Are you the Go-To-Guy/Gal whenever friends and acquaintances have questions about anything gun related? It can be a tiresome job sometimes, but it is our duty to keep educating people in our culture. Just last night a fellow coworker came to me asking about hollow point bullets; his main concerns were if the HP ammo was forbidden and if it really exploded.

I am not the most patient of persons, but somehow I manage to don the Dutch Uncle persona and take my time explaining that no, at least in the Great State of Florida, hollow points are not forbidden to civilians and that only Security Officers with a “G” (armed) license are the ones that cannot carry any type of expanding ammo in their guns… dumb as it might be. For the exploding part, I happened to carry a bagful of gun related books with me since I am in the painful process of writing an article for a magazine (I swear Kathy, one is almost ready and I am halfway done through the other!) and pulled Massad Ayoob’s “The Gun Digest Book Of Concealed Carry” which has some excellent pictures of defensive ammo before and after. The Coworker left happy and informed and it was satisfactory for yours truly. Where I do lose a bit of cool is when I get an idiot to contradict or defend bad information that can be legally or practically dangerous. I will fight them tooth and nail plus provide whatever documentation needed to shut them up.

Some of the most common misconceptions I hear are:

-The Florida 3-Step rule (You need to make three movements to retrieve a gun from inside your gun from inside a car if you do not have a CWP.)

-You have to register your weapons in Florida.

-You cannot carry a gun anywhere in Miami Beach. (I wouldn’t go near MB without a damn gun anyways).

-Machine Guns/Silencers are illegal.

-You can shoot anybody with a knife if he is 21 feet or less from you (Tueller Distortion.)

-Make sure you finish off an attacker so you don’t have troubles in court. (Coup de Grace)

-If you shoot somebody outside the house, drag him inside to avoid troubles.

-You can kill somebody who is stealing your car/garden hose/bicycle/etc.

I chose to leave out the bad information and lies propagated by local newspapers and other media.