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{{quote|'''Mitch Henessey''' [singing]: Putting the keys in my left pocket. Hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm. Gun in the right-hand side.
'''Samantha Caine:''' It makes a bulge, people can see.
'''Mitch:''' Ya want me to stick it in my pants and [[Groin Attack|shoot my damn dick off]]?
'''Sam:''' [[Teeny Weenie|Now you're a sharpshooter?
|''[[The Long Kiss Goodnight]]''}}
When a character stores or conceals a weapon, typically a gun, in a place which is not suited for such a purpose, typically the waistband or sometimes pocket of his/her pants. There, or loose in a civilian briefcase. Anywhere but a holster. Often as not, the safety isn't on and the gun is loaded, too. Perhaps it's another source of the term [[Double Entendre|"going off half-cocked"
Although aversions aren't uncommon, the weapons rarely fall down the pants leg, and only occasionally will the weapon accidentally discharge and injure someone in an intimate place. Even when the weapon is drawn suddenly, like for combat, and leaves the pants with the user's finger on the trigger, it typically only happens for comedic purposes. Because what's funnier than someone shooting themselves in the foot? [[Shot in the Ass|That's]] [[Groin Attack|right.]]
Subtrope of [[Artistic License Gun Safety]]. See also [[I Just Shot Marvin in the Face]], [[Hidden Weapons]], [[Trouser Space]], [[Unorthodox Holstering]], and [[Victoria's Secret Compartment]].
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==▼
▲== Anime ==
* In the ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' manga, Edward Elric spends an entire arc with a borrowed handgun shoved into the back of his belt. There are no mishaps, {{spoiler|although it's so [[Squick|clotted with blood]] by the time he gets out of Gluttony's stomach-dimension that Hawkeye has to take it apart completely and clean it. In retrospect, this may at least have helped prevent misfires.}}
* Heero in ''[[Gundam Wing]]'' usually keeps a pistol tucked into the back of his bicycle shorts. Oddly, although the top half is often visible, [[Trouser Space|the barrel rarely makes a visible bulge in the tight material]].
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== Comic Books ==
* Similar to the ''[[Leverage]]'' example below: In ''[[Blacksad]]: Arctic Nation'', some thugs try to intimidate the title character in a grocery store. As the leader gets up in his face, Blacksad grabs the gun the guy is keeping tucked in his belt and holds it there. Rather than get a bullet in the gut, the thug calls his goons off.
* Seen {{spoiler|why this is a bad idea}} in a [[Batman]] comic [http://i733.photobucket.com/albums/ww336/SpawnofHastur/BatmanWillMakeYouShootYourselfInThe.jpg?t=1247022233 right here.]
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== Film ==
* ''[[Scary Movie]] 4'' has a character put the gun in his pants, and it fires ("RIGHT TESTICLE!"). It fires again ("LEFT TESTICLE!"), [[Overly Long Gag|and again and again and again]].
* Turkish points this out to Tommy in the movie ''[[Snatch]]'':
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== Literature ==
* ''[[Harry Potter]]'' gets yelled at by Mad-Eye Moody for storing his wand in the back pocket of his jeans.
{{quote|'''Mad-Eye Moody:''' "Better wizards than you have lost buttocks, you know!"
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** In another [[Expanded Universe]] book, it's mentioned in the narrative that gang-bangers, in an effort to look macho, will sometimes modify their blaster pistols to be deliberately unsafe by doing things like removing the trigger-guard...and how much of a [[Too Dumb to Live]] move this is, especially since many of them carry their guns in their waistband instead of a holster.
* ''The Takers'' by Jerry Ahern. Gun writer Jeff Culhane tells his girlfriend, [[Hot Scoop]] M.F. Mulrooney, that their latest adventure might be somewhat dangerous. She replies, "Hey, I'm prepared" and then takes a minute rummaging through her huge purse for her .38 pistol. Culhane replies, "Yeah, and I like that quick draw too."
