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'''"Bad" guns''':
* Anything [[Dirty Commies|distinctly Soviet/Warsaw Pact in origin]], most notably the Russian AK-47 and SVD rifles and the Czechoslovak Škorpion submachine gun.
* The Steyr AUG and TMP - though again, there are exceptional cases. And [[Did Not Do the Research|pretty illogical ones at that]], since the AUG has always been used by western armies and very rarely by organized crime. Thank a [[Die Hard (Film)|certain classic action movie]] [[Popcultural Osmosis|for giving it]] the "evuuul firearm" image. All the more weird because most modern German and Austrian guns are usually depicted as being of the "hero"/"good" gun variety.
* Any rifle produced by SIG (later Swiss Arms). Pistols tend to bounce around on either side.
* Almost anything made by Heckler and Koch, but like Steyr firearms, there are exceptions, such as if the good guys are part of a counter-terrorism or police unit.
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* Desert Eagle, unless the protagonist is an [[Anti-Hero]].
 
This also happened to some extent with the film cameras used by characters. Good guys favor Leicas or beat-up old manual SLRs; bad guys prefer Nikons. (A bit of [[Lampshade Hanging]] in the first season of ''[[Twenty Four|24]]'' -- the good guys use Macintosh computers, the bad guys use Microsoft.) ''[[Walker, Texas Ranger]]'' actually applied this to the cars characters drove; Walker and friends drove Dodges and Chryslers, the bad guys drove various General Motors products.
 
This is often [[Truth in Television]], though specific ones are used unrealistically. For example, the Uzi and AUG have rarely been used by actual criminals, but are often used by Western-friendly countries in real life. Many insurgent groups use many non-Soviet designs, especially as Western weapons and ammunition have become more common. In post-2001 Afghanistan, the national army and police, which are part of the UN coalition, use mainly ex-Soviet weapons, as do a lot of the British private security contractors working for Western organizations. "Good" weapons like the FAL and Lee-Enfield are now far more common among insurgents and militias than they are in national militaries.
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== Film ==
* In ''[[Iron Man (Filmfilm)|Iron Man]]'' (2008), the bad guys almost exclusively use Western guns. They're referred to as made by Stark International. This is used to illustrate how Stark can't bother himself at first over his tech falling into the wrong hands.
* In ''[[Star Wars]]'' Han Solo's signature DL-44 is really a rebuilt broomhandle Mauser, normally a 'bad guy' gun.
** Then again, it is often overlooked that Han Solo [[Sliding Scale of Anti-Heroes|is not a hero]] -- he's a smuggler. A smuggler with a bad-tempered partner (known to pull people's arms off if beaten at holo-chess), a highly illegal ship, and who has mastered the art of the subtle draw in order to be able to blow away the amateur bounty hunters that come after him if he screws up a smuggling job (no matter which version you believe, Han was definitely drawing his gun under the table and pointing it at Greedo's crotch for several seconds while Greedo talked). This was another clue that Han Solo [[Good Is Not Nice|is NOT a nice guy]].
** More generally, good guys in ''[[Star Wars]]'' tend to wield pistols (Han, Leia, Luke, the rebels on the ''Tantive IV'') whereas bad guys use rifles (Stormtroopers, Battle Droids).
** Zig-zagged for the generic Rebel soldiers after the first movie - in ''[[The Empire Strikes Back]]'' the standard blaster rifle was based on the StG-44, a weapon used by Nazi Germany. In ''[[Return of the Jedi (Film)|Return of the Jedi]]'', their rifles were instead based on the AR-15.
* In ''[[Commando (Filmfilm)|Commando]]'', many bad guys carry M16 rifles (possibly justified in that one of the terrorists' bosses was a turncoat Special Forces man).
* In ''[[Avalon]]'', protagonist Ash carries a PPK and SVD, and at one point borrows a broomhandle Mauser. Later, she trades her PPK for a dead player's M1911.
* In the Korean Western, ''The Good, the Bad, the Weird'' the Good bounty hunter wields a lever-action Winchester rifle, the Bad bandit uses a [[Revolvers Are Just Better|Webley revolver,]] and the Weird thief uses [[Guns Akimbo|a pair of Walther P38 pistols.]]
* In ''[[The Rocketeer (Filmfilm)|The Rocketeer]]'' the Police and FBI use .38 Special Revolvers while the Mobsters all carry Colt 1911 .45s. At the climax both the FBI and [[Even Evil Has Standards|Mobsters]] use Thompson Machine Guns again the Nazis.
* ''[[Captain America: The First Avenger (Film)|Captain America the First Avenger]]'' is set in World War II, and it features American and German soldiers using American and German weaponry. Red Skull's Luger is distinctive among the film's many examples of [[Good Guns, Bad Guns]] because it is modified to use an infinite supply of divine power as its ammunition.
* The 1995 film adaptation of ''Richard III'' seems to zig-zag on this trope, being set in an alternate ''Dieselpunk'' Britain. Richard, a villain, carries the Mauser C96, while Edward (ostensibly good) and Richmond (definitely good) carry the Colt 1911. However, the troops of both sides use Lee-Enfield rifles and Browning Automatic Rifles. Also, in the coup that opens the film, Richard's troops use the MP-18 and Edward's men carry the MP-40, both German-made weapons.
* In the SF/Horror film ''[[Lifeforce (Film)|Lifeforce]]'', the SAS troopers are armed with Steyr [[AU Gs]].
* Though the villains of ''[[Heat]]'' use all sorts of firearms throughout the film, the big shootout has the more sympathetic Shiherlis and McCauley wielding Colt 733s (AR-15 varient with a 11.5" barrel) while Cheritto, the more stereotypical bad guy, carries a Galil ARM, which resembles an AK.
* In ''[[The Avengers (Filmfilm)|The Avengers]]'', good guy Hawkeye carries a Heckler and Koch P30 as his sidearm.
 
