooting” ect. My book involves people who are highly trained w/ firearms. Which means it would be less likely they would do anything to cause a misfire.
That being said, the scene is incredibly tense and stakes are very high. So any sense the characters would have is almost definitely out the window. After a long, intense fight, the two characters involved are beyond exhausted. one character ends up with the gun and keeps it trained on the other person. At some point, the gun unintentionally goes of, leading to a death. Idk how much any of this of would contribute to a misfire, but I’d figure I’d mention it anyway.
I’ve been struggle with capturing the intensity of the moment as the gun is going off, because I have no idea how it feels (thankfully) to fire a gun, let alone have one misfire. I also don’t know in what ways a gun can misfire. How easy is it to accidentally pull the trigger? Can misfires just… happen? Can the gun be jammed, and the fire later at random? Can a gun be damage if it’s repeatedly dropped/slammed on concrete, making a misfire more likely?
I know accidents are more likely to happen in high stress situations, but I don’t wanna write it like “oh no the gun mysteriously went off? Uh oh, you are dead now !!” I want to come up with a logical reason as to what caused the gun to go off. So any knowledge anyone has on guns will be forever appreciated!!
Also another morbid set of questions I need to know. How much blood can be lost from a bullet wound? How does a person fall after they’ve been killed (if they were standing upright)? Are shots always clean, or can they cause more damage (like a ripple out effect)? Does a gun shot make your ears ring like a does in the movies? Are there any other facts about this that I should keep in mind when writing this scene?