# Can a mini-gun be used for personal protection? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 1, 2002, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-mini-gun-be-used-for-personal-protection/116763 "2002-07-01T01:16:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2002, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-mini-gun-be-used-for-personal-protection/116763/1 "2002-07-01T01:16:03Z")
Like Arnold in “Terminator II” and the black solider (forget name) in the original “Predator” could a big burly guy carry a mini-gun and ammo around and use it like a big ass street sweeper or is this not real world. ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2002, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-mini-gun-be-used-for-personal-protection/116763/2 "2002-07-01T01:30:40Z")
What would you do for a power supply? ---
**Author:** ![bhb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ab992/32.png) [@bhb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bhb)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2002, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-mini-gun-be-used-for-personal-protection/116763/3 "2002-07-01T01:39:37Z")
When I lived in Kentucky there was a real old guy that would carry two six shooters on his belt and dressed like a cowboy and would carry those guns where ever he went. In my town we rarely saw cops, thus they weren’t a part of our community and didn’t know this guy was harmless. So, any time they’d stroll through they’d see this real old shady guy with two guns twiddling his fingers like he was about to draw… needless to say the cops would pick him up and take him to the station, he must have endured endless harassment from police. So, assuming he got so much trouble for just carrying pistols around, I’m SURE the police would be breathing down your neck at every turn even if it is legal to tote a automatic weapon (I know you can buy automatic weapons in America, you have to have a license of course which costs about $500, not sure if it’s legal to carry them in public though.) In conclusion, as soon as you go to cash a check at the bank or gas up at the gas station someones gonna call the cops on you. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2002, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-mini-gun-be-used-for-personal-protection/116763/4 "2002-07-01T01:54:59Z")
I found it [General Electric XM214 Minigun](http://members.tripod.com/~Slippery_Jim/Machine-Guns/GE_XM214_Minigun.htm) > [@](#): > > Even in real life the idea caught on surprisingly well. Apparently some of America`s Special Forces guys saw Predator and realized that a hand-held Minigun would be a great asset for clearing out landing zones real fast. Having ample acces to the needed equipment, they started experimenting. And ran into some problems. > The first was that the Minigun weighed in at thirty pounds, which was heavy, but carryable. A backpack with a thousand rounds of ammunition and a linkless belt to the Minigun weighed in at another thirtyfive pounds. Backpacks with two thousand rounds weighed in at sixtyfive pounds, and were totally unrealistic in size. Just the gun and the ammo weighed in at sixtyfive pounds. > The second was that in the movie, the power for the Minigun had been supplied by a pair of truck batteries through a cable that simply ran over the ground, and up into the Minigun. Since those batteries weighed some 30 pounds each, it was obvious that only one could be carried by one person (in addition to all the other equipment the soldier was to carry). Thus, the weapon could never be fired at its full rate of fire. > The third problem was that even at “only” a 1000 rpm rate of fire the gun produces about 11 kg of recoil _continuesly_! And this amount of force increases geometrically in proportion to the rate of fire. Firing a large burst would result in the gunner being spun around by his own weapon, and spraying everything around him indiscriminately with bullets. Including his own comrades… ---
**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2002, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-mini-gun-be-used-for-personal-protection/116763/5 "2002-07-01T02:57:55Z")
- - - In the US, some guns you just can’t get: the military will not sell any of theirs to US civilians, and Customs will not allow you to import one without a permit from BATF, who will not give you one. - The only belt-fed guns I have ever seen for sale personally were M-2’s and M-60’s. The M-2 was $8500, the M-60 was $6500 but this was a number of years ago. My jarhead buddy told me that -in practical terms- you _can_ walk around spraying with an M-60, but not an M-2. M-249’s aren’t available to civilians at all AFAIK. - DougC ---
**Author:** ![hammerbach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/73ab20/32.png) [@hammerbach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hammerbach)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2002, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-mini-gun-be-used-for-personal-protection/116763/6 "2002-07-01T03:22:49Z")
My memories of the M-60 were that it was good on the bipod, worse off the ground, and difficult (impossible?) to control one-handed. Slight hijack in the vein of bhb: If you are carrying a loaded M-60, you are a walking invitaion to a gun battle (for someone to shoot YOU). Legalities aside, imagine the effect on others around you… If I saw a guy carrying one of these around my neighborhood, I have to admit I’d get down my rifle and think about my one-shot-one-kill training. Not saying I’d shoot indescriminately, but I’d be preparing for it. I have family and friends to think of… ---
**Author:** ![Kilt-wearin\_man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/82dd89/32.png) [@Kilt-wearin\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilt-wearin_man)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2002, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-mini-gun-be-used-for-personal-protection/116763/7 "2002-07-01T15:41:06Z")
In direct response to the OP, this is definitely NOT the real world. Hollywood weapons use blanks with a “half-load” or smaller powder charge - in other words, they use just enough powder to make a muzzleflash and work the action in the weapon, thus enabling an actor to fire an M-60 or Uzi (or other fully-automatic weapon) one-handed without wobbling the barrel all over the place and, consequently, looking silly. The miniguns used in Predator and T2 (if they were actual miniguns and not special effects mockups) would have been using extremely weak blanks in addition to the extremely large actors. A minigun will fire even if the barrels are manually rotated (according to the warning label I saw on the minigun turret of an AH-1G Cobra), so the blanks would not need enough power to “cycle the action” on the weapon - the battery power source spins the barrels to do that job. Heck, those blanks were probably so weak that you or I would’ve been able to handle the weapon. In the real world, a minigun is either vehicle-mounted or tripod mounted, and for a very good reason. A 7.62mm bullet doesn’t pack a huge kick, but a few hundred fired within the space of a couple of seconds (as miniguns do) will spin you like a top. Not to mention the weight issue of the weapon, an appropriate amount of ammunition, the linkless belt feed mechanism, and the power source. ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2002, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-mini-gun-be-used-for-personal-protection/116763/8 "2002-07-01T16:44:16Z")
One reason that a 7.62 round does not kick is that much of the recoil force in the weapons that use them is used to reload automatically. A mini-gun however does not need recoil force to reload, as **Kilt** type person points out, reload is done by an external force, in such a weapon the full force of the recoil would be directed through the mountings, a human simply could not remain upright when the weapon fired in fully automatic.