[Repeal The 17th]

The libs would try to confiscate it.

[Lazlo in PA]

What Would Happen If You Shot a Gun In Space?

This is a no brainer. If you shot a gun in space, you would rip a whole in the space time continuum and we would cease to exist. DUH!

[Lazamataz]

Fires can't burn in the oxygen-free vacuum of space, but guns can shoot. Modern ammunition contains its own oxidizer, a chemical that will trigger the explosion of gunpowder, and thus the firing of a bullet, wherever you are in the universe.

BIG assumption. There is no guarentee that phsyics, and thusly chemistry, is a constant everywhere in the universe. All I'd need to do is adjust the Planck Constant just a bit, and the results might be that upon pulling the trigger, Bugs Bunny would peek out the barrel with a little BANG flag, kiss you on the nose, then dive back into the barrel.

Much hilarity ensues.

[yarddog]

My head hurts.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Well, the outer space bullet will “stop” if the bullet does hit something, and even gas clouds could slow it way down.

Nobody will hear the gun going bang in outer space, however.

[Bullish]

I sure am glad they cleared that all up finally.

[gorush]

I would think that the gun (and trigger puller would ) would be propelled in the opposite direction forever unless attracted by a nearby by celestial body...the irony is that we would be more attracted to the more massive bodies, as counter-intuitive as that might seem.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

With so many possible movie plotlines to consider, one question remains: Why are there so few space shoot 'em ups?

I miss Firefly.

[EGPWS]

Fires can't burn in the oxygen-free vacuum of space, but guns can shoot.

I knew NASA would attempt to convince us of something ridiculous like this since they staged that space flight 50 years ago and claimed that the earth was round.

What will they try next???

[eclecticEel]

Fires can't burn in the oxygen-free vacuum of space, but guns can shoot.

I wonder about that, will guns really fire at any temperature? If your ammo's trending down toward absolute zero, will it start to fail on you?

[Iron Munro]

[Krankor]

What would happen if you shot a gun in space?

According to this documentary, not much. Click

[EGPWS]

Fires can't burn in the oxygen-free vacuum of space,...

Yeah, duh, the sun is a reflection.

[21twelve]

“Imagine you’re floating freely in the vacuum between galaxies — just you, your gun and a single bullet.”

I’m guessing I would also have a suit with some oxygen? Then I’d enjoy the view until my tank got low and point the gun in the opposite direction of the cosmos.

If I didn’t have a suit and tank... well, this is just silly then!

[CrazyIvan]

As sound does not propogate in space the ATF would promptly arrest you for having a suppressor.

[Balata]

If you are in space, but in some type of orbit and fire the gun in a tangential direction to your orbit, you will go to a higher orbit.

[DannyTN]

Why would you shoot a gun?
Shoot a space alien instead.

[KingLudd]

Can’t get a gun aboard a rocket or a shuttle. Those creepy people at the body scanners and screeners would find it for sure.

[ansel12]

The Thompson was the favorite gun of the Star Treks.

[RedStateRocker]

But the physics involved does point to one of my major pet peeves in movies- someone getting hit by a bullet or shotgun blast and flying 10 feet backwards. it is flat out impossible for the projectile to strike the target with more kinetic energy than it delivers to the shooter; thus if it would filing ME backwards 10 feet it won’t do so to a similar sized person I hit.

Now the physics of a gunfight on a small, low gravity planet or planetoid would be very interesting.