Not with the Safety On, You Won't: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

 

In the first case, the character being held up might use it as a ruse to try to wrong-foot his opponent. Usually in this instance the character at gunpoint is a veteran, his savvy attitude being contrasted to his inexperienced opponent. It is ''extremely'' rare for the opponent to call his bluff; instead he will usually tilt his gun and look down to check if the safety is on, letting the other person get the drop on him. Note that in this case the safety need not actually be on; all that's necessary is to trick the guy holding the gun into checking.

In [[Real Life]] though, some of these would be hard to pull off. The person on the other end would have to have a keen eye and knowledge of the particular weapon to notice the position of the safety at a distance. If bluffing, he would have to be sure the person with the gun wouldn't check by pulling the trigger. Finally, most firearms which employ a manually disengaged safety are designed so the safety can be disengaged in a heartbeat by a swift movement of the thumb. Even an untrained shooter can flick it with their thumb while squeezing the trigger. This is an intentional feature of many assault rifles, shotguns, hunting rifles, and pistols, as soldiers, hunters, and policemen all have legitimate reasons for wanting to be able to carry a weapon on safe yet still be able to perform a "snap shot." The AK-47 and variants are a notable exception, as their very awkwardly placed selectors do make quickly disengaging the safety difficult, especially for right handed shooters.

 

 

The inverse sometimes shows up in movies where a gun ''is'' fired with the safety on, presumably to keep actors from death by blank. This annoys gun nuts; the appropriate special effects hide the phenomenon from other viewers.

 

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* Somewhat subverted or at least tongue in cheek referenced in ''[[Gundam Seed]]''. Two characters are in a stand off with Athrun, an experienced soldier and ace pilot holding a knife and Cagalli, his temporary "prisoner", having snuck his gun away from him while he slept, which Athrun'd told her he'd kill her if she tried to do. The standoff breaks with Athrun charging with the knife just as Cagalli loses her nerve and throws away the gun because she doesn't want to shoot him, even to save herself. We hear a gunshot...and then the scene cuts back to the gun lying on the ground as Athrun angrily demands why she'd be stupid enough to throw a gun with the safety left off. Later referenced pretty much exactly in an exchange between Kira and Mu as they chase down Rau Le Creuset.

*** It makes for a bit of [[Fridge Brilliance]] when you realize that Kira for the most part would never want to use a gun as he probably can't shoot someone without accidentally killing them. Every shot he fired with it ends up being wasted because he had convinced himself that killing is wrong... in a war.

* Done in the ''[[Battle Royale]]'' manga, in a flashback: a guy holds a revolver to Shogo's girlfriend's head, and demands that Shogo drop his gun or else he will shoot her. Shogo casually says, "You're not going to shoot her -- the safety's on," causing the other guy to check to see if that's true, and Shogo uses the opening to shoot the guy in the face. He then remarks: "Idiot. Revolvers don't have safety catches."

* In ''Orguss 02'', used by the series' [[Magnificent Bastard]], Manning, who notes as he's being tied up by the series' naive hero Lean that 'you can't fire that gun without a bullet in the chamber. Next time, pull the bolt first.' Lean ''himself'' provides an inversion, realising the Derringer his companion Naturuma has repeatedly pointed at him isn't loaded, reminding her that a professional soldier might recognise this immediately.

* In [[Hentai]] anime / manga ''Kamyla'', the main character escapes from confinement because she sees the mook's gun having safety on, and beat him up.

* ''[[Eureka Seven]]'' featured Holland using this trick and then punching away the gun.

** {{spoiler|Jodie}} successfully puts the gun's safety lever on during an episode about a bus-jacking. The other guy found out too late.

 

== Comic Books ==

* Done hilariously in an old ''[[G.I. Joe]]'' comic, where Snake Eyes' old master, pretending to be a simple chef, deals with an attempted robbery by a young teenager. First he points out that the safety is on in the boy's gun, and when the boy takes it off, he grabs the gun's slide, pops out the bullet from the chamber, drops the clip off, and then offers to buy the empty gun from him for $100, dropping it in a crate full of empty pistols!

 

== Film ==

* In the beginning of ''[[The Fifth Element]]'', Korben is confronted by a crazed robber with a rather nasty-looking gun. Korben informs him that the safety's on, but is even helpful enough to point it out to him and give him a chance to flip the switch. Cue the subversion, as the poor dumb criminal has just ''de''activated the gun, and Corben pulls his own weapon on him and takes it.

