A/N- Hey ya folks, thought I'd write a basic survival guide for use and contact with firearms. Maybe not as cool and ritzy as the past two guides, but to be honest I had a real hard time deciding what to write this guide on.

Note: this guide is intended for entertainment purposes and while educational should not be used as a stand alone manual for small squad tactics, weapon classification or general gun safety. Think of it as a basic introduction to the different types of firearms and a few additional notes.

-Grey (Gunner) Southpaw

Grey's Guide to Firearms Safety.

Repercussion was quite the rooting tooting adventure for Alpha Force, largely due to a greater addition of firearms into the mix. Firearms in this instance, refers to the small arms designed for personal use by an individual that utilise gunpowder and gaseous propulsion to fire projectiles (Bullets) at high speed. Pretty much they are small enough for a man to carry, they go bang and lots of deadly metal come out one end.

Examples of this include pistols, rifles and shotguns.

Lets get one thing straight from the get go; Firearms are designed for the sole purpose of killing things by making great big holes in them. The rounds they fire are made out of a metal harder then System of a Down*, called lead. Lead is not a mineral the body wants, especially when it is travelling at 300 metres per second.

Guns are carried by hunters, the police, militaries worldwide and criminals for the sole reason that they are very effective at killing. A gun, however does not discriminate between good guys, bad guys, deer or even the person holding it, so it is vital that people understands a little bit about them and how to stay safe.

I shouldn't have to say that like Alpha Force; you should only use a firearm in the most absolute dire of circumstances for self-defence. Any time you pick up a gun you must be prepared to kill.

For soldiers and the like this is not a problem, there is conditioning and training they go through to use and be safe around weapons, but your average Joe (or Jane, I'm not sexist!) typically doesn't.

Your training begins now ;)

Types of Firearms.

Okay plenty of different types of firearms in the world, each designed for a specific purpose. The following is not an all-inclusive list, but not a bad general outline.

Pistols:

We'll start with the lowest velocity and ranged weapon of the lot. The pistol or handgun is just that; a portable, more easily concealable shooting device. It was originally designed as an extension to the limited range of killing provided by a knife. There are thousands of different models of pistol in manufacture today across hundreds of different countries; they come in a range of pretty colours and sizes. They can be single shot, semi-automatic (rounds fire as quickly as you pull trigger) or capable of fully automatic fire (Hold trigger in and bullets keep spraying until you are empty or your finger gets tired.)

The range is short; from punching distance to about fifty metres is the standard effective range of most pistols. Still plenty of range to share the love, or hate, as it is more likely to be. The velocity (or speed that the bullet leaves the barrel) is slow in comparison to other types of firearm around 800-1500 fps. Accordingly, most rounds will penetrate the body but not have sufficient speed to exit it.

Pistol bullets are large, heavy and tend to stay in the body, similar to a Double Whopper from Burgerking (Hungry Jack's for my Australian brethren and sistren), they vary greatly in size (calibre). Law enforcement tends to use hollow-point rounds that will expand on impact and create greater wound cavitation. This prevents the bullets going through a target to hit innocents and also increases the chances of killing the crackhead they were aiming at with their first shot.

Note: purpose built for killing people! Incredibly dangerous due to the ease of concealment and availability, especially in the Americas.

Shotguns:

Another short range firearm, but with ridiculous stopping power from a greater mass from scattered shot projectiles. Used mainly for hunting or recreational shooting (Claybird and Skeet taste awful by the way), often utilised in home defence, especially on rural properties. The range is dependant on what type of ammo or 'shot' is being used and can vary greatly. Very dangerous and tends to make mincemeat of human flesh at close range. Much greater recoil or 'kick' when firing though and accuracy is often a problem as range increases.

Shotgun shells usually contain a charge with a whole bunch of smaller pellets that spread out from the barrel when fired. These pellets disperse over distance but up close they transfer colossal amounts of force and whopping great big, messy wounds. A hight fatality rate arises from the spread of these shots and multiple systems affected. At close range they pretty much fire the pellets as one solid mass or 'wad' that is in effect just one big nasty bullet.

