Why Do Rappers Hold Their Guns Sideways?

Sorry to have to break the news to you Docvelocity, but that is why brass catchers were invented.

reply to post by Rooky


You should never lock the joints in your arms while firing a weapon.
Good way to get hurt. And anyhow, it won't lessen the recoil.

Originally posted by Ausar
if youve ever shot a gun; a powerful handgun:there is much kick, the idea is to straighten the arm fully locking the joints in the elbow before shooting sideways so the shot has less recoil.

I may be a bit rusty on handgun weaponry, but wouldnt that send a red hot bullet casing into your face if it was held sideways?

Back when i was a EMT i went to a shooting site.

The shooter was a young gang want to be and was using a stolen .45 with hot military ball ammo.
His first two or three rounds had giving him a nice slide bite that caused him to drop the gun.
He then tried to shoot the .45 with his off hand because of the blood on the hand he used first and repeated the slide bite on that hand.

So far he had not hit the people he was shooting at.

And while this was going on a retired marine with a CCW drew and fired one round into the back of the head of this young gang want to be.
This want to be had tunnel vision on his target and both hands in pain and never heard the marine till the lights went out.
Surprisingly the gang want to be survived but now is almost brain dead gets pushed around in a wheelchair and has someone that wipes his drool and takes care of him.

Who ever trained this gang want to be on how to shoot a gun did the public a large favor because this idiot will never be a menace now.


[edit on 18-12-2009 by ANNED]

Originally posted by Doc Velocity
You're all wrong...

The sideways handgun is a gangster/mobster pose, to be sure, but it's done for a very practical reason.

When a gangster/mobster executes a victim or stages a "hit," one of the biggest problems for the killer is collecting his brass bullet casings from the scene of the crime.

The police can use brass casings to identify a murder weapon as surely as recovering the bullets themselves. And when you have both bullets and casings, you've got some solid evidence for firearm identification.

When the police recover bullets and casings at multiple crime scenes, they can link one shooter to several crimes, right?

Fired in the traditional style, a semi-auto handgun will eject the casings laterally, over a wide area, making it difficult for the gangster/mobster to find his casings, especially at dimly-lit crime scenes.

Ah! But if you turn the gun sideways, the casings are ejected vertically, straight up or straight down, so they collect right at the shooter's feet, essentially.

This makes it infinitely easier to locate and recover casings, so the shooter can make a swift and clean departure from the crime scene. So he's not out there on his hands and knees feeling around in the dark when the cops pull up.

Simplicity.

— Doc Velocity

My problem with your theory is that might be fine for Italian mafia or people who actually have a few brain cells, but I don't think most of these rappers are that smart. I think they are just emulating what they see other people do.. and those people emulated someone else.

Because they are a bunch of ass-hats, that's why (as so many others here have said).

Check out birdman.org. "HoMeBoY Brand Nightsights".

No doubt it looks cool to hold a handgun that way. I'm not stupid, but I enjoy the asthetics of the sideways grip. But it's not as effective or efficient as holding a handgun properly. Oh, well. Do you think these thugs go to the shooting range and practice? My wife had a .32 pistol. Can't remember the manufacturer, but she dropped it and bent the front sight part of it. So she became adept at shooting using the sideways hold, just because she was more accurate that way, considering the bent stuff. lol. But, yes, the gun malfunctioned from time to time when ejecting the brass. If anything, a left-handed shooter would eject the brass dowwards. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Thinking back to my days in the army, when I used the M16A2, since I was left-handed, I often got hit in the face with the ejected brass and got sprayed with a bit of oil. I could use a plastic guard to protect against this, but when on the 3 shot burst, or on the earlier model, the M16A1 in full rock and roll mode, the guard would sometimes cause the ejected brass to jam and muck things up. Not a good thing in an all out shootout. Yeah, like the thugs, heh, my form was not the best either. I was much more accurate if I pushed my eye right up against the rear sight of the rifle. The thugs, though, aren't seeking accuracy, otherwise they would not use the sideways method.

Why do rappers hold their guns sideways? Well, why do rappers also:

wear baggy jeans and show their ass and underwear to the world?
wear huge necklaces and jewelry?
get gold teeth?
talk like they have ---- in their mouths?
better yet talk like a 2 year old in a 20 year olds body?
tell the youth and each other that money, drugs, and ho's are where its at?

I mean cmon, why do rappers do most of the stupid stuff they do? To them its what sells, its whats cool, its what their taught....end of story!

Reply to post by JohnPhoenix

If that was their concern and they had half a brain they'd use a revolver rather than take the time to pick up the cases after their inaccurate sideways ghetto shots.


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reply to post by OzWeatherman


I'd say there is a good chance of that.
I remember once while I was coaching a shooter on trigger-squeeze technique, I got a shell casing land in my shirt.
That was no fun at all. Serious burn.

