Would you instantly recognize the sound of gunshots?

around the corner from my house, there's two bars in the same little strip mall thing. i was out back at one with my buddy, and there was a shooting over at the other one. he's been firing guns for a lot longer than me, but we both didn't recognize it at first. i'd say our ears did, but our brains didn't. it seems unbeleivable when it happens. it was like 1 am, but for whatever reason, i thought for the first few seconds it was a nailgun. it makes no sense, and when i processed it, it was obvious what it was. i know how stupid that sounds, but my mind considered and dismissed the possibility of gunshots on a subconcious level. it doesn't take too long to sort it out, but it's not immediate, at least not for me. it's just the last thing you'd expect.

as to how or why, i don't know.
 
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It's not that easy to always distinguish gun fire from other sounds. Lower power rounds often sound like cheap fire crackers at a bit of a distance. I can easily recognize the sound of higher power rifle rounds, and some higher power pistol rounds.

If there is a succession of 3-5 shots, its easier to notice that as firearms fire because of the relatively even intervals between shots. This past July 4th - I could hear that someone was shooting a gun in my neighborhood. Sounded like a revolver judging from the intervals.
 
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yeah, when the shooting happened at the bar, the first few rounds were spaced kind of far apart and were uneven. then he unloaded. that's when it hit home what was happening.
 
Ever since I was a kid i've been around firearms, grew up in the inner city, served several years in the military with firearms and a few years as a cop. This past July 4th a dummy fired off several rounds from his 380 pistol amidst firecrackers (I later found out who it was and put the person on notice). It's very difficult for me to distinguish 22, 32 and 380 rounds from the sound of firecrackers but because of the cadence I could tell it was gunshots instead. Nevertheless, it still took me about a minute to figure it out and i'm sure the context of the situation (July 4th & firecrackers) contributed to that.
 
Recently a neighbor of mine had a fully-leafed maple tree lose a main branch after a prolonged period of rain. The cracking of the wood along the trunk sounded just like burst of automatic gun-fire from a M16 as the branch gave way...it sounded like about half a magazine's worth of shots.

That sound brought back some memories.
 
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