** It helps that the guy is obviously a drug addict in desperate need of a fix. His hands were visibly shaking, as Korben immediately noticed.

** {{spoiler|There is probably some degree of retained memory though, as later in the movie the characters start experiencing a bit of ''déja vu''}}.

* This happens to One-Round, the [[Dumb Muscle]] member of the gang in the 1955 version of ''The Ladykillers.''

** Proving that however hot a bomber jock he is, Hale is not a "gun guy". When a revolver is pointed at you, it's easy to tell if it's loaded or not - just ''look at the little holes in the front of the cylinder''. If each one has a bullet looking back out at you, you can safely assume the thing will go ''bang'' if the trigger is pulled. (For people who actually know firearms, this scene is a guaranteed groan-inducer.)

* [[Terminator|Terminator Salvation]] - Blair's gun gets stolen, and when somebody tries to use it against her she tells him. "You forgot to chamber a round." Whether it was true or not didn't matter because it bought her enough time to get the jump on him.

* When Experience pulls the rifle on Tucker in Black Sheep, Tucker points out the safety is on, and after a few minutes of directions to the safety, she gives tucker the gun to turn the safety off. As he hands it back to her, He yanks it back with the quick response: "Yeah, right."

* In [[Big Trouble in Little China]], Jack has a little bit of trouble plugging a mook until his partner reminds him to take off the safety...

* A cool variation in ''[[Damnatus]]'', where an enemy mook gets a hit in on [[Technopath|tech-priest]] Oktavian and uses the opening to pull a gun. The gun fails to fire. A now-recovered Oktavian explains "Machine empathy..." and whacks the mook with his power axe.

* There's a rather strange example in ''[[District 9]]'', where mercenaries are conducting a raid on a shanty. From a gun-mounted view of an assault rifle, it is clearly visible that the selector is set on safe when the mercenary is taking point on a raid.

** Perfectly justified. No soldier worth their uniform would take the safety off until the last moment. Waving around an assault rifle in all the exitement with the safety off is a recipe for disaster even in the hands of a trained professional.

** Seen again in ''[[Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow]]''. At the very end of the movie, Polly Perkins points her camera(which has only one shot left) at Sky Captain and shoots. He just looks at her and says, "Lens cap."

* Delivered straight in ''[[Strange Days]]'', when Mace tricks a thug pointing a gun at her by muttering "Safety's on." He blinks. She punches.

* Perhaps the ultimate example is the [[Cool Gun|Lawgiver 2]] in [[Judge Dredd]], which electrocutes any non-Judge who tries to fire it. It's also a subversion, as the one person who attempts to lampshade this gets shot - turns out the man he's addressing ''is'' a Judge.

* ''[[Snatch]]'' has a variation, when Bullet-tooth Tony points out that the guns being wielded by his would-be attackers have the word 'replica' written on them, while his has the words 'Desert Eagle'.

** [[BFG|"Point Five-Oh"]]

** Played straighter in the novelization, where, after getting the phaser back, Picard observes that the weapon was on the ''minimum'' setting and comments that if she'd fired, it have "given [him] a rather nasty rash."

** She gets a [[Take That]] back, however:

 

== Literature ==

* [[Matthew Reilly|Ice Station]] uses a type 2. Shane Schofield gives his ally James Renshaw a pistol, who then uses it to hold up [[Big Bad|Barnaby]]. Barnaby just laughs and pulls out his own gun because Renshaw didn't chamber a round. Renshaw decided to run before he was shot.

* At [[The Climax]] of the [[Tom Clancy]] Ryanverse novel ''Patriot Games'', after the [[Big Bad]] is taken into custody, one of the Marines that joined Ryan on the would-be escape ship points out that if John had really wanted to kill the terrorist, he'd have had the safety off. As a part of the "Green Machine" legacy himself, Ryan would be more than familiar with the safety of the pistol he was holding.

 

** And played straight on the Doctor's end as he went up against the [[Big Bad]] in the finale issue of IDW's ''The Forgotten'' miniseries.

* In the ''[[Due South]]'' episode "Free Willie":

'''Fraser''': I don't think so, because that would require knowing how to take off the safety. }}

* ''[[Chuck]]'': Chuck is supposed to get Sarah out of a locked freezer by shooting out the lock, but the gun doesn't work. Then Sarah tells him to take the safety off.