It is hampered by the reduced capacity to carry ammunition and slower rate of fire. Many models will often only manage half a dozen rounds before the firer is empty and forced to reload. When it hits though, jeez it just turns people into bloody pulp with legs.

Rounds can vary from non-lethal, like the beanbag rounds that some police and riot forces utilise, through to the ultra modern, ultra lethal. The ability to fire Mini-grenade rounds that can contain any number of payloads is relatively new, while the equally deadly application of flechette rounds is old news, albeit horribly disfiguring old news. Flechettes are basically sharp little bits of metal, so yeah just imagine having a small cloud of a hundred or so of them coming at you, like a swarm of the worlds sharpest, angriest bees.

Rifles:

They come in two varieties; Civilian and military models. Often scoped and used for hunting from a greater distance then shotguns, the military models are used almost exclusively for hunting humans. High velocity and very long range, these monsters will reach out and touch bad people from up to a kilometre away in some instances. Greater penetration of cover and body armour, but depends on ammunition type. Tend to be slower to fire and have smaller magazines, like the shotgun, especially if it is an older or bolt-actioned weapon. Also like the shotgun, the civilian rifle is often a tool for farmers and is often utilised in rural home defence.

Military rifles use armour-piercing rounds, designed to punch through body armour and give one great big middle finger to the engineers at Kevlar.

Civilian hunting rifles use rounds designed to make big holes in unarmoured targets; usually deer, goats or pigs. When I say big holes, I mean like you can stick a hand through to the other side. Sadly they work just as well against unarmoured humans.

Not pretty. This group of weapons is where the saying 'you can run, but you will only die tired' originates from.

Assault Rifles:

The Merc's favourite. A true military grade weapon; purpose built to cut down fellow humans as quickly and efficiently as possible. High velocity, long range and very fast firing; a deadly combination. Most, if not all will be semiautomatic with the option for fully automatic fire. The users of these weapons will typically be from the military or elite policing units, have a higher level of training than most and less hesitation when it comes to shooting a sucker. They come in all shapes and sizes, including shorter barrelled or cut down versions in the form of carbines or submachine guns. Depending on combatants too, these weapons may be equipped with any number of nifty optional extras, including special sights, bayonets and even grenade launchers.

Freely marketed to the general public in a shockingly high number of countries and the staple weapon for any cartel or coup worth it's salt. Scary stuff!

Magazines ranging from twenty to a hundred; hide and pray they run out of damn ammo!

Machine Guns:

A subgroup from the Assault rifle, but differentiated by its different purpose and feeding mechanism. Basically it is designed more as an area or suppression weapon that blitzes off massive quantities of lead at an absolutely insane rate of fire. The rounds come out quicker and can travel for kilometres unless stopped by an unfortunate something or someone.

These weapons and their ammunition are always really heavy, making them a real pain in the arse to carry any real distance. A two-man operation, with one man carrying and shooting, while the other spots targets for him and helps him reload.

Not a common group of weapon; usually isolated to militaries or particularly well-funded drug lords.

The ammo mostly comes in long chain links that feed directly into the weapon, but sustained fire can only last a couple of hundred rounds before the barrel gets too hot and needs changing. These guns often use a special type of ammo called tracer, which is visible to the naked eye, especially at night and allows the gunner to roughly see where his rounds are going. Make for a pretty groovy light show as long as they aren't coming your way.

Machine guns inflict massive damage through larger, faster rounds and lots of them. To give you an idea of the comparative firepower, even an average machinegun still provides the equivalent of ten assault rifles in military capability.

The sound of an extended burst from one of these things is literally the last thing many people have heard before they die.

Gun Handling and Safety.

Good and scared of all the nasty tools of death out there yet? Heck I know I am!

What we'll move onto some just general safety points when handling a weapon.

Trigger:

It doesn't matter what type of weapon it is, they all have some type of trigger that you squeeze to start spewing hot lead at whoever or whatever poor sonofa b**** that has offended you. At it's most basic it is a simple curved hook of metal that initiates the striking mechanism inside the weapon. Rounds should not be fired if the trigger is not pulled. Ergo, it is commonsense that if you don't want nasty little lead accidents occurring, keep your finger outside of the weapons trigger guard and away from the little lever unless you actually have something you want to shoot. This is such a simple thing, but even professionals so often forget this basic safety practice.

