Question about Handguns

Alienbogey--Thank You! The website was great.

I have it worked out that the guy buys a gun just for the purpose of killing the other character. He is in his thirties, so he just walks into a gun store in Maryland (where he lives), buys a used Glock, and then drives into Virginia (where the person he intends to kill is), and shoots him.

I'm not so worried about technical aspects. The breakdown is very simple:

Guy gets gun

Goes to VA

Kills other guy

Gets arrested

Trial-charged with murder in the first degree

Executed (Not so sure about this yet)


I know what you mean about it being hard-it's killer. I've stayed up into the early hours of the morning many nights, and it still seems like I have forever to go until I'm done.

But its all worth it, right?
 
400px-CartridgeComparison.jpg


Here's a photo for comparison on handgun cartridge sizes.

The 9mm (9mm Luger) is the current cartridge in use by the US military in their sidearms. Most police departments will use the 9mm or the .40 S&W.

On the two ends are the .44 Mag which was made somewhat famous in the "Dirty Harry" movies, and the .22 lr is the cartridge President Reagan was shot with.

Obviously the larger the cartridge the more damage, all things else being equal but in real life things rarely are. Good luck on your book.
 
I’m beginning to change my mind and get leery about this.

Kate keeps insisting on having the guy just walk into a gun store in Maryland and buy a handgun; then by implication he walks right out with it and drives to Virginia.

I have a good friend in Maryland right now and this doesn’t fit what he’s telling me about Maryland at all. What I’m told is there is no permit to buy required initially but there is a seven day waiting period during which the application is forwarded to the State Police for approval and this amounts to a permit to buy, and State Police approval is not merely a rubber-stamp affair.

How about some input from someone who now lives in Maryland and who has bought a handgun there; or tried.
 
RE: on hearing a pistol discharged nearby

Dear Kate,
My husband and I moved from the Los Angeles area to a very nice city up here in Northern CA three months before our daughter was born. We left to raise our baby in a safer, cleaner environment.
When our daughter was about a year old, we lived in a duplex, sharing a common master bedroom wall with our neighbors. One day, about four AM my husband and I were awakened by what we thought were loud bumps and a couple of people shouting at each other. It sounded to us like the neighbors were slamming furniture around and arguing. Since it was the weekend, we decided not to be jerks and did not call the police.
Well, I got out of bed to make some coffee, just in time to see five plus police cars come tearing up our street, lights and sirens on.
It turns out the commotion was a drug deal gone bad. Both our next door neighbors had been shot, one in the foot, one in the head. Both young men were still upright, one kept asking the officers: "did he shoot me in the head?, he shot me in the head?".
An officer came to our door, and we let him in so he could inspect our common wall for bullet penetration. We were asked to produce our baby daughter (asleep in her adjacent bedroom) to make sure she was indeed uninjured. That shook me up.
My husband and I shot skeet semi regularly, hunted upland game, and shot pistols at our range fairly regularly. Those shots (9mm we found out later) really sounded like some jerks slamming furniture around. I don't know who called the police, smarter neighbors, or the victims next door.
 
You might want to look at the novels by Stephen Hunter, he is a gun entusiast that wrote Point of Impact that the movie Shooter is based on. The American Rifleman website had some video interviews with him that get into how he creates his stories that are pretty accurate about firearms.
 
<<But its all worth it, right?>>

Kate,

YES.

The satisfaction you get from completing your novel will resonate on many levels.

After a long time dithering I finally mustered my motivation and gave myself a year to write the book I had been thinking about. I completed it in 14 months, not too badly over the deadline :o , but after critical self-review I decided that it wasn't good enough to submit for publication.

BUT, it was very fulfilling to set the goal, actually start writing the book, see the characters wake up and start doing things on their own (you know what I'm talking about), and finally be able to say to myself, "Hey, I wrote the book." Now if it were only a lot better than it is....... :mad:

I'm currently trying to get respooled up to give it yet another rewrite or shove into the back of the closet and start another that I have lined out.

Should you decide to seek publication be sure you know about accepted practices for soliciting an agent. Here are some valuable sites:

http://pubrants.blogspot.com/
http://blog.nathanbransford.com/
http://misssnark.blogspot.com/ (a dark blog but the posts are a gold mine of good information)

Yes, hang in there, keep writing.


And now, to keep the forum police from chastising me for going so far off subject, allow me to say that, umm, yes, the 9mm should work nicely for your character's nefarious purposes. ;)
 
Kate,

Go to a shooting range. You will need a legal adult with you so talk one into it. Preferably one with some experience shooting. Rent a few guns (if I remember correctly, the character "Kate or Kay Scarpetta" carries a Glock 19 and a Ruger revolver both are good places to start) and some ammo and have someone who knows what they are doing instruct you in how to load the gun and shoot. You may even want to take a basic handgun skills course. This would be a small investment in your career. There is no better way to learn about recoil, sound and sensation of shooting.

You aspire to be an author. You have likely learned how to drive a car by now (or are close to it) so have some small knowledge of driving. Some knowledge of shooting will go a long way. Ian Fleming built a whole career knowing a little bit about a lot of things.

tipoc
 
I am in the process of begging my dad to take me to one of the gun ranges in town. I think maybe this weekend or the next (hopefully).

tipoc-- it is Kay Scarpetta to whom you are referring. Yes, I read a lot of Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta series, but I don't think I knew she carried a Glock. I'll have to go look that up.

alienbogey-- the satisfaction is like none other. I've finished stories that average 12-50 pages apiece, but I don't think it'll compare to a 400 page novel. School gets out in two weeks, so I'll have the whole summer to finish it. :D

B Hillen-- I'm so sorry to hear about that. It must have been terrible. But thank you for the reference to the sound of the gunshot.

ClayInTx-- I do not live in Maryland. I am not familiar with specific gun laws there, or how long it might possibly take to purchase a handgun. That is why I am here, asking questions so that I might come to know what the character can and can't do in the state of Maryland in relation to the purchase and sale of used firearms. I have googled this, and have printed several pages of info, which I have to sort through once I get the time. I'm busy studying for final exams right now.

thanks again,

Kate
 
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