Hazard of noise thought in error to be a gunshot

[Anthony Appleyard]

I have been somewhere in Tampa where drive by took place, there's no mistaken a motorcycle vs gunfire.... I have bad hearing "what" but I know the sound a firearm makes....

I was not talking of the phutphutphutphut noise that some motorcycles make, being mistaken for automatic gunfire :: they are clearly distinct to my ears, at least if the motorcycle has an exhaust silencer/muffler. I was talking about the motorcycle making a loud one-off gasoline vapor / air explosion not in its cylinder(s) but in its exhaust system, i.e. backfiring.

 

[kwo51]

First thing I would do is hit the deck and get cover. Then determine if it was a gun shot. Gun does not come upholstered until target is present. IMOP . PTSD is a bitch!

 

[Anthony Appleyard]

I have seen in newspapers a report that in a crime (in Britain) a criminal fired a gun, and people heard the shots and thought that the noise was cars backfiring.

 

[Concealed 27]

I have shot my Guns without ear protection so I know what each caliber I own sounds like.....don't suggest doing that due to hearing loss...just and FYI.
Concealed 27

 

[Jo6pak]

I have seen in newspapers a report that in a crime (in Britain) a criminal fired a gun, and people heard the shots and thought that the noise was cars backfiring.

To be fair, the British are a population that has no experience with hearing gunshots first hand so I can see the confusion. If one grows up in a society that does not allow private citizens to own firearms, a very low percentage of the population has ever actually a gunshot at all, much less be able to differentiate is from background noises.

I grew up in a small town next to an Army base where the sound of artillery could be heard quite often. When we heard "thunder" we usually just assumed it was Fort McCoy, until we looked outside and saw the storm clouds.