 
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* ''[[Second Sight]]'' stands out as a game that completely ignores this. For instance, a street gang has some members with revolvers and some with sawed-off shotguns, a violation no matter how the group is perceived (it's more good than bad, for the record.)
* Averted in ''[[Home Front]]'', where the North Koreans are using mainly NATO weapons instead of the typical Soviet Bloc weapons that they have in real life. This is due to the fact that they now control South Korea and Japan, which gives them access to plenty of NATO weapons.
* In ''[[GoldenGoldenEye Eye007 (1997 (Videovideo Gamegame)|GoldenEye]]'', the enemies usually use [[AKA-47|knockoffs of various Soviet weapons]] while Bond uses NATO weaponry. There's nothing stopping him from picking up and using their guns, though.
* Mooks in ''[[Blood]]'' who actually use guns most commonly use a [[Sawed-Off Shotgun]] or a Thompson with a drum magazine, both of which Caleb also uses. His shotgun gets a good-gun pass due to all the zombies, but his Thompson still counts as a bad gun because [[Evil Versus Evil|he's not exactly a good guy himself]]. ''Blood II'' mixes this up a bit, with the return of the shotgun and machine pistols [[Guns Akimbo|wielded in pairs]], but it also prominently arms characters with Beretta 92s and M16s.
* Averted in ''[[Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker]]''. Mooks are armed with various weapons, both NATO and Warsaw Pact issue. Plus, each of these (plus many others) are available for the player to research and use for themselves.
* Pretty much averted in ''[[Operation Flashpoint]]'', particularly in the campaign of the ''Resistance'' expansion pack, where you act as the leader of a [[La Résistance|resistance group]] [[Fighting For Aa Homeland|fighting to liberate his homeland]] from a recent Soviet invasion. Practically all the standard guns of your partisans are either Warsaw Pact or civilian/hunting models. Most of your arsenal is therefore identical with that of the Soviet soldiers. On the other hand, there is a subversion later on, when the freedom fighters manage to acquire aid from a local NATO garrison. After this, they can also use a small supply of western firearms (e. g. FN FALs, Steyr AUGs and M21 sniper rifles).
* Only averted after the first unlock in ''[[Battlefield 3 (Video Game)|Battlefield 3]]'', where the first weapons available to each class are for one particularly side only. This means when you first start you can only use American weapons as the US (including the M4, M16, and Mk 11), and similarly when you play as the Russians you can only use Russian weapons (including the AK-74M, RPK-74M, Dragunov SVD and the AKS-74U). Of course, from the first weapon unlock onwards of each class, you can use those weapons regardless of side. This will often, similarly to ''[[Call of Duty]]'', lead to Russians with MP7s, M39 EMRs and HK416s and Americans with AEK-971s and PKP Pechenegs.
 
 
== Web Original ==
* In the ''[[Darwins Soldiers|Darwin's Soldiers]]'' universe, this trope is totally averted as "good guns" are frequently used by the bad guys and the "bad guns" are used equally by heroes and villains.
 
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Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/882441"
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