Speaking of safety, some weapons (especially automatic ones) will have a button or switch that you can activate to make the weapon unable to or very difficult to fire. If your gun has one, activate it now. There? Don't you feel safer already?

Magazine/Ammunition:

Firearms are only deadly when they have something to shoot out of them (unless you have a bayonet or are a fan of delivering a good old fashioned pistol-whipping). Bullets, rounds, shells, slugs, whatever you want to call them, these projectiles are the real dangerous things in a gun. Accordingly, a great safety practice when picking up a weapon is to ensure that it is empty. To do this you will need to pick up the weapon, keeping your fingers well clear of the trigger and enabling the safety if it has one. From there eject any external magazine (The container that houses the bullets) that is present, there is typically a release catch close to where the mag attaches. In pistols or submachine guns where the mag often fits inside the pistol grip, there is generally a small button on the handgrip that will release the magazine from its internal housing.

Remove mag and expose firing chamber to check for rounds, cock weapon again if there are rounds in the chamber, this will eject them. If you then want to use this weapon yourself, slap that mag back in, cock the sucker and you are ready to go to town (Not literally! I do not advocate that!)

Barrel:

This is the business end, bullets come out of here; so don't point it at me or anyone you love. Always keep this end pointed in a safe direction.

General Safe Gun Handling Tips:

-Don't pick up a weapon that isn't yours if you haven't been taught about it unless it is an absolute emergency. I'm talking like, need to immediately make Swiss cheese out of the gang member who has broken into your home, kind of emergency.

-Store weapons safely where kiddies, irresponsible adults, intruders and enraged ex-girlfriends cannot access them. Store ammo separately if feasible.

-This thing is not a bloody toy, don't play with it or be stupid; someone will not live to regret it!

-If you are going to own a gun, learn to shoot it at a local range or farm. If you are going to keep it, you damn well want to know how to use it and preferably to be able to hit stuff too would be nice. There are too many points for me to cover on actually firing, to include that in this summary!

-Maintenance; if you are carrying or using a weapon, know how to disassemble and clean it. A clean, well-maintained weapon SHOULD fire every time and do so safely. It doesn't take much effort, a bit of oil and an old rag, and then you can get back to shooting squirrels in the park or whatever you are going to do with it.

-It kinda goes with maintenance, but don't try firing any gun underwater or if there is an obstruction in the barrel. That shit only works in the movies and in real life it goes real bad, real fast!

-One thing you shouldn't tamper with though is your bullets; take them out and clean them if they are dirty, but that is it. 'Dum-duming' rounds, dipping them in bacon grease or notching rounds to change their effect is unadvisable and often leaves the bullets unreliable.

Safety Under Fire.

Okay through with the mandatory safety stuff we can get onto to the more extreme side of things; what to do if you are taking rounds.

So this is pretty much the worst-case scenario no matter who you are. I'm not going to delve too much into how you may have got into this situation, instead we'll cut straight to something more useful; what to do.

Cover:

A great first step when rounds are coming down your way is to get somewhere safer. Duh. Get behind the nearest thing that might spare you a bullet or two and you need to get there just as damn quick as you can. This is called cover, as in hide behind it, cover your head and hope the bad people get sleepy and go home.

Now some things will stop a round better then others and I'll attempt to clear up some of the misconceptions about that.

First off it obviously depends on what is being fired at you; a machine gun or decent marksman's weapon will punch great big holes through most types of wall. The movies have let you down, by showing you that the hero can hide behind the plasterboard wall and breath a sigh of relief as bullets smack harmlessly against it.

Heavy calibre weapons, like those that fire 7.62mm rounds, will go straight through wood and almost anything short of concrete to fillet foolish sheltering protagonists.

The same wall may however stop the slower rounds of a pistol and decent brickwork will even disperse a lot of the blast from a shotgun.

Concealment:

Hiding behind the couch, that wooden fence or a car? Nope, that won't stop Jack.

Sorry to say it, but the cop movies have deceived you again; unless your police cruiser is actually armoured, (they aren't) bullets will go straight through the cheap thin metal of your door panels. And your partner was just one day away from retirement too!

