Reckless Gun Usage: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

There are [[Gun Safety|some basic rules for safely using guns]]. Unfortunately, not everyone knows what they are since many people are not used to firearms. This can result in things that are [[I Just Shot Marvin in the Face|deadly serious]] or [[Juggling Loaded Guns|hilarious]] depending on the work in question.

When somebody '''unfamiliar''' with firearms does something reckless with guns that endanger others, what's occurred is Reckless Gun Usage. Whether it's some schmuck in the middle of a [[Zombie Apocalypse]] or a bank robber, screwing up is still dangerous. Now if they should have known gun safety, that's more like they [[Artistic License Gun Safety|failed their gun safety course]].

 

 

== Advertising ==

* In this [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oi13LczGlsE bizarre advertisement for Amber Alert], four stereotypical soccer moms are firing rifles and machine guns at the camera in super-slow-motion. It features them [[Dramatic Gun Cock|re-cocking their guns when they're already ready to fire]], shooting from the hip, and firing with their eyes closed. But even these acts pale in comparison to {{spoiler|one woman going [[Guns Akimbo]] with ''AK-47s'' firing into the air - and '''hitting herself in the head multiple times with shell casings'''.}}

** And a woman hip-firing a ''belt-fed light machine gun''. Which is somehow semi-automatic.

 

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* ''[[Baccano!]]!'', when the [[Firing in the Air a Lot|celebratory gun shot]] the head of the Martillo family fires is immediately met with "Oh my God, somebody just killed Isaac!" from the floor above (luckily, Isaac's [[Plucky Comic Relief]] status means it actually only went through the brim of his hat without touching him).

* ''[[Highschool of the Dead]]'', This occurs somewhat often due to the main characters being [[Ordinary High School Student|perfectly normal high school students]] in a country with heavy gun control during a [[Zombie Apocalypse]], however, since there's a resident gun [[Otaku]], their errors are quickly pointed out and [[Gun Safety]] is properly followed.

* ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'', Kamina's short stint of [[Juggling Loaded Guns]] was due to never seeing a gun before. In spite of claiming otherwise, he didn't know what a gun was and thought you used it as a hammer.

 

 

* ''[[Harry Potter and the Nightmares of Futures Past]]'': Arthur Weasley has a gun in his office in the Ministry of Magic, which he shows to Harry and starts to pull the trigger with the muzzle close to his head, but the gun doesn't shoot because Arthur didn't go all the way. Harry nearly has a heart attack when this happens. He proceeds to steal the gun so that Arthur doesn't do this again. (And the gun is charmed to conjure bullets as it goes, so it might be useful in the future!)

 

 

== Film ==

* ''[[Planet Terror]]'', half of the ''[[Grindhouse]]'' double-feature, Dr. Dakota Block gives a gun to her child, when she leaves him alone in a car. {{spoiler|He shoots himself within a few seconds of her leaving the car.}}

* ''[[The Dark Knight]]'': [[The Joker]] ignores all gun-handling rules, but being ''the Joker'', he probably doesn't care at all if he unintentionally shoots someone. Or himself, for that matter. Hell, he'd probably think it was ''hilarious''. In fact, there is a scene where he stumbles and unintentionally sprays a burst of S&W M76 fire in a random direction.

** Harvey Dent is flipping a two-headed coin so he won't ''purposely'' shoot someone he was interrogating, but he was still pressing a loaded gun to that man's head.

* ''[[House (film)|House]]'', ([[House (TV series)|no relation]]), William Katt's character pretends that his shotgun went off while he was cleaning it, in order to explain the sound of gunshots. He ''actually'' used it to shoot a demonic witch-thing, but [[Through the Eyes of Madness|he's afraid it may have actually been his ex-wife]].

* ''[[Frozen River]]'', the main character is far from a gun expert, but is in fact a gun owner and somewhat intelligent person. Therefore it's quite horrifying to see one scene where she's driving a car while holding someone at gunpoint in the passenger seat. Just to be clear, she has a loaded gun in her hand, with her finger on the trigger, and is ''steering'' with that hand. The gun keeps swinging wildly in the passenger's direction. It becomes hard to pay attention to the film when you're constantly waiting for someone to unintentionally blow someone else's brains out.

* ''[[Star Wars]]'': Watch very closely as Luke Skywalker [http://irregularwebcomic.net/373.html first ignites his lightsaber] in ''[[A New Hope]]'' — he doesn't know how long the beam is and yet is pointing it at Obi-Wan. Of course, this is also Obi-Wan's fault for giving Luke a weapon he is totally unfamiliar with and letting him play with it.

* ''[[30 Minutes or Less|Thirty Minutes or Less]]'' has the bank robbery scene, where one woman slides a gun across the floor after not wanting to hold it. The gun then hits the bank counter, shooting a guy through the leg. The victim is understandably pissed at her.

