guns in the "millenium series" books

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simonrichter

New member
Has anyone here on this forum read one of the Stieg Larson books? He will most lkely agree with me that while the guy definitely had a sense for suspense, he didn't have a clue about firearms.

I recently finished the second volume ("The Girl Who Played With Fire"), and it is full of errors in this regard (apart from the first book, where she "disables the safety" on a Glock :D )

E.g., I'm pretty sure that "Colt Magnum" is not a proper designation, and apart from that, at least it would refer to a .44 model, not a .45.

Furthermore, "Colt 1911 Government" typically refers to a .45 cal pistol, not a 9mm, doesn't it?

On the climax, one of the villains (spoiler alert) uses what is described as a "Browning .22", a "boy scout pistol". Within the given context, it is obvious that this pistol has to be kind of a small, vest-pocket size backup gun. I can't think of any other Brownung in .22lr other than the various target models which are highly unlikely in the way the scene is depicted. Or are there any other, non-target-sized Browning pistols in .22lr? (My guess is that the author actually meant a Baby Browning in .25, which is also quite anemic...)

Any ideas / comments?
 
One of my favorite authors, John Sandford, (aka John Camp) wrote about a guy making sure the safety on his Glock was off before he attacked someone. Thing is, Sandford personally owns a Glock with a manual safety, they are not at all common but they exist.

The firearms industry is INCREDIBLY diverse. There was little to no standardization in the early years of firearms. Now that there is a large degree of ‘standardization’ there is a tremendous amount of ‘customization’ which means for almost any standard or rule you come up with there are exceptions.

1. Revolvers don’t have safeties, but some do.
2. Semi-autos have safeties, but some don’t.
3. Revolvers have a cylinder to barrel gap, but some don’t.
4. Revolvers use rimmed cartridges, but some don’t.
5. Semi-autos use do not use rimmed cartridges, but some do.
Etc. etc.

A 1911 in 9mm isn't at all uncommon.
http://www.springfield-armory.com/1911-series/
 
P.S. I too, very much like finding firearm glitches in books and TV. Some drive me crazy, some amuse me. It's fun and car guys, and camera guys and computer guys do it with their 'passion' too. It's all fun.

(Except for the grammer police. Their just to nitpicky and self righteous too be tolerated!)
 
Books and movies are full of mistakes of all kinds.
Writers are notoriously lazy.
Most would benefit from avoiding specifics.
Less chance for mistakes that way.
If the stories are otherwise enjoyable, just glide over the errors and keep going.
 
DaleA said:
(Except for the grammer police. Their just to nitpicky and self righteous too be tolerated!)
Click to expand...
You just gave me a headache!
:)


I don't think Browning ever made a sub-sub-compact pistol in .22 cal similar in size to the Baby Browning in .25 ACP.

simonrichter said:
Furthermore, "Colt 1911 Government" typically refers to a .45 cal pistol, not a 9mm, doesn't it?
Click to expand...
Yes, as you say "1911 Government" typically means it is in .45 ACP cal. However, later on the term "Government" came to mean a size of pistol, and not the designation for the end user. For example, The Colt Government MKIV (70 Series) came in many different calibers including the 9mm Para. So if the author's pistol was made from around 1970 on, it would not be unusual for it to be a 9mm pistol.
 
... (Except for the grammer police. Their just to nitpicky and self righteous too be tolerated!)
Click to expand...

I know you're just having fun but hopefully grammar police/editors would catch such errors before a new novel is published. Sadly, embarrassingly, many college graduates are not up to the task.
 
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