* ''Patriot Games'' by [[Tom Clancy]] features Jack Ryan absentmindedly shoving a loaded handgun down his waistband, with the safety off and the hammer cocked.<ref>as in an inadvertent bump would be all that was needed to set it off, ending his line at Jack Jr</ref>
* Roland Deschain in ''[[The Dark Tower]]'' is kept from shooting {{spoiler|1=Marten/Walter/Flagg}} when the Ruger he kept in his waistband catches by its front sight on his belt buckle.
** Eddie Dean also makes use of the trope, stuffing one of Roland's revolvers down his pants as he and Susannah try to escape from a band of Pubes in ''The Waste Lands.'' Lampshaded, as the narration describes Eddie as "feeling like a cut-rate Superman" as he tries to manage both the gun and his underwear, while dodging a dozen or so armed lunatics at a dead run with a bilateral amputee riding on his shoulders.
* John D. MacDonald's recurring character [[Travis Mc Gee]] mentions in one book that he actually has a pair of pants with a spring-release holster hidden in the right front pocket.
* [[The Dresden Files|Harry Dresden]] once had to warn Billy the werewolf that keeping a gun in your pants pocket is a good way to sing soprano.
* [[Invoked Trope]] in ''[[
* In the ''[[Riftwar Cycle]]'' novel ''Silverthorn'', Jimmy stores a looted dagger this way, and ends up with a nasty gut wound later on because of it.
* In ''[[Myth Adventures|Another Fine Myth]]'', when Skeeve is cornered by muggers at the Bazaar, he reaches for the knife tucked into his belt, and it slips down the back of his pants. Luckily, he's still got his magic and his new pet dragon to even the odds.
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* Lampshaded in ''[[The Godfather]]'' when Michael Corleone asks to go to the toilet in the middle of his meeting with Sollozzo. [[Corrupt Cop]] McCluskey is immediately suspicious and does a pat-down of Michael's groin to see if he's got a gun hidden there. There ''is'' a gun, but it's been hidden in the toilet.
== Live
* Multiple characters on ''[[Lost]]'' keep guns tucked into the back of their waistlines, including Jack, who has no in-story excuse for knowing how to use a gun.
* In the ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]'', some of the later seasons had characters with phasers tucked into their pants instead of attached to an equipment belt (first season) or the outside of their waistband (later). William Shatner remarked in a book that this had been to show the characters getting accustomed to the weapons.
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** The smuggling pilot that knows the location of where he dropped off a russian that wanted to kill Michael did this. Fionna then calmly walks over to him, grabs his gun, and orders him to come with her or "you will lose your two closest friends". It worked.
* Hoobler in ''[[Band of Brothers]]'' had been trying to get hold of a Luger for months. He was pretty excited when he finally managed to commandeer one, only to go and shoot himself in the leg with it a bit later and bleed to death. While the series was [[Based on a True Story|based on true stories]], it is more commonly believed that the real Hoobler died when his service rifle snagged on barbed wire.
* ''[[Battlestar Galactica
* A lot of characters regularly keep their guns concealed down the front of their pants on ''[[The Wire]]''. One episode in particular features Omar Little, having to go out first thing in the morning but unwilling to go to the effort to get dressed, attempting to conceal a handgun in his baggy, silk pyjama pants, before apparently realising that this won't work, and deciding against bringing his gun at all.
* Dr Watson in the BBC's 2010 ''[[Sherlock]]'' sticks the [[Chekhov's Gun|gun he keeps in his desk drawer]] in the back of his waistband. He's an army doctor apparently recovering from a gunshot wound... really, he should know better. Later Sherlock puts it in his trouser pocket.
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* Crab Man of [[My Name Is Earl]] says he doesn't want guns in his house around his kids. One might suspect that he just doesn't want his wife to have them. She experiences an accidental discharge at the end of the episode while shoving a gun into her back pocket.
