Guns in Popular Culture: The Last of Us

The video game The Last of Us is a Lone Wolf and Cub meets The Walking Dead meets The Road adventure on the PlayStation 3.

The game follows the journey of a man and a teenage girl (who shares the same face and potty mouth as Ellen Page in the film Juno) through a post apocalyptic America that has been ravaged by a mutation of the Cordyceps fungus that has evolved to infect humans.

For those of you who are curious, the cordyceps fungus is an endoparasitic (think of the Chestburster from Aliens…) fungus that currently preys on a variety of insects.

• Switchblade Knife
  

  Compact Glock 19 in 9x19mm Parabellum. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

  • The one in the game appears to be an Italian style stiletto knife.
  • The blade design is often double edged and very stabby!
• Mini-14
  

  English: Ruger Mini-14/F30GB semi-automatic rifle (pictured with folding stock open) Rifle is completely original Ruger issue featuring: pistol grip, folding stock, 30rd magazine(s), bayonet lug, threaded barrel, flash hider. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

  • This gun first came onto the US gun market in 1973 and became rather popular during the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s.
  • This gun is primarily sold in .223 Remington but there are versions available in 6.8 SPC and 7.62×39 .
  • The gun uses its own proprietary magazines made by Ruger.
    • Up until about 6 years after William Ruger died, it was very hard to get your hands on a factory Mini-14 magazine greater than 10 rounds.
    • William B. Ruger was a bit of a “Fudd” who disliked civilians owning magazines bigger than 10 rounds.
  • There are a large number of accessories out there for the gun but it doesn’t really have the modularity or accuracy that the AR-15 does.
  • The gun has since fallen out of favor on the US market in light of the popularization of the AR-15.
  • I personally think there are far better guns out there than the Mini-14 for the $800 to $900 price point you often see them going for.
• 1911
  • I do find it odd that a 9mm Luger 1911 would still be in common usage 20 years after civilization ends and yet not a single Glock 17 or Glock 19 to be found…
• Snub-nosed Revolver
  • A staple of police departments and cop dramas up until the early 1990s.
• Remington 870
  • The pump action shotgun, another staple of American gun culture.
• Savage 110
  • In a post apocalyptic environment, bolt-action rifles would actually do pretty well in terms of their ease of use and minimal maintenance requirements.
  • If you are purchasing a bolt-action rifle for the SHTF, ZPAW, TEOTWAKI type situation, then be sure to get one with back iron sights in case the glass on the scope breaks.
    • The Ruger Gunsite Scout and the Mosin Nagant are good examples of rifles that fulfill this criteria.
      

      Ruger Scout Rifle (Photo credit: Arielny2011)

      • I am more inclined to suggest getting a Ruger Gunsite Scout because .308 ammo is more available and in a wider variety of loads compared to the 7.62x54R
• Molotov Cocktail
  • Named after the former Soviet foreign minister, this crudely simple (and highly illegal and dangerous) weapon is very much the “poor man’s grenade“.
  • Even today these are no joke, especially against fixed fortifications (sometimes called “monuments to the stupidity of mankind”)
• Flamethrower
  • What “body horror” trope invoking game is complete without the trope “kill it with fire”?
• Big bore hunting revolver
  • Comes mounted with a scope that magically zeroes itself to whatever ammo you scavenge!
• M4 Carbine
  

  AR-15 (Photo credit: subtlemd)

  • Standard AR-15

Related articles

• Survival Weapons (criticaledgedefensesolutions.wordpress.com)
• Ruger CEO: Gun sales returning to normal levels (money.cnn.com)
• Bottom Drops Out of AR-15 Market (thetruthaboutguns.com)

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Tagged with: Ellen Page, the last of us, The Walking Dead
Posted in Just for fun