Zombie Cliche Lookout: Have Gun… And So Forth
In a zombie survival situation, having a gun gives a person an advantage, but it comes with some rather substantial trade-offs. First of all, the person needs to know how to use it pretty well for it to be effective. Having a gun is one thing, being able to make head shots with it under stress is something else entirely. And let’s not forget the issue of ammunition, without which the firearm isn’t terribly useful. Ammunition exists in finite supplies, except in movies when characters never seem to run out, or even reload. In reality, keeping a supply would prove difficult, especially if you were constantly on the move.
Oh, and let’s not forget about the noise factor. Guns are loud. They’re really, really loud. And loud noises will likely attract more zombies. Obviously, that might be a trade-off that’s worthwhile in a lot of situations, but it’s certainly something you can’t ignore. And, unlike in the movies, suppressors can’t magically mute the sound of a gunshot to a gentle woosh. Even with a suppressor, guns are still mighty noisy.
Despite all these negatives, I’d still have a gun if I could in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. It wouldn’t always be appropriate, but when it was, I’d rather have it than not.
About this Episode:
Wow, it’s nice to be back to doing Bricks of the Dead. It’s been a while, and I definitely needed the break to get things in balance, but I’m really glad to be back.
Discussion Question: Surprise Guns
A lot of people carry concealed weapons these days. I know a lot of them personally. While it would certainly give you a survival advantage in a zombie scenario, you would also need to be aware that other survivors could be carrying too, and that they might not be as friendly as they let on. So in a zombie survival scenario, how would you account for this?
1st I’d like to thank you for featuring Evan’s comic on your website, it’s been a real pleasure to read those first 22 pages of what seems to be a fine comic. I hope that, as you’re back on regular BotD schedule, Evan will get a full review article some day.
That said, I’ll try to give you my non American, point of view about weapon to answer today’s question. As you may know guns owners in France aren’t that many (out of hunters and gangsters LOL), but I can easily imagine a lot of people desperately looking for those fire weapons in a Z apocalypse. And as you said Dave, this kind of weapon is only useful if you can use it properly.
IMO, in a “non weaponed” country like mine, free movement of guns would lead to more troubles and accidents than not.
We’ll be seeing the remainder of Evan’s comic here. I’m going to run them Friday through Sunday until we finish them up.
You make an excellent point about accidents. That was actually going to be a plot point in the early drafts of the comic, but I ended up moving away from it.
I’m so glad that you’re back to updating the story, but Evan really did a good job with his comic.
Concerning the gun question, in my eyes, there would be one way to settle it. Just frisk the guy or something. And I would probably keep quiet about having a gun so I would have the element of surprise if the guy turned out to be a bad dude.
Evan’s comic is great. Again, I’m so happy to have been able to use it while I took a bit of a break.
Frisking was the first thing I thought of too, but it assumes a certain power dynamic. Would they consent to a frisk? And, if so, would you have to do the same?
I guess two survivors can frisk one another.
Sounds like fun.
It’s good to see you back, Dave! 😀 Looks like Sam finally gets rescued from Emma’s dad! 😀 Hopefully she’ll be able to calm dad down a bit! 😉
Yeah, he was waiting patiently for quiet a while there.
Hey, good to see you back Dave! Did you enjoy your vacation? Hope you had a good one!
In totally unrelated news… I see all our questions will be answered concerning how to deal with a Zombie-outbreak shortly: http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3897405465 (and zombie-cats… who doesn’t love cute zombie-cats 😉 )
That’s quite the movie you found there, FL. I’m at work, so I had to watch the trailer without sound, but I think I got the gist of it pretty well.
Dave is too rebellious for anyone to handle, he watches trailers at work and talks to people on his website.
Don’t watch the trailer without sound, invest in a good quality headset, and enjoy it without annoying your coworkers! 😀
In all honesty I think that roving bands of survivors would be more dangerous than zombies. Zombies, while terrifying in a massive horde still follow a certain predicable patern and cant shoot back…well, old school non mutant zombies anyway 🙂
I wonder if the comic will have mutant zombies down the road…