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It took Leonardo Da Vinci 10 years to paint the Mona Lisa. Roughly 85 percent of the male population mistakes a woman engaging in friendly platonic conversation for flirting. So, what have we learned here? Well, for one, we’d all probably be reading about gun facts and trivia.
20 Gun Facts Every Shooter Should Know
Our world is full of useless facts and statistics that may not provide an enlightened road to bettering our position in life, but we love learning them. Like the tinge of excitement we get as we pop open a Snapple cap and get to read what’s underneath.
I’d love to tell you that reading these 20 gun facts facts will somehow improve your shooting skills. Or that they’ll provide tidbits of wisdom enabling you to make better life choices, but, well, I can’t.
What I can tell you is that by filling your head with nuggets of needless gun facts such as these, you’ll be entertained and then have several stories to retell. This could possibly make you the life of the party or the most interesting date someone’s ever had. OK, the latter may be a bit of a reach. But even if you decide to keep these eclectic short snippets of trivia to yourself, for the next several minutes, you will almost certainly be amused or bewildered.
1. Before BB Guns
Daisy Outdoor Products originally sold steel windmills as the Plymouth Iron Windmill Company, which was formed in 1882. In 1888, the company started giving away BB guns with each windmill purchase. The BB guns became so popular, however, that Plymouth switched gears, changed its name and began selling the BB guns instead, establishing itself as one of the most iconic names in the industry.
2. Failed Attempt
In 1835, a house painter by the name of Richard Lawrence, who believed he was the King of England, attempted to assassinate President Andrew Jackson at a funeral. Using two guns, he aimed in and pulled the triggers. Both guns misfired, and President Jackson, 67, beat the man to near death with his cane. One of the people who helped restrain the would-be assassin was the one and only Davy Crockett. I really am dying to know what pistols this man was using. Imagine trying to take someone out with not one, but two guns, and then almost losing your life to an old man with a walking stick!
3. Death Darts
In 1975, it was released in congressional testimony that the CIA had created and utilized a gun that could shoot darts causing a heart attack. Upon penetration of the skin, the dart left only a tiny red dot. The poison itself worked rapidly and denatured quickly after, leaving no trace. This begs the question, what is happening now that we are unaware of?
4. Real Patriot
During World War II, Company C of the 82nd Airborne captured a small town and 80 German soldiers. But the POWs were only held under guard by four American soldiers, and a small band of Germans helped free them and turn the tables. However, when Sergeant Leonard A. Funk returned and was told to drop his weapon at gunpoint, he decided to unleash his Tommy gun and told other Americans to grab their dropped weapons. In just a few seconds, 21 Germans had been killed and the Americans were freed. Funk later earned the Medal of Honor for his heroics.
5. Man of Steel
George Reeves, the actor who played Superman in the 1950s, was usually wary of people, as fans would often try to test his “invulnerability.” At one public appearance, a young fan pulled a pistol on him to test his bulletproof powers. Thankfully, Reeves convinced him to hand over the gun by telling him that an innocent bystander could possibly be hurt when the bullets bounced off.
6. Scared in Oz
In “The Wizard of Oz,” the Scarecrow carried a gun. In the scene where they must travel through the dark forest, each character had a weapon of sorts; the Scarecrow held a revolver. When this is brought up, most people say they don’t remember, or that the scene was cut out. But if you go back and pay close attention, looking for it, the gun sticks out larger than life. Go ahead. Google it.
7. Picasso vs. Boredom
Picasso reportedly used to carry a gun loaded with blanks, and he would randomly shoot at people whom he found to be overly dull. Although this sounds insane, there are times I believe I’d thoroughly enjoy mimicking this behavior.
8. Good Looks
President James A. Garfield’s assassin, Charles J. Guiteau, chose an ivory-handled gun over a similar wooden-handled model because he knew it would look better in a museum exhibit. What a truly scary premeditated/sadistic mindset.
9. Key Guns
In the mid-1850s, jailers used to have keys that doubled as single-shot guns as a last resort for self-defense. Jailers would use these keys to unlock cell doors, and if something happened and they needed to shoot, they would touch their cigar to the gunpowder hole, which caused the key gun to fire.
10. One of a Kind
Finally, we have Ernest Hemingway, the ultimate badass. He was known for many things, including writing, fishing, boxing and countless other exploits, including his firsthand coverage of the Spanish Civil War. But during WWII, Hemingway, in his 40s, would climb into his fishing boat armed with direction-finding equipment, a machine gun and hand grenades and set out on the Gulf Stream hunting down German U-boats.
11. Angel’s Glow
Imagine being wounded and stranded in the middle of the night. Suddenly, your wounds begin to glow with a pale blue light. Even today, with all the lights and screens we see incessantly, you’d freak out. During the Civil War, some soldiers were stranded for two days before rescue came. Lying in the cold mud, drenched with rain, they noticed that their wounds began to glow pale blue. Imagine the shock that would induce! Once they were taken to field hospitals, it was noted that the men with the so-called “angel’s glow” were more likely to survive and heal faster.
The phenomenon was never explained until 2001, when two 17-year-old friends, Bill Martin and Johnathan Curtis, made a discovery with the help of Martin’s mother, a microbiologist. The soil at Shiloh contained bioluminescent bacteria called Photorhabdus luminescens, which live inside nematodes (tiny parasitic worms). Since the wounded men’s body temperatures had dropped, the nematodes were able to survive once they entered their wounds through the mud. The bacteria helped the men survive by cleaning out and destroying other more dangerous bacteria and pathogens. Depending on your outlook on life, this is either an amazing miracle or absolutely disgusting. The choice is yours.
