Despite knowing that Hollywood takes liberties with physics and storytelling, one depiction seems to be taken at face value: guns. Larry Ellis/Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Most intelligent people can watch a movie and recognize that much of what’s being depicted is not real. Car chases don’t work like that. Romances based on lies will fail. Val Kilmer isn’t a leading man.

But for some reason, despite knowing that Hollywood takes liberties with physics and storytelling, one Hollywood depiction seems to be taken at face value: guns.

The latest misrepresentation about guns from the mainstream media revolves around “silencers.” In movies, James Bond or Jason Bourne attach a “silencer” to a gun and are instantly able to shoot anyone without being heard. The gun makes a quiet “pew” that seems to only exist so the audience knows it was fired. Anyone else in the house—or even the room—wouldn’t know a gun went off.