My theory about guns in Firefly

POSTED BY: Ringwraith
UPDATED: Thursday, January 2, 2003 01:21
VIEWED: 41138
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LOONYTOON

Monday, October 21, 2002 12:44 AM

I don`t recall any whining sound, it was just a sawed of winchester model twelve(maybe winchester will start making them again in 500 years?), though the magazine cap looked like a mossberg 500.

REXRAYGUN

Monday, October 21, 2002 3:49 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by loonytoon:
I don`t recall any whining sound, it was just a sawed of winchester model twelve(maybe winchester will start making them again in 500 years?), though the magazine cap looked like a mossberg 500.

If you have it on tape, listen to it agian. It made the sound the first time, when Stitch was talking to the Magistrate, and I thought it might just be me. Then it made the same sound again when Stitch cocked it again in the crowd. Definitely a whining or whirring sound, like a motor or something.

Just my dos pesos,

Rex!

LOONYTOON

Monday, October 21, 2002 3:59 AM

If you watch the crowd scene again, stitch never chambers another shell before pointing the gun at Mal, then you here the sound of a slide being racked. First production screwup I`ve seen so far.

FORGRAETJUSTICE

Thursday, October 24, 2002 4:20 PM

Those making the argument of guns vs. directed energy weapons might want to research a bit of both.

The major reason for not using directed energy weapons is: why bother?

1) DEWs are silent...well, so are guns with supressors. But a weapon doesn't have to be silent all the time...sometimes you want it to be loud.

2) DEWs are more powerful....totally moot point. Only a certain amount of energy is required to kill someone at a certain range. A personal defense weapon will never contain more energy than that. At present, we have fairly wimpy handgun ammunition (people regurlarly absorb multiple shots before dying). But with only a few improvemend in weapon design, I forsee future handguns delivering rifle-like performance in terms of lethality. There's only so much performance that people can use. We're starting to see this in the computer industry where people are no longer willing to shell out for the difference between 1.7GHZ and 2GHz because the extra power doesn't mean anything in a practical sense.

3) DEWs are cheaper to make or maintain.....I'd hate to burst this bubble, but the electronics/optics industry is constantly running on the edge of frightening economic problems. Silicon chips are NOT cheap to make. Not the way you think they are. A fab line can costs BILLIONS of dollars to maintain and run. YOUR single chip is only cheap because it costs the same to make one chip as it does an entire wafer full of them. But in order to turn a profit, chip companies run fabs constantly, because they cost so much to maintain that any time they aren't running loses a chip company money. This goes for mass-produced optics as well. If, eventually, you turn out more chips that people can use, you're losing money big time. The cost per transistor is lower than ever before, this is true. But the utility per transistor is still the same. A chip fab is a very complex thing requiring immense amounts of chemicals, infrastructure, personnel, etc. Chemically, a gun needs only black powder (at a bare minimum) or nitrocellulose.

What does this all mean? It means that by the time you order all the parts needed for a DEW, and had them imported, I could have some monkeys build an entire barn of AKs. There are 11-year old gunsmiths in Afghanistan who can build you a stout AK (I love my AK!) in a day or two. On a frontier world, not only does one not have access to the IMMENSE technological base of the fab line, but imports and trade can be *rare*. Tell you what. You go out to the middle of the Sahara, get on your sat phone and call up H&K. Tell them you want 100 G-36 rifles in front of you ASAP. Best of luck!

There's also no reason a firearm would be dangerous inside the hull of a thin-skinned ship. Just choose the proper bullet. Maybe something like Glaser or RBCS (maybe in the future, fragmenting ammo will actually be worth a damn).
There's one VERY good reason for using revolvers, pumps and lever actions in Firefly. Brass and magazines. Metal is a precious commodity outside of civilization. On a sparsely populated planet, such things would be hard to come by. In spaceship, or when far from resupply, you don't throw ANYTHING away. That includes mags and brass. Semi-autos, are, shall we say a bit wasteful, especially where magazines are concerned. Sure, they're cheaply produced, but why hurt yourself? This last point is just a theory. I'd love to see other firearm aficionados weigh in on it.

LOONYTOON

Thursday, October 24, 2002 8:19 PM

Very well put! I do have a few disagreements though. I would think an energy weapon would still be loud, as the intense heat and energy it would release would cause an explosive expansion of the surrounding air.
And I doubt we will ever see a portable DEW as powerful as a rifle or scattergun, as the more powerful they get, the more heat they give off.

Rexray, I rewatched the episode, and I do hear the whirring, but he also didn`t rack the slide before pointing the gun at Mal, and the show had already established it was a pump-action. In real life, stitch woulda pointed his empty-chambered weapon at mal, and mal woulda kicked his stupid ass for not knowing how to use his gun, than for thumping on Simon! But it did show the gun ejecting a spent plastic shotshell, so we know it works on the same principles as now.

FORGRAETJUSTICE

Friday, October 25, 2002 5:26 AM

Maybe the gun was used electronically ignited primers! Kind of like the Remington Etronix. If you think about it though, one of the major drawbacks to electrically-ignited firearms is having to keep and maintain a battery.

But....if you kept a batter or capacitor charged through applied kinetic energy from a pump or slide that also worked the weapon's action......

Holy crap! I just invented another patent! Time to wire up my red-dot sight, etc. etc to the gas piston!

LOONYTOON

Friday, October 25, 2002 5:53 PM

Ah, but would anyone buy your patent? I see no reason for a faster lock time on a shotgun, as its improvement in accuracy in a rifle is still miniscule(are benchrest shooters using etron-x?), but I`m the type of guy that still uses a .30-30 and would rather have a garand in combat than an M16!

REXRAYGUN

Saturday, October 26, 2002 9:46 AM

Possible Spoiler but involves our firearm discussion.

Select to view spoiler:

In tonight's episode "Out of Gas," the other crew's weapons make that whining "charging" sound again, which leads me to believe that they may look like regulat firearms, but these are not standard 21st century models.

Just my dos pesos,

Rex!

TINYTIMM

Saturday, October 26, 2002 12:06 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by RexRaygun:
Quote:
Originally posted by loonytoon:
though the magazine cap looked like a mossberg 500.

If you have it on tape, listen to it agian. Definitely a whining or whirring sound, like a motor or something.

I've run the tape and can't hear the sound. Too many weeks in the Rock Band (they let me play the lights) I guess. It looked like a Mossberg 500 with the old wood "law enforcement" front grip.

Jeff
Who notes male pattern hearing loss is in the range where women scream. Survival mechanism?

TINYTIMM

Saturday, October 26, 2002 12:19 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by RexRaygun:
Possible Spoiler but involves our firearm discussion.
Select to view spoiler:
In tonight's episode "Out of Gas," the other crew's weapons make that whining "charging" sound again, which leads me to believe that they may look like regulat firearms, but these are not standard 21st century models.

I still hear no whine. The Pirate Captain was carrying a factory long slide Browning P-35 (not currently in production). The gun Mal found on the suit was an old Browning Design from FN. Fired a cartridge called a 9mm Browning Long. It was one of the first hidden hammer semi-autos good for concealment. Sold mostly to Scandanavian militiaries before the 9mm Luger round became the world standard. Nice guns, obsolete ammo.

As to why the pirates backed down, "You'd have done the same to me." The worse enemy to fight is one with nothing to lose. PCP users are notoriously hard to stop because the higher mind functions are gone and they literally feel no pain.

Jeff
Who notes in the FFU (Firefly Universe) it is tough to force entry into a ship.

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