How are you certain the last part is true? I’m pretty sure that none of us have ever seen a “'banger” in real life shoot this way.
Mechanical advantage, IIRC. Women and men alike are in the Israeli army and they are trained alike. Supposedly, this allows women with their lesser hand/arm strength to more easily work the slide against spring tension.
How many of us have been shot at by gang members? I have not, thankfully. How about you? I have seen the local thugz brandish a pistol in this fashion.
One of my best friends, who is in the Canadian Forces says when he did his pistol training, they were taught to shoot with the gun to the side, gangsta-style (not as their primary grip, obviously). I forget the reasoning he told me, as I know I’ve asked before. I’ll ask him when I see him tonight.
I know the Chinese used the gangsta-style in the early 1900s, on full-auto Broomhandle Mausers. They did it in close-quarters, so that instead of the muzzle rising, it would sweep sideways.
Come to think of it, I think that may have been the reason my friend was taught it as well… Though it’s not like the Hi-Powers or Sigs the CF use are full auto. Maybe the instructors were just in a goofy mood that day.
That style of shooting evolved from how one holds a duelling pistol. Turning sideways to your opponent presents him the smallest possible target. Holding the arm in that position puts the arm over as much as possible of one’s vitals…better to take a bullet in the arm than in the thorax.
What?! In what context?
Conventional Pistol matches, aka a National Gallery match, require one handed shooting. You see everything from body parallel to line of sight to practically perpendicular to it. I was taught to stand at a 45 degree angle, which seems to work for me.
Oh, and for kicks, I once shot a handgun at the target gangsta style. About as accurate as firing an AR-15 from the hip - that is, not at all.
Conflict with each other. I’ve seen it happen when a drunken argument on a bar parking lot escalated. I’ve seen it happen when groups from fueding neighborhoods cross each other’s paths. Around here, brandishing guns is common. So is gunfire. Luckily, casualties are relatively few due to an overall poor level of marksmanship.
I should add that this situation results in them being less afraid of firearms than perhaps you’d think. They see them waved about constantly and used frequently with no effect. As a result, they are less afraid than many people would be of having a gun pointed at them or even being shot at.
Can somebody link to an image of this? I’m having a hard time imagining it, and googling got me this, which is an interesting picture but I’m not sure if it’s what you’re talking about.
That is exactly it, dangermom.
OK, thanks. Looks kinda funny to me. Like maybe he’s not very serious.
I’ve heard the same thing; that the sideways style originated as a recoil-aided style for sweeping a room or area with automatic fire. It’s not accurate, but it wasn’t expected to be I guess. And doing the same thing with much slower firing pistols isn’t a very good idea, I’d expect.
I’m reminded by this thread of a page or two of a Punisher comic book I saw a scan of on another board, where a bunch of gangbangers come after him, most shooting their guns sideways. He kills them, walks up to the last seriously wounded survivor and points his gun at the guy. “The sights are on top for a reason.” < BANG ! >
When I was in Isreal years ago, they taught us the use of the early Uzi. They (the military instructors at our communal farm - these men were survivors of the birth of the country) said for a room clearing situation, hold the Uzi low, turn it on its side and fire and the recoil would create a horizontal path thus giving us a better chance to eliminate a larger number of individuals and give us a better chance of getting out with fewer injuries ourselves.
I have heard that the Uzi was one of the first automatic weapons used by the American gangsta because of the small size and its simplicity in design. Could not the same instruction have been passed on to them regarding the use and could they not have thought it might be valid for other weapons also?
You know, the unstated assumption deeply buried in the question of gansta weapons use habits is that street punks, and musicians and their bodyguards engage in enough weapons training to have some idea about the real practice of hitting targets with bullets. Mostly, gangstas carry guns to look cool, and intimidate people. They fire them when that gets boring. Mostly they miss.
Tris
Thanks. I’m still having trouble seeing it, but I don’t have a handy pistol to test the idea. 
I suppose the Israeli army wouldn’t suggest this for no good reason.
Seems reasonable. It leads me to a question that is, I suppose, a semi-hijack.
I have never fired a gun in my life. Suppose someone were to give me a pistol and explain the basic procedures for firing it. Assuming that I have no undiscovered innate marksmanship ability, what are my chances of hitting a human-sized target from 10 feet with my first ever shot of a gun?
Shooting a stationary paper target & not in a hurry, near 100%. Shooting a real person in a hurry, near 0%.
A second shot at the paper target will be more like 50% because you’ll have learned the dreaded flinch. Just as you squeeze the trigger you’ll scrinch up your face & eyes, clench your hand, grit yuor teeth … and pull the gun off target. Recoil is unpleasant & your body really wants to avoid it. Overcoming that instinct is probably 50% of basic marksmanship.
If you turn the pistol a bit on its side, it puts it more directly in front of your chest. Chambering a round is more of a twist of the shoulders than using arm strength.
But….I don’t think it has anything to do with strength per-se. If you can’t easily pull the slide back in any position you shouldn’t be using the gun. It’s not that hard.
More to point, I think that by tilting the gun a bit, and pointing it low, you see the chamber opening and closing and see that a round is ‘up the pipe’. That’s important.
If everything is working as it should, you will never have any problems. But the one time a piece of sand is in the magazine that prevents a round from feeding…… you will have a ready weapon that isn’t.
Sounds like a really formal jazz club.