12. Russia’s Space Gun
Okay, so this one has become something of an urban legend. You may read stories on the internet stating that the Russians took the TP-82 to space in case they had to kill space bears. Although this gun did indeed go to space, the safety precaution was for when cosmonauts came back and landed in Siberia with only 9mm pistols for defense, which would’ve been useless against bears, wolves and other predators. The TP-82 was a triple-barreled gun with a machete used on space missions from 1986 to 2007. The two upper barrels were chambered for 28-gauge shotshells, while the lower barrel could fire 5.45x39mm cartridges. A large lever on the left side of the receiver opened the action, and there was a small grip safety under the triggerguard. The detachable buttstock was also a machete stored in a canvas sheath.
13. One Tough Marine
While many today are fearful of toxic masculinity and running for safe spaces, Private John J. Kelly did the exact opposite in World War I. On October 13, 1918, Kelly was at the Battle of Blanc Mont Ridge in France. The Germans had occupied the area since 1915. Early in the battle, Kelly ran 100 yards in advance of the front line toward a German machine gun nest. Once there, he threw in a grenade, killing the gunner, then took out the other German soldier with his sidearm. Kelly then made his way back to his own line while holding eight German soldiers at gunpoint. He was just 19 years of age. Private Kelly was the last person to be awarded two Medals of Honor. He was awarded both the Army and Navy Medals of Honor for his heroic acts that day.
14. Two Shots At Once
In 1938, Abraham Kurnick of Brooklyn, New York, was way ahead of his time. He developed a gun-mounted camera for his Colt .38. A metal camera 2 long and weighing only 6 ounces was loaded with film for six photos. The camera mounted to the gun with one screw beneath the junction between the barrel and frame. When the trigger was pulled, the camera would take a photo. The idea for Kurnick’s invention was that, if the threat somehow got away, there would be a clear photo for identification. Today, images like those from Kurnick’s gun camera can be found online. But for unknown reasons, the invention never took off. Kurnick was born just a little too early.
15. Educational Pump Actions
The Remington 870 pump-action shotgun is the official firearms of the U.S. Department of Education. Confused? The department has a law enforcement arm, the Office of Inspector General (OIG), which is responsible for detecting criminal activities involving federal education funds. The OIG operates with full statutory law enforcement authority, conducting searches with warrants, making arrests and carrying firearms. To me, the irony is that, with all this power, you’d think that protecting our children in schools with armed security wouldn’t be the hugely controversial issue that it is.
16. Most Interesting
You’ve seen this actor in countless memes and commercials for Dos Equis beer. Not everyone may know his name (Jonathan Goldsmith), but most people recognize his face. He’s definitely an interesting character, even beyond the ads. In 1976, Goldsmith was filming a scene for The Shootist with John Wayne in which he literally took multiple blood-filled pellets to the face. At the time, CGI didn’t exist, and the film’s director, Don Siegel, wanted the most authentic look possible, with a shot hitting Goldsmith right between the eyes. For seven painful takes, Goldsmith endured the splattering pellets of blood. Siegel doubled the actor’s pay the next day.
17. Cargo Cults
Back in World War II, the U.S. and Japanese militaries airdropped—and sometimes misplaced—cargo supply drops to South Pacific islands, with everything from vehicles and rifles to clothing, shoes and canned foods. Some natives believed these were gifts from their dead ancestors. After the war, some then formed “cargo cults,” creating airplanes from sticks and straw, carving wooden rifles and imitating soldiers they had seen. Rituals of reenactment were performed by the natives, hoping that the gifts from the gods would return.
18. Weird Ol’ Jackson
Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson is known for his valiance and heroism during the Civil War. His oddities, however, are not so well known. Jackson displayed truly eccentric behavior, such as sucking on lemons for his “dyspepsia,” standing upright often so that his organs remained “balanced,” dunking his head in ice water to help his eyesight, abstaining from pepper (thinking it made his left leg weak), and raising one arm in the air to keep his balance while firing a gun. The latter caused him to be shot in the hand during battle.
19. Remember The Zombie Craze?
The Walking Dead first aired back in 2010, and a few gun companies capitalized on the zombie trend. In 2012, Mossberg created a line of guns specifically for “killing zombies” with “ZMB” printed in bright green on each receiver. The series included a special 464 lever-action rifle as well as two 500 pump-action shotguns—one with a synthetic stock and one with a pistol grip and Mossberg’s Chainsaw grip. This made for an awesome segue for Hornady, which introduced its Zombie Max (Z-MAX) ammo.
20. Before He Was Bond
While filming Another Time, Another Place in England in 1957, Sean Connery proved he could live up to his later role as James Bond. Rumors circulated that Connery was having an affair with his co-star Lana Turner. Johnny Stompanato, Turner’s Italian-American gangster boyfriend, proved unable to handle these rumors well, and he stormed the set, angry. In the middle of a love scene, Stompanato pulled a gun on Connery, threatening him. Connery knocked the gun out of his hands and punched him in the face, laying him out. I can imagine him turning to Lana and saying this famous line from Bond: “Of course there’s no sense in going out half-cocked.”
This article originally appeared over a pair of issues of Ballistic Magazine. Get physical copies and digital subscriptions at OutdoorGroupStore.com.
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