Foley artists have been exaggerating sounds since the '20s (soon I'll have to qualify that with 1920s...). Guns are not the sole source of exaggeration in Hollywood.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foley_(filmmaking)

I agree, but it is quite often the most outrageous. And they get away with it because so few of the current viewers have had to fire a gun, let along at another human being.

But people don't just tip over and die in real life. And only the bad guys ever died like that. Protagonists meanwhile were unkillable.

Also gunshots are loud enough to require hearing protection at a shooting range, and a punch is also audible, but just higher pitch.

What was your point in posting this?

The hearing protection is about exposure over time, just as with using power tools etc.

As for point, its that Hollywood have given a ever flashier and exaggerated presentation of the effects of guns.

> Never mind as the viewing generation moves further and further from the old west era, the effects of being shot becomes more and more outlandish.

Agreed but there are also many exceptions to this especially in the military genre (Hacksaw Ridge being the latest example).

>A gun shot is not that much different from a firecracker

What? No. Guns are loud.

https://youtu.be/7leSF_FE658?t=1m23s