Artistic License Gun Safety: Difference between revisions

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** This is [[Invoked Trope|invoked]] in a first-season episode of ''Stand Alone Complex''. The character is shown running around waving his gun wildly with his finger on the trigger, uncharacteristic enough to show how unhinged the case is making him.

** However, it's later averted in ''2nd Gig''. When the police move in to arrest Gouda, they trap him in the middle of a hallway. The cops at one end are armed, while the cops on the other end are wielding armored riot shields to block the hallway and protect themselves from stray bullets at the same time.

* ''[[Full Metal Panic!]]? Fumoffu'' plays a too-literal adherence to this trope for laughs: Sousuke is playing an arcade light gun game, and doing quite well until the light gun runs out of bullets. Sousuke immediately pulls his personal very real pistol and blows the game away. When it's explained to him that you're supposed to shoot away from the screen to reload, his response is that [[Hypocritical Humor|this would have been horribly unsafe]]. It should be noted that Sousuke observes proper gun safety, and indeed takes pains to introduce Kaname to the basics in an episode of ''The Second Raid''. He just has [[No Social Skills]] ~~-- no~~ concept of the idea that civilian life and open battlefields have different social standards for when it's acceptable to pull a loaded firearm on someone.

* ''[[Full Metal Panic!]]? Fumoffu'' plays a too-literal adherence to this trope for laughs: Sousuke is playing an arcade light gun game, and doing quite well until the light gun runs out of bullets. Sousuke immediately pulls his personal very real pistol and blows the game away. When it's explained to him that you're supposed to shoot away from the screen to reload, his response is that [[Hypocritical Humor|this would have been horribly unsafe]]. It should be noted that Sousuke observes proper gun safety, and indeed takes pains to introduce Kaname to the basics in an episode of ''The Second Raid''. He just has [[No Social Skills]]—no concept of the idea that civilian life and open battlefields have different social standards for when it's acceptable to pull a loaded firearm on someone.

* ''[[Monster (manga)|Monster]]'' averts this: Tenma's training strongly emphasizes [[Gun Safety|the rules]], and he later handles guns with the responsibility and care you'd expect of a surgeon.

* ''[[Sora no Woto]]'':

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== Fan Fiction ==

* ''[[Pretty Cure Heavy Metal]]'': During any of Shugo's temporary [[Face Heel Turn~~|Face Heel Turns~~]] in the second half of the first season her finger will always be on the trigger of her gun, and she will aim as though she was confused as to who she's aiming for. Thankfully, she'll only spend approximately one minute (usually; she was reckless with her gun for the entirety of episode 45) as a Heel before going through the [[Face Heel Revolving Door|revolving door]] to the Face side. As for the aforementioned episode 45... her [[Face Heel Turn]] lasted for the duration of that episode (during which she's a [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]] whose quarry is a Satanist), only ending when [[Heel Realization|she realizes she had recklessly endangered her own friends in chasing the Satanist]].

* ''[[Pretty Cure Heavy Metal]]'': During any of Shugo's temporary [[Face Heel Turn]]s in the second half of the first season her finger will always be on the trigger of her gun, and she will aim as though she was confused as to who she's aiming for. Thankfully, she'll only spend approximately one minute (usually; she was reckless with her gun for the entirety of episode 45) as a Heel before going through the [[Face Heel Revolving Door|revolving door]] to the Face side. As for the aforementioned episode 45... her [[Face Heel Turn]] lasted for the duration of that episode (during which she's a [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]] whose quarry is a Satanist), only ending when [[Heel Realization|she realizes she had recklessly endangered her own friends in chasing the Satanist]].

* ''[[Misfiled Dreams]]'' Averted: when Ash reaches under a car seat to check that a weapon the car's owner just told her about is there, the [[Creator Cameo|owner]] chastises Ash and tells her about the rules for gun handling. Of course, ''[[Misfiled Dreams]]'' is known for its aversion of [[Did Not Do the Research]].

* ''[[ToyHammer]]'' Averted and excused: when Vincent does his best to observe basic firearms safety (safety catch, finger off trigger), although earlier he does ignore a few basic rules. Justified in that he had almost been ''murdered'' by [[Ax Crazy]] cultists (it took more than one attempt to reload the pistol).

