What comes first a bullet or the sound of the gun firing?

“You never hear the one that hits you” was the fatalistic saying on the front trenches of many wars (not to mention the song of the same name by the rock group Stiff Little Fingers).

Well, it turns out that the soldiers and the punk rockers had their physics down pat—, a bullet travels faster than the speed of sound and will arrive at its destination before the report of the gun gets there.