{{quote|'''Joy:''' It's alright, everybody! I just grazed my stinker.}}
* In the ''[[Community]]'' episode "[[Community/Recap/S3
* [[
== Tabletop Games ==
* The [[Trope Namer]] is the perk "Pants Positive Safety" in the ''High Tech'' supplement of [[GURPS]]. Any character without the perk gets hit with detailed rules for accidental discharge.▼
▲* [[Trope Namer]] is the perk Pants Positive Safety in the ''High Tech'' supplement of [[GURPS]]. Any character without the perk gets hit with detailed rules for accidental discharge.
== Video Games ==
* In ''[[Red Dead Redemption]]'' Irish walks around with his gun in the front of his pants, pointing directly at his crotch. {{spoiler|It is later revealed in the last news paper that Irish died by a self inflicted gun shot wound while drunk. One can only guess where he shot himself}}.
* Similarly, Takaya in ''[[Persona 3]]'' keeps his revolver slung in his belt, pointed right at his crotch. Which makes little sense, as guns are illegal in Japan, and you'd think someone would notice whenever he's not walking around in the [[Dark World|Dark Hour]].
== Web Original ==
* In ''[[Pay Me, Bug!]]'', the protagonist does this during his escape from {{spoiler|the hospital on Tyrelos Station}}. He didn't have the chance to steal the holster when he stole the gun, so there's really no place else to put it.▼
▲* In ''[[Pay Me Bug]]'', the protagonist does this during his escape from {{spoiler|the hospital on Tyrelos Station}}. He didn't have the chance to steal the holster when he stole the gun, so there's really no place else to put it.
== Western Animation ==
* Lamilton carries his grandmother's gun in the front of his pants waistband on ''[[The Boondocks]]'', but he manages not to shot himself (or anyone else he doesn't intend to).
* ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'': In "Sex, Pies and Idiot Scrapes", Homer becomes a bounty hunter and starts carrying a taser, which he shoves down the front of his pants because it looks cool. The results are predictable.
== Real Life ==
* [http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2011994648_accident31m.html This article.] Try not to snicker at the description of the incident as an "accidental discharge".
* NFL player Plaxico Burress famously shot himself (almost, but ''not quite'', in the nads) after storing his (''unregistered!'') gun in the waistband of his sweatpants. It slipped down his pants leg and he accidentally pulled the trigger when trying to catch it. He was in a crowded nightclub and he didn't notice he'd shot himself until he could feel the blood a few minutes after. So to recap: a man rich enough to have other people carry his gun, with a contract suggesting he ''should'', shoots himself as his gun falls down the elastic waistband of the pants he wore to a nightclub. Immediate action is not taken due to the minimal attention being paid to said gun.
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* An officer of Polish Anti-Corruption Bureau [[Shot in the Ass|shot himself in the ass]] with his service pistol, because he carried it in the back of his pants instead of a holster. Serves him right, the cheap bastard.
* According to one story on A Certain Imageboard, a thug walked up to a guy and tried to rob him. When the guy asked "with what?" the thug pulled up his pants and showed him the gun in his waistband. The victim simply reached for it, [[Groin Attack|pulled the trigger]], and left the thug screaming as he walked off.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20131104095642/http://www.dumbcriminals.com/murderers/shooting-yourself-in-the-footand-missing/#comments this dude] tried to shoot somebody, missed, and then accidentally shot himself while putting his gun back in his pants.
* Wild Bill Hickok, [[wikipedia:Wild Bill Hickok
* Holsters made to be worn inside the front waistband are quite common. As for why concealed carry holders aren't going around shooting off their peckers all the time, it's mostly because [[Reliably Unreliable Guns]] are rare in reality and pistols don't simply "go off" on their own without the trigger being pulled.
* It's entire possible to carry gun in a holster or pants pocket and not risk shooting yourself or others, but it requires a firearm with a reasonable firm double action trigger pull to it.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Guns and Gunplay Tropes]]
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