What you may have there though, is concealment.

Concealment is a place to hide from the shooter's vision, while it won't stop a round it does mean it is harder for him to see you. Theoretically, you cannot hit what you cannot see, so it is better then nothing. Not by a huge amount though ;p

Examples of this would include bushes, fences, tall grass.

No cover or concealment in sight? Best thing you can do then is get down. Fast.

Lie down on your stomach if possible, the idea here is to reduce your profile and therefore the target you present. In this situation you may feel like you just can't get close enough to the ground and you would be right. From here you need to keep your eyes peeled for a safer place to get to. Crawl there if you have the cover or concealment to do so on the way, otherwise you are going to have to make a bound.

Moving Under Fire:

Running feels like a good idea when you are being shot at, but unfortunately unless you have a distinct advantage in that area, you are probably going to catch a bullet in the back. The longer a moving target is present for, the longer the shooter has to adjust to their speed and direction to apply aim off to finally score a hit.

Therefore if you do have to run under gunfire you want to keep it short and preferably only between cover. Three to five long paces is about the maximum you can safely do before enemy fire starts becoming accurate. Three to Five, stay alive they say in the army. After those paces if you don't have cover, drop to the prone again and crawl off on an angle for a bit before getting up and going again. If you can time it with your oppositions reloading that is even better, you know, because they have to stop shooting and everything.

Returning Fire:

If you or someone else in your group is a lucky little bunny and has a firearm of their own, they can provide suppressing fire while the other person moves. Just fire in their general vicinity and keep it up until your buddy has finished his bound. Put simply you want your enemy too be too preoccupied with the rounds coming over his head to try advancing or shooting back. Believe me when I say that it is bloody frightening having rounds coming over top, noone is keen to pop their head up to take a shot while that is going on.

You may remember that this is the trick that Alex, Paulo and Camilla utilised at the end of Aid Conflict to slow the hunter force.

Crossfire:

Watch out for the blue on blue though; friendly fire, isn't. When there are more then one side with guns it is fairly easy to get caught in the cross fire or disorientated into firing at targets that may actually be friendly. Move carefully and always identify yourself to friendly forces. At the same, pay attention to the movement in the battle and have no doubt in your mind who you are shooting at before you pull the trigger.

Bullet-proof Vests:

A word on 'bullet-proof vests.' A bit of a misnomer, depending on what is being shot at you and how good your vest is. It is unlikely you will be wearing one of these unless you are in a military operations zone, a crazy survivalist or involved with law enforcement.

A decent vest should stop a low velocity round like the slug from a standard pistol, but will do you absolutely no good against a rifle round. This is especially true with military grade ammo that is especially designed to make it through armour and waste organs. There are vests out at the moment that will stop up to a 7.62mm sniper round from 400m, but they are incredibly expensive and that doesn't look at changing any time soon.

Regardless even if the vest does stop the bullet they impact alone can still be enough to break ribs and cause internal bleeding.

Remember too, it is still, you know, a vest; so they can still shoot you in the arms, legs and head.

Of those three, head is particularly bad ;)

Close Quarters:

My last point for this section; don't try and take a gun off a gunman at close range unless you have absolutely nothing else to lose. Even a Krav Maga instructor returning from an instructors conference, would be foolish to try it on when he is being robbed at gunpoint. Bullets move so much faster then hands and have a habit of putting a permanent stop to guys with 'White Knight syndrome'.

Bear in mind, this advice is coming from someone who is quite the badass (yes I meant me!), close quarters is my specialty, but even I wouldn't try take a gun unless it was pretty obviously that, or die.

Screw that, give me a meth head with a blade to tackle instead any day!

So that is the basic rundown on firearms guys, as well as the last survival guide I'll write. As always, I hope you never have to use any of this, but hey you never know.

BE SAFE

BE PREPARED

BE QUIET

Grey.

FanFiction and The Grey Southpaw would like to make it clear that this advice is given for use in a serious situation only, where your life could be at risk. We cannot accept any liability for inappropriate usage in normal conditions.

*Badass 90's Metal/Rock band, headed by the incredible vocals of Serj Tankian; if you haven't listened to them you are missing out on life and I pity you :(