Posted on 10/13/2004 9:51:49 AM PDT by 45Auto
According to an article published in the September issue of Handguns magazine, a recent decline in fatalities resulting from inner city handgun shootings can be credited to the thriving popularity of a flashy new gangsta-style shooting technique wherein the weapon is canted 180 degrees from its normal upright position. "Hollywood overkill of the sideways gangsta shooting method encouraged many modern hoods to look for a less trendy but equally cool-looking technique for offin' someone,'" wrote freelancer Marian Ayoob in Handguns' September cover story, entitled "Better To Look Good Than To Shoot Good." "Over the last three months, holding a gun completely upside down has become the predominant method used by stylish gangstas whom, as they say, 'be fixin' to put a cap in a [person's] dome.'"
The article went on to reiterate statistics from the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD), which documented August 2002 as having the lowest record of shooting fatalities for men between the ages of 17-34 since December 1980.
"The number of gang-related altercations involving gunplay has remained steady, yet the rate of fatalities resulting from these shootings dropped fourteen percent last month," wrote Ayoob. "These statistics clearly indicate that the bullets - of which there are approximately the same number being fired - are not hitting their intended targets."
Ayoob also cited studies by ballistic experts at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, which estimate that employing the unorthodox handgun shooting technique can reduce a subject's short range accuracy by as much as 80 percent.
U of M researchers said that this significant decrease in accuracy results from attempting to shoot the firearm while it is upside down.
"A gangsta utilizing the sideways, ninety-degree shooting method generally experiences only an accuracy loss of roughly twenty percent," said Dr. Keith Marcus of the University of Michigan. "But the shooter loses tremendous accuracy when the gun is turned an additional ninety degrees. With the sideways method you could still use the sights to aim. Upside down, you have to pretty much guesstimate [when aiming]. And having to use your pinky to operate the trigger certainly doesn't help."
Marcus added that a shooter's accuracy is further reduced if the subject is either running from police or trying to look at himself in a mirror while aiming.
Still, Ayoob contends, more and more gangstas are becoming willing to sacrifice accuracy in return for aesthetic rewards.
"What the shooter loses in short and long-range accuracy, and the ability to quickly fire consecutive rounds, he or she more than makes up for in presenting a more 'bad ass' appearance [than using a standard shooting technique]," wrote Ayoob. "Polls indicate that thugs consider 'how you be representin' be just as important as how you be shootin'.'"
Ayoob said that Americans can expect the number of shooting fatalities to continue to drop as the flamboyant attack pose gains further popularity among the public.
"Right now, only gangstas residing in the bigger, more progressive cities are employing the 'one-eighty cock,' as some are calling it," said Ayoob. "As soon as the entertainment media gets wind that holding the gun upside down is the 'wuz-up cuz' cool way to fire off a round, you'll be seeing it in all of the movies and television shows."
Added Ayoob: "Wait until the next Denzel Washington character blasts a cop using the one-eighty cock. Everyone will want to be shooting that way. Morgues across the country will probably have to layoff half of their staffs due to lack of business."
How can you even shoot that way? maybe I just dont have the dexterity.....
Don't know whether to laugh or cry...
Dis piece is oft dah hook!
You really should post a B.S Alert with articles like these in an age when truth can be stranger than fiction.
This is a joke, right?
LOL!!!!!!
That guy is supposed to be a "gangsta"?
You mean it wasn't because of the assualt weapon's ban. I thought that ended all violence in the street. It also made the country safer from terrorists, and Republicans.
Is this a joke?
Maan, dat‘s out de DO’!
Way too funny!! If someone pointed a gun at me upside down I don't know if I would die from laughter or from the bullet. Luckily gangsta's dont know much about ballistics and I can bet my .40 cor-bons will pack a better punch than what they are packing. Anyone remember "Rhino" ammo? I still have a couple packs of it. Crazy stuff. VERY expensive too.
laughing, definately laughing
and no one is influenced by hollywood...</sarcasm>
In warrior culture, it isn't about killing the enemy. It's about being admired for your prowess and valor. It's about building a rep, not body counts.
I had actually heard that the knuckles-up [like knuckle-head?] shooting position was supposed to be more instinctive, because that's how most people point when they don't have a pistol in their hand. It would make using the sights more-or-less impossible, but for point-blank shooting either one probably wouldn't matter. I don't believe it's any better than at least taking the time to pick up the front sight. What I want to know is how gansta's keep those cheap little 9mm and .25's working without cleaning them. I want an article on how to maintain your Saturday night special so that if you toss it in a storm sewer someone can fish it out a week later and still shoot it.
If this article is a joke, it's an old one...September 2002.
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