While there are two distinct sections of examples, it seems to me that they blur into each other. But I'm fairly well uneducated in the ways of firearms, and it would be helpful if someone who actually knew their way around guns were to check this out and clean it up if it needs it.
Thank you.
Typically, firing one-handed was the classic way to fire most guns of handgun size, and still is for those like revolvers, which don't really work as well two-handed because the recoil is an important part of the firing pattern and using one arm while using one's arm to direct the recoil is an important part of using a revolver. The two-handed stance, also called the Weaver stance, is more modern and is generally used to help keep most pistols steady while aiming, especially the heavier varieties that can drag down the arm, with the off hand used to steady the gun by the grip while the other pulls the trigger.
It's entirely possible to fire almost any gun above handgun or light SMG one handed, but accuracy will go down extremely due to recoil, the extra weight of the weapon, and the lack of steadiness afforded by two hands, unless one has the arms of a gorilla.
I think the issue is more that some of the handgun and long gun examples are mixed up. For example, the Terminator example looks like it should move down. Looney Toons, am I reading you correctly?
Yes, NotaBene. There were originally two entirely separate groups of examples with a tiny chunk of text separating them to explain why, and as best as I can determine it boiled down to "realistically little guns" and "too big to be real". And there is a fair amount of blur between the two sections -- shotguns appear in both, for example. I would really like someone with definite knowledge to adjudicate the "border" cases -- which category should shotguns be in? Carbines? Bullpups, if they count as a separate type? Small pistols and big rifles (and turret-mounted weapons) are easy enough to decide even if you know virtually nothing (like me) -- it's the stuff in the middle that I don't have the knowledge to sort out one way or the other.
And while we're on the topic... if you're firing a one-handed gun one-handed, isn't that People Sit on Chairs territory? Should this actually be a trope only about firing two (or more)-handed weapons one-handed?
Probably. We could jump down a rabbit hole and quibble about whether a character "should" be firing a handgun with both hands (and not just one) to achieve some objective with respect to aim or rate of fire, but that would be silly and would probably fit better under Improbable Aiming Skills.
Right, LT. I had the same thought when I read Geth's post. Using a device for its intended purpose, exactly the same as real life, is pretty much identical to People Sit on Chairs. The second half looks like a legit trope.
Going to have to agree that firing a handgun one handed is not a trope.
Using a two-handed firearm one-handed, especially when there isn't an actual reason to even bother (hand isn't injured or carrying anything) is definitely a trope.
Over four and a half years later, I've added a cleanup template with what I think is a reasonable summation of this thread to the page itself, in the hopes that someone how knows something about guns takes it upon themselves to fix things.
I'll try giving a shot soon, I'm a bit of a gun nerd, so I'll try to parse the wheat from the chaff.
Fixed the page. The pistol examples were a dog's breakfast of people with no knowledge of firearm calibers posting facepalm worthy non-examples and some examples weren't even about anything that would be classified as an actual handgun. I blowtorched all the bad examples and added a clear mod note to prevent further bad examples.
The two-handed weapons looked okay. Some shotguns CAN be fired one-handed, as can some assault rifles, but it's very impractical nigh all the time so unless your are super strong (like all those were listed), those all fit.