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== Films -- Live-Action ==

* ''[[Pulp Fiction]]'', the [[Trope Namer]] for [[I Just Shot Marvin in the Face]]: Vincent, an experienced hitman, is talking with Marvin, a guy he and Jules picked up in the aftermath of their hit near the beginning of the movie, in the backseat of Jules' car. While speaking with Marvin, Vincent is casually ~~[[Artistic License Gun Safety|~~waving his handgun in the air]], and when Jules hits a bump, Vincent [[Reality Ensues|accidentally fires the weapon]], shooting Marvin in the face and blowing his brains all over the rear window Even after the accident, Vincent doesn't remove his finger from the trigger; he continues waving it around as though the gun had nothing to do with the mess in the backseat.

* ''[[Pulp Fiction]]'', the [[Trope Namer]] for [[I Just Shot Marvin in the Face]]: Vincent, an experienced hitman, is talking with Marvin, a guy he and Jules picked up in the aftermath of their hit near the beginning of the movie, in the backseat of Jules' car. While speaking with Marvin, Vincent is casually waving his handgun in the air, and when Jules hits a bump, Vincent [[Reality Ensues|accidentally fires the weapon]], shooting Marvin in the face and blowing his brains all over the rear window Even after the accident, Vincent doesn't remove his finger from the trigger; he continues waving it around as though the gun had nothing to do with the mess in the backseat.

* In [[Heat]], Mc Cauley does a brass check in the elevator to kill Waingro. While checking your weapon to make sure there's a round in the chamber when going into combat is a good idea, Mc Cauley does it by putting his whole hand over the barrel to push back the slide. If gone wrong, he could have blown his hand off. This is a rare example in a movie that otherwise notably averts much of this trope.

* ''[[Marx Brothers|Monkey Business]]'': a gangster hands revolvers to both Groucho and Zeppo on two separate occasions. Both times he does so he immediately realizes that they are absentmindedly pointing them right at him, and grabs their hands to turn the guns aside. Don't hand weapons to people who don't know proper gun safety, somebody will get [[I Just Shot Marvin in the Face|shot in the face.]] [[What an Idiot!|Another gangster]] in the same film gives guns to ''Chico'' and '''''Harpo'''''.

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* ''[[Bad Boys 2]]'': has a scene where Marcus and Mike decide to mess with the teenage boy picking up Marcus' daughter for a date. Mike pretends to be a drunk ex-con and points his gun at the kid's head.

* ''[[Tequila Sunrise]]'': Kurt Russell's police detective character hands Michelle Pfeiffer's totally gun-untrained character a pistol to protect herself while meeting a drug lord, telling her "That's ready to fire."

* ''[[In Bruges]]'': Ken is very careful with his guns. Harry locks his guns away when he's at home so his kids can't get at them. Ray is a bit more careless, but as he's young, reckless, and a bit suicidal, this is in character for him (and he never points a gun at anyone he doesn't want to kill, though his occasional poor aim when he does want to kill someone tends to get him in trouble). At one point a man tries to rob Ray with a gun loaded with ~~blanks -- Ray~~ wrestles the gun off him and fires it directly into the man's eye. The blanks leave him partially blind.

* ''[[In Bruges]]'': Ken is very careful with his guns. Harry locks his guns away when he's at home so his kids can't get at them. Ray is a bit more careless, but as he's young, reckless, and a bit suicidal, this is in character for him (and he never points a gun at anyone he doesn't want to kill, though his occasional poor aim when he does want to kill someone tends to get him in trouble). At one point a man tries to rob Ray with a gun loaded with blanks—Ray wrestles the gun off him and fires it directly into the man's eye. The blanks leave him partially blind.

* ''[[Bowling for Columbine]]'' has an (offscreen) example, where [[Michael Moore]] interviews a man (the brother of Oklahoma City bombing accomplice Terry Nichols) who literally sleeps with a gun next to his bedside. Though the audience doesn't get to see it, a subtitle informs us that the man has pointed the gun at his head. Moore freaks out a little, though the interviewed man clearly had no intention of [[Never Say "Die"|doing himself in]].

* ''[[RED (film)]]'', CIA agent Cooper gestures at a co-worker with his [[Hand Cannon]] while energetically explaining something to him. The rest of the film plays so fast and loose with [[More Dakka]] that gun safety is quickly forgotten, but this instance took place during a non-action scene and stands out somewhat.

