[geeks] CCW for Ohio!

[Francisco Javier Mesa-Martinez]

On Sat, 13 Dec 2003, Charles Shannon Hendrix wrote:
> There are times for each, but most people have a really wrong idea of
> how to use firepower.  Spray and pray is usually right after "Oh shit!"
> because someone surprised you, and is temporary covering fire until you
> can hide your ass.

It also depends on the weapon you are using, the M-16 is more a rifle than
a machine gun. So the spray paint approach doesn't really make much sense,
I assume that is the reason why there is no full auto in American 16's.
Other machines, and of course the AK comes to mind as the natural counter
example, do not make much sense unless you spray with them. To this point
the whole machine, including the muzzle anti-torque (I do not know the
correct term in English) is geared towards rapid fire. Heck even the
cartridge tells you about what is the intended approach for the machine.

Of course there is the question of troops being able to not just "spray"
but at least concentrate the "spray" into a specific direction.

> But a generation trained by Hollywood thinks it is how you fight if you
> have a machine gun, or for that matter, a fast firing pistol.

I don't know if the correct term is spray, but at least I was trained with
certain pistols which did not have enough stoping power to almost "empty
the cartridge" on the intended target with rapid fire depending on how
close you were. There is also the notion of ammo-management, that Hollywood
blissfully ignores, and that is actually one of the most stressful parts of
engagement. To this day I can still keep mental count of silly things like my
keystrokes just out of sheer training, not just because running out of
ammo is a bad idea, but also because some guns were picking about melting if
they got way too hot for a few seconds (i.e. lots o' rounds).