How can I get my group to use actual weaponry, not just improvised?

Question

Currently playing a survival-horror game (All Flesh Must Be Eaten), and our characters are your average mix'n'match group of lucky-to-be-alive survivors.

My issue is, one of our characters (a 21 y/o college student) has "Improvised weapon" as a skill, and another (35 y/o old garbage man) is incredibly proficient in "Brawling". This means that while between us, we have 2 pistols, 2 bowie knives, and a shotgun, and we're preferring to run around either bare fisted or choosing to wield a MAGLITE or a hammer over actual weaponry. This is for obvious choices because so far the Brawler has 1-hit everything he has come across, and the hammer isn't doing too badly either.

What incentive is there to use the guns/knives when neither of us have them as skills in guns/melee weapons, so that we can make the game more realistic/immersive?

I am a player in this game, not the GM, so I do not have total control over making changes.

Answer 1

The major advantage of firearms over melee weapons is keeping the enemies at range - which would seem to be extremely valuable in a zombie-world where often one bite can mean infection and death. (Though of course in AFMBE there's lots of zombie types, not sure what you're facing...) Even though they may get "more kill" out of hitting a zombie directly, it will also lead to them getting killed more frequently. Play on that.

Ideally the GM would have zombies appear in hordes large enough that they're going to get some good attacks in if you just run up to them. This will encourage ranged attacks to winnow them down. If it's always one-on-one (or N on N, where N is the number of PCs) then their behavior is logical. You can't control this but you can mention it to the GM. (Or FleshMaster, or whatever, I can't remember the cool AFMBE term for it).

I suspect either the number of zombies is small or they are so weak that these folks feel like meleeing them with impunity is fine. Stay back, pick them off, and tell the melee'ers "Boy, I really appreciate you taking all the extreme risks. So, how do you want to die when you get bitten? Do you want time for last rites or do you just want me to pop you before you see it coming?" Help them to understand the drawbacks of their approach.