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** In the ''[[Get Smart]]'' film "The Nude Bomb", Max talks about how you can never be too careful with guns - then carelessly tucks his loaded and unsafed pistol into his belt, at which point the gun goes off. Fortunately, the bullet didn't hit anything.

* In ''[[Gran Torino]]'', Thao picks up Walt's Garand without checking to see if it was loaded, points it at him, and even has his finger on the trigger! Granted, this was made to show how inexperienced he was {{spoiler|and why pursuing revenge would end up killing him.}} Another example comes from Walt's barber friend, who points his shotgun at Thao, finger on the trigger. Walt himself clearly knows how to safely handle guns, only leveling his weapon at a person or having his finger on the trigger when he was fully prepared to fire at them should things come to that.

* In ''[[The Seven Percent Solution]]'', Sherlock Holmes is holding a revolver with his finger inside the trigger guard, talking in an animated fashion with Doctor Watson and Sigmund ~~Freud -- and~~ gesturing with the pistol, waving it back and forth from one of them to the other.

* In ''[[The Seven Percent Solution]]'', Sherlock Holmes is holding a revolver with his finger inside the trigger guard, talking in an animated fashion with Doctor Watson and Sigmund Freud—and gesturing with the pistol, waving it back and forth from one of them to the other.

** Of course, as Holmes is canonically the sort to shoot holes ''in the walls of his own flat'', his notion of proper gun safety was always in doubt.

* ''[[White Christmas]]'' begins with Bing Crosby singing to his fellow soldiers at an impromptu Christmas show somewhere in Europe in [[World War II]]. A GI who looks to be about 16 first puts his hand over the business end of his M1 Garand, then rests his chin on his hand.

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* ''[[Picket Fences]]'': Zachary Brock, bitter about his brother's injury in a school shooting, calmly retrieves his father's gun from its supposed place of concealment, pantomimes firing it at his brother's attacker, and then just as calmly returns the weapon to its place. Zack's father is the town sheriff, yet his means of securing his weapon barely even slow his son down. Oh, and did I mention that Zachary is about ''nine'' at the time?

* ''[[Law and Order Special Victims Unit]]'': There's a scene where the detectives are involved in a stand-off with a woman who has a gun pointed at her abusive ex-boyfriend. As such, the cops have their guns drawn and trained towards the woman. Perfectly reasonable during a hostage situation... except for that fact that Det. Benson steps directly into Det. Stabler's line of fire and stays there throughout the entire ordeal, while Stabler doesn't bother to adjust his aim even though he can clearly see that Benson is in the way.

* ''[[Law and Order]]'': was usually quite good about gun safety. One episode dealt with an autistic boy prone to self-injury. He was in the holding cell when he started hitting his head against the wall. Detective Logan quickly hands his revolver, butt first, to Detective Briscoe for safekeeping before opening the cell and restraining the boy. When the boy goes wild, Detective Briscoe puts his own gun on his desk, as does Detective Profaci. This was all incidental and in the background. Sometimes gun safety went right out the window, usually when a Detective had had a really, really bad ~~day -- eg~~. Det. Logan's partner was murdered and Logan puts the suspect on his knees with a gun to the back of his head. A confession followed.

* ''[[Law and Order]]'': was usually quite good about gun safety. One episode dealt with an autistic boy prone to self-injury. He was in the holding cell when he started hitting his head against the wall. Detective Logan quickly hands his revolver, butt first, to Detective Briscoe for safekeeping before opening the cell and restraining the boy. When the boy goes wild, Detective Briscoe puts his own gun on his desk, as does Detective Profaci. This was all incidental and in the background. Sometimes gun safety went right out the window, usually when a Detective had had a really, really bad day—eg. Det. Logan's partner was murdered and Logan puts the suspect on his knees with a gun to the back of his head. A confession followed.

* ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]'': Robin is a gun enthusiast who routinely loses her guns, accidentally points a gun at another character while making vague threats, and apparently goes to the shooting range while blackout drunk.

* ''[[Doctor Who]]'':

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** Ocelot plays it straight, juggling and spinning the Single Action Army with all six chambers loaded. The gun is so notorious for accidental hammer drops that most gunfighters would only load it with five rounds.