I think it would be hillarious to see someone shoot like this and get branded right in the forehead.

"Dude, what happened to your forehead?." "I was trying to waste some fool and got a casing in the head."... "Did you hit him?" "Hell no."

I think that we can all agree that accuracy is impossible with such a grip on a handgun, and, without accuracy, a handgun is pretty much useless. I'll agree with Doc Velocity that, in the case of an execution, firing the gun in such a fashion would make the retrieval of the forensics much easier but, of course, the condemned man would have to be restrained and unable to escape thier fate. Such a posture while shooting at moving targets would be a complete waste of ammo.

Also, it occurs to me that, if the handgun was not properly cleaned and oiled, then a jam would be very likely. This seems to me to be a more likely scenerio than the "stovepipe" hypothesis. Most of these guys are utterly clueless about proper gun maintenance and how a gun can be effectively used. For most of these punks their sidearm is merely another decoration, like their bling. In a serious situation they would neither be prepared to use their weapon nor effective in its application. I read several years ago that one of the most common wounds at New York City emergency rooms was a self-inflicted gunshot wound from these clowns shoving their 9mm down the back of their trousers with their finger still on the trigger. In other words, the most common gunshot wound that the city's many emergency rooms deal with is idiots shooting themselves in the ass. How appropriate.

reply to post by kyred


As pretty well evidenced by this thread, that is a matter of opinion that seems to only apply to gangster want-to-be’s, the rest of the world thinks its stupid. The best way to fire a weapon is the Weaver Stance…

The Weaver Stance is a two-handed technique in which the dominant hand holds the pistol or revolver and the support hand wraps around the dominant hand. The dominant arm's elbow is nearly straight while the support elbow is noticably bent straight down. The shooter pushes forward with his dominant hand while the support hand exerts rearward pressure. The resultant isometric tension is intended to lessen and control muzzle flip when the gun is fired.

This stance also allows the shoot to stand sideways presenting a narrower target aspect.

Originally posted by JayinAR
reply to post by OzWeatherman

 

I think it would be hillarious to see someone shoot like this and get branded right in the forehead.

Lol, I thought this was the case.

There may already be a lot of "gansgter wannbe's" going around with casing burn scars on their foreheads or one good eye. I say le the idiots do it, its no more than some of them deserve

Originally posted by mikelkhall
Sorry to have to break the news to you Docvelocity, but that is why brass catchers were invented.

How many gangsta-rappers do you see using brass catchers? I can't think of even one.

— Doc Velocity

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned this one yet....

The reason why Rappers hold their guns sideways is because that is the way they comes out of the box....

Seriously though I have no idea, it probably has to do with something along the lines of rebelling against society and societies way of holding a weapon is proper so they can't hold their guns proper because that just wouldn't be cool.

Also I don't know about the whole firing a weapon sideways to keep the shell casings close, because I do believe when a hit takes place, by the mob at least, they get rid of the murder weapon.

Also Mack 10's are notorious for jamming all on their own. Then of course the fully auto weapons are pretty much useless people refer to full-auto fire as "spray and pray", it is good for laying down cover fire though, or one of those electric advancing mini-guns that are crazy accurate that shoot 3000 rounds a minute.

Originally posted by JohnPhoenix
My problem with your theory is that might be fine for Italian mafia or people who actually have a few brain cells, but I don't think most of these rappers are that smart.

You've got that right, the Italian Mob is pretty efficient in cleaning up their hits, while the so-called gangstas are just a bunch of 3rd grade drop-outs and teen drug dealers.

My experience is more with the Mob — but that was over 20 years ago, I'm retired now.

— Doc Velocity

Originally posted by Doc Velocity

Originally posted by mikelkhall
Sorry to have to break the news to you Docvelocity, but that is why brass catchers were invented.

How many gangsta-rappers do you see using brass catchers? I can't think of even one.

— Doc Velocity

I thought that was what the housed pants were for…
To catch hot brass as it drops.

Popular movie scenes like this probably aren't helping the wanna be gangstas out there-

reply to post by JPhish


Thank you so much for those links they really helped drive the point home.

I've not had occasion discharge firearms much in my life, but I've never done anything as silly as that.

To the other people suggesting locking elbows, I can't believe you're being serious. this just can't be good advice

I once fired a 44 that threw me back. This handgun had such a recoil it shocked me. I held my arms firm but I'd never have locked the elbows. I'm just glad I had a decent stance and it recoiled up and away from my face. I have also fired rifles that had less kick.



The gun looked like dirty harry's. They do not fire as easily as the movies show.


There are proper ways to discharge firearms, and they don't involve looking cool.

There is a reason for it, but they(rappers) dont do it on purpose.

Hold your arm out and chances are that it will be palm down or at a angle, not up/down. If you are moving while aiming your arms will rotate inward.

I have seen someone Qual on a military pistol course while shooting sideways.


Thegear