QuickCheck: Can a person fire two guns accurately at once?

FROM the action-packed police movies of John Woo and Chow Yun-Fat to long-standing video game franchises like Call of Duty, Max Payne and Counterstrike, heroes and villains have been shown effortlessly firing two guns, one in each hand. However, is this technique - known as either guns akimbo or dual-wielding - effective?

Verdict:

FALSE

In a video shot for the British video gaming portal Gamespot, Keeper of Firearms and Artillery at the Royal Armouries Museum, Jonathan Ferguson explained and demonstrated several reasons why dual-wielding firearms is not a good idea.

"The obvious problems there are that very few people are skilled enough to fire a gun in our non-dominant hand; we're all either left-handed or right-handed.

"Some of us are ambidextrous, but coordinating the fire between your right and left hand, right and left eye is very difficult to do," said Ferguson.

Ferguson, however, added that there could have been a good reason for dual-wielding in the era of muzzle-loading pistols, in which the bullet and gunpowder were loaded down the front of the gun.

"This gives you two rapid shots, otherwise you'd have to fire one, throw it away and pull out the second one.

"That's how the pirates would do it, so the period engravings of Blackbeard showing multiple pistols - that's how he got multiple shots," he said.

Ferguson then attempted to fire two pistols in each hand, something he described as a real challenge.

"A lot of it was trying to figure out how close I can put the pistols so they don't hit each other when they recoil; there's not a lot your wrists can do to control it," he said.

So yes, you technically can dual-wield firearms such as pistols. You just won't be able to really hit what you're aiming at.

SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPlYefRX7k0