** ''[[Metal Gear]] Solid 4'' has an odd ''inversion'' of the trope, in fact; during the beginning of the third chapter where Snake is {{spoiler|searching for a resistance cell that has possession of Big Boss's body}}, he gets stopped by some guards and is told to come with them. He refuses, and they aim their rifles at him, obviously about to shoot... except if you look closely, though, NONE of the soldiers' fingers are on their triggers. Justified, however, in that they're expecting Snake to show up, but the fact that he's entered with a hostile gesture and looks seventy makes them initially unsure of his identity.

** Old Snake also uses the battlefield rule of guns in an early cutscene where he picks up a rifle near a dead ~~soldier -- namely~~, "never trust an abandoned weapon." He very, very, VERY carefully checks under the rifle with his knife for booby traps before claiming it as his own.

** Old Snake also uses the battlefield rule of guns in an early cutscene where he picks up a rifle near a dead soldier—namely, "never trust an abandoned weapon." He very, very, VERY carefully checks under the rifle with his knife for booby traps before claiming it as his own.

** Snake calls out Meryl on her lack of combat experience, noting that even though she shows every intention of shooting Snake right then and there, [[Not with the Safety On, You Won't|she hasn't even taken the safety off on her rifle]]. However, [[Not with the Safety On, You Won't]] is artistic license; as that trope notes, the safety on most firearms can be removed in a heartbeat.

** Yet that's probably a hint to her inexperience that she would be slow in doing it. That's how he gets Johnny in the 4th entry in the series. Johnny looks to check rather than just flipping it off.

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** In the Citadel, Shepard can overhear [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bloy8-7vrk this conversation] where the gunnery chief chews out a couple of recruits for unsafe gun handling practices (they've essentially forgotten the "know what's behind your target" rule). Of course, the "gun" they're firing is the main cannon of a dreadnought, whose projectiles hit with the [[Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better|kinetic energy of a nuke]], so hitting the wrong target can have... consequences.

** The actual gun safety required in universe may be a little more lax than in real life, considering that all of the weapons require advanced inbuilt computers and a power cell in order to function, and there furthermore is no "ammo," only a chunk of metal that gets cut to make bullets. The guns are still dangerous, but flipping the safety off makes it a lot safer than a real life firearm with the safety on. A real life firearm can fire, safety on, due to mechanical error, a mass effect firearm can only fire, safety on, if you hotwire it or something equally implausible.

** The second game did slightly better than the first, in that you could no longer draw weapons outside of combat areas. In the first, you were quite free to pull out your assault rifles and shoot up any part of the Citadel you ~~like--including~~ the high-security center of galactic government!--without anyone so much as batting an eye. You just can't actually harm any civilians by shooting them.

** The second game did slightly better than the first, in that you could no longer draw weapons outside of combat areas. In the first, you were quite free to pull out your assault rifles and shoot up any part of the Citadel you like—including the high-security center of galactic government!--without anyone so much as batting an eye. You just can't actually harm any civilians by shooting them.

** Interestingly averted somewhat at one ~~point--when~~ you first meet Garrus, he takes down a thug holding a doctor hostage with a single shot. Shepard can either congratulate him on the shot or berate him for taking the very dangerous risk of shooting at someone when there's an innocent victim only a few inches away. (Mass effect weapons have built-in targeting computers and likely "smart" ammunition as well, plus Garrus' visor acts also helps his aim. Still, it's a very serious risk.)

** Interestingly averted somewhat at one point—when you first meet Garrus, he takes down a thug holding a doctor hostage with a single shot. Shepard can either congratulate him on the shot or berate him for taking the very dangerous risk of shooting at someone when there's an innocent victim only a few inches away. (Mass effect weapons have built-in targeting computers and likely "smart" ammunition as well, plus Garrus' visor acts also helps his aim. Still, it's a very serious risk.)

** A lot of the NPC, especially those belonging to [[Private Military Contractors|merc]] or criminal gangs have poor gun safety. Possibly justified in that they are criminals and unlikely to follow good practice. Another particulary egregious example is of Jonn Whitson, who wants to sign up for the mission to kill Archangel, who takes his piece out and starts waving it around. Justified, given that he obviously has no combat experience.

* ''[[Deus Ex]]'' [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]]: where gun safety leaflets can be picked up and read. Averted otherwise, as JC always holsters any weapons when initiating dialog. Even if he's caught flat-footed by someone he may rather keep his gun on. In certain areas, some civilians will panic if you have your gun out when you attempt to talk to them, forcing you to holster your weapon beforehand. In other areas, though, the trope is played straight unless you initiate dialog with other characters.