* In the second ''[[Hellboy (film)|Hellboy]]'' movie, Hellboy fires his [[Hand Canon]] at two tiny little creatures that were flying from him towards a crowd of spectators. Given the size of the gun (big), the size of the creatures (small), and the fact that they were in a direct line to the spectators, you'd expect some collateral damage.

* A minor example from ''[[Escape From L.A.]]'': the lead in to the basketball scene shows a group of gunmen surrounding the court and shooting the poor sap inside full of holes. The gunmen on opposites sides of the court are obviously firing toward each other during the execution.

 

** In a Series 14 outtake, May defended himself, claiming it was the only way to see whether the barrel is unblocked.

*** Important Safety Tip, you never do that. Open the action and check from the breech end; light coming through the barrel without shadows shows an unblocked barrel. This lets you also remove any shell from the chamber, in case the gun is loaded - ''[[Gun Safety|and it is.]]''

* ''[[Touched By an Angel]]'', someone breaking just about all the rules—carelessly waving a loaded [[WW 2]]-era pistol around, pointing it straight at a friend, and then removing the magazine without clearing the chamber. After all that, how unlucky is it for said gun to [[What a Senseless Waste of Human Life|get knocked off a desk, unintentionally fire, and shoot someone right in the heart]]?

* ''[[Perry Mason]]'', If there was a gun involved in the murder-of-the-week, odds are good that [[Perry Mason]] will recklessly wave that gun around. One episode was particularly egregious: The district attorney, Hamilton Berger, fondles the murder weapon (a revolver marked as exhibit whatever) during the trial and rests it casually on the witness box, his finger on the trigger, the barrel aimed directly at the weapons expert's head. After a few questions, he turns it toward the jury, gesturing dramatically. Then, Mason does exactly the same thing when cross-examining.

** In his (albeit weak) defense, he'd just removed a coat strapped with explosives off of John Watson after the pair were threatened with being blowing up and/or being shoot by multiply snipers if Sherlock didn't back off. Even Sherlock was a bit freaked out once the danger had passed... {{spoiler|until of course Moriarty returned because he can't make his mind about when to kill the heroes.}}

*** He has absolutely no excuse in the next season's finale, when he presses a loaded gun to his best friend's head ([[It Makes Sense in Context]]) ''with his finger on the trigger'', and later just drops it on the cobblestone street while running away.

* In the first episode of ''[[Wild Boys]]'', Jack wakes up to find Mary's young son Tom pointing Jack's own gun at his head. Jack is understandably angry.

* This caused the death of one of ''[[MacGyver]]'''s childhood friends, as shown during a flashback in "Blood Brothers".

 

== Theatre ==

* ''[[Assassins (theatre)|Assassins]]'': Sarah Jane Moore is written to be played with no regard for the proper operation or storage of her .38 revolver. She unintentionally discharges it no less than five times during the course of the show, once while it's still in her hand bag, narrowly missing Squeaky Fromme, once into the air when she's supposed to be clicking the hammer of an unloaded weapon in "The Gun Song," once when startled with her finger prematurely on the trigger, damaging Charles Guiteau's hearing in the process, and twice during two separate scene change blackouts, with the lights coming up on her scene the second time to reveal she's just unintentionally shot her own dog.

 

* ''[[Eternal Darkness]]'', During Maxamillion's chapter, after he picks up two flintlock pistols, an insanity effect involves dropping one of them while reloading, [[I Just Shot Marvin in the Face|killing him]].

* ''[[Fallout 2]]'', features a cruel variant: One of the ways to assassinate {{spoiler|Orville Wright}} is to give one of his kids a loaded gun and tell them "Why don't you wave this in your daddy's face and pull the trigger?"

* In the Security opening cutscene for the Aquarium level of [[Brink]], one of the Security Officers smacks his friend's gun away, because he was waving it around while he was talking.

 

== Webcomics ==

* ''[[Questionable Content]]'', Marten [[Juggling Loaded Guns|doesn't observe]] ''taser'' safety and [http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=529 unintentionally electrocutes himself]. Of course, he ''was'' drunk.

* ''[[Ctrl+Alt+Del]]'', [http://www.cad-comic.com/cad/20100908 Ethan demonstrates] why [[Gun Safety]] rules exist.

* ''[[Lackadaisy]]'': [http://www.lackadaisycats.com/exhibit.php?exhibitid=19 In a background extra strip], Rocky [[I Just Shot Marvin in the Face|shoots himself in the ear]] when waving around his pistol, giving him the hole in the ear seen in the regular strip.

* ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'' had a [[Lampshaded]] case: [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2007-11-04 if you know through the full-body armor a small subsonic slug can only attract attention, using them for just this purpose becomes tempting].

 

== Web Original ==

[[Category:Did Not Do the Research]]

[[Category:Guns Do Not Work That Way]]