* From ''[[Leverage]]'':

** This happens in the pilot, "The Nigerian Job":

''Hardison looks down to check, and Nathan grabs the gun.'' }}

** Similarly, in "The Girls' Night Out Job", Sophie tells a thug pointing a gun at her that the safety is on. While he's checking the gun, Tara comes up behind him and breaks a vase over his head, commenting that the safety was off. [[Badass Boast|"Not to a grifter."]]

'''Napoleon Solo''' [''slowly walking towards Pepper'']: Alright then, better shoot and get it over with. [''Pepper fumbles with the pistol, which does not fire. Solo disarms her''] You see, the safety catch is on; it limits the range of the weapon considerably. }}

** Although laser weapons would need safeties for the same reason conventional firearms have them.

** The same applies to Stan in an episode of ''[[Lexx]]''.

* ''[[Castle]]'': The murderer is cornered by Beckett while holding Castle hostage at gunpoint. After uncovering the murderer's motive, Castle knocks him down and wrests the gun from him. Beckett tells him he could have been killed, and Castle replies that the safety was on the whole time.

'''Castle''': Where's the fun in that? }}

* Used in ''[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]'' season two episode "The Good Wound". Reese points this out to someone holding a gun on him, and it distracts them long enough for him to draw his own (although not long enough for him to shoot).

* In the second episode of ''[[The Walking Dead]]'', [[Meet Cute|Andrea threatens to shoot Rick]] for bringing a hoarde of "walkers" to their location. Later, he advises her to take the safety off next time, and even gives her a quick lesson in handling a gun.

* An interesting subversion happens in an episode of ''[[21 Jump Street]]''. Hanson, posing a student, is being threatened by another student (named Ronnie) with a gun. He is saying things such as, "you could end up dead". The gun is cocked and incredibly close to Hanson's face. After the student is satisfied and begins walking away, the following exchange takes place:

'''Ronnie''': The safety don't work, man. Never did. }}

* A variation happened in one episode of ''[[Adam-12]]''. Malloy chases a guy armed with a shotgun over a hill, only to find the shotgun leveled at him. Then the guy gives up. Turned out he left the safety on and pulled the trigger so hard it ''broke''.

* The reason Stella wasn't shot by Frankie in ''[[CSI: NY]]'' 'All Access'. Frankie didn't know enough about guns to take the safety off.

 

== Video Games ==

** Which does not really make sense, as assault rifles aside from an AK-47 variant have the selector switch located where it can be deactivated in no time, thus allowing a soldier to carry it on safe yet still take a snap shot.

** In 4, he snatches Johnny Sasaki's gun away after almost exactly the same lines after the less experienced soldier visually inspects his [[Rare Guns|XM8]]. Since the XM8 was designed to evoke muscle memory from years of training with the M16 family, and it's almost impossible to pass even rudimentary military training without being able to tell the safety's position by feel, this succeeds in making Johnny look like an absolute moron.

** Hideo Kojima, the main man behind all the MGS games, has never shied away from a great deal of Artistic License when it comes to all things military. Each and every one of these scenes would cause a soldier to go down as the biggest moron in his unit's history, even if he were a private. It may work in the narrative of the series, but gun-savvy players can't help thinking that Ocelot, Meryl, Johnny, and even Snake are outright ignorant about tools they supposedly use daily.

* The mugger who keeps pestering you in ''[[Deja Vu]]'' repeatedly forgets to take the safety off, meaning you can score a punch to the nose and make him scurry off. The first few times, anyway...

** This is particularly strange, because the mugger in ''[[Deja Vu]]'' is clearly threatening you with a revolver, which would lack a safety.

 

 

== Western Animation ==

* The Monarch of ''[[The Venture Bros]]'' is once shown telling an anecdote about when Captain Sunshine, a superhero, had a gun to his face, but the Monarch noticed he didn't touch the safety. The Monarch then claimed he was [[Immune to Bullets]], and when the gun didn't do anything, the Captain Sunshine ran away and has thought he was invulnerable ever since.

** ''[[Brick Joke|Three seasons later]]'', Captain Sunshine appears on the show, still believing the Monarch is invulnerable.

 

== Real Life ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Guns and Gunplay Tropes]]

[[Category:Stock Phrases]]