Artistic License Gun Safety/Sandbox

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


The description has been moved to Artistic License Gun Safety.

Examples of Artistic License Gun Safety/Sandbox include:


Lampshaded, aversions or Shown Their Work possible name A Lesson In Gun Safety

  • Gunslinger Girl averts this; Henrietta's pistol jams on the firing range and she immediately turns it around and looks down the barrel. Raballo knocks it out of her hand and starts chewing out Giuseppe for not having trained Henrietta properly.
  • Ghost in the Shell, Shirow Masamune shows proper Gun Safety again. This time noting how stupid the cops are. Situation: enemy mook is surrounded on all sides by the cops. He notes that should they all fire at the target, they would probably kill each other. Literally surrounding your opponent and aiming for him is not a bright idea, kids!
    • In general, Shirow is well known for doing his research. Gun Safety is just one of the more heartening aspects.
    • This is invoked in a first-season episode of Stand Alone Complex - the character is shown running around waving his gun wildly with his finger on the trigger, uncharacteristic enough to show how unhinged the case is making him.
  • Gunsmith Cats averts this trope wholeheartedly. For example, when a customer brings a gun to be modified, one of the gun store-owning protagonists checks the chamber before doing anything else and chastises the customer for leaving a round in.
  • Monster averts this: Tenma's training strongly emphasizes the rules, and he later handles guns with the responsibility and care you'd expect of a surgeon.
  • Highschool of the Dead averted: One of the survivors is a Gun Otaku and knows proper gun etiquette. He is also very fastidious in pointing it out to his fellow survivors when they handle a firearm improperly. However, points are lost when shots are fired dangerously close to main characters, only Rule of Cool prevents I Just Shot Marvin in the Face.
  • The Boys, Butcher is confronted by a couple of street hoods. One lifts his shirt to show off the gun in his pants waistband. Butcher just reaches out and pull the gun out before either hood can react, then crushes the gun. This is rather tame for a Garth Ennis comic, frankly. Butcher could have just as easily grab the gun, then pull the trigger, blowing off this guy's nuts. And demonstrating how stupid it is to walk around with a cocked gun - in your pants!
  • Misfiled Dreams averted: when Ash reaches under a car seat to check that a weapon the car's owner just told her about is there, the owner chastises Ash and tells her about the rules for gun handling. Of course, Misfiled Dreams is known for its aversion of Did Not Do the Research.
  • Finishing the Fight: When presenting their weapons to medieval era guards, the Chief still shows them his battle-rifle's empty chamber and removed clip before putting it down on the table, empties out his shotgun and pistol while Johnson does the same, and the Arbiter does the plasma-rifle equivalent. Later, when they are teaching others how to use the guns, the Chief first stresses the correct procedures for unloading, reloading and teaching them what the 'safety' is.
  • Harry Potter and the Nightmares of Futures Past: Arthur Weasley has a gun on 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!)
  • Tremors Averted this with the character Burt Gummer: a survivalist and gun-enthusiast, he actually follows proper weapon safety. At one point he gives a revolver to teenaged waste-of-space Melvin Plug, to get him moving to a safe-point. Despite knowing that he'd deliberately handed Melvin an unloaded gun, when Burt takes it back from Melvin he still flips it open and re-confirms the chambers are all empty... which is exactly what you're supposed to do any time you pick up a weapon.
  • Black Hawk Down During the barbecue scene the Ranger unit CO calls out a Delta Force operator for wandering around with a loaded M4 carbine hanging from his neck with the safety catch off. Said operator then just about laughs in his face.
    • This was Truth in Television, as this precise incident was taken from the book by journalist Mark Bowden. In defense of the Delta operator, his response was that "my finger is my safety." This incident underscored the differences in culture between the by-the-book Rangers and the Delta operators who might be best described as Bunny Ears Soldiers.
      • Should be notes that this particular scene is often cited as Crowning Moment of Awesome. And it established Hoot as an extreme badass - which he later lives up to.
  • Heartbreak Ridge, one of the screwup Marine trainees grossly mishandles his automatic rifle during target practice. This resulted in a burst of bullets narrowly missing the Jerkass superior officer. The trainee is punished by doing laps for miles, with his rifle held over his head, till he falls down in exhaustion. This was considered somewhat cruel by his squadmates; if this happened in real life, hell would rain down in this guy for time out of mind.
  • Men in Black, right after K gives J the Noisy Cricket. While J is protesting being given such a tiny gun, he points it at K's head. K turns around, flinches, and points J's arm in a direction that is not at him. Given that J used to be an NYPD police officer, he should've known better. In J's defense, he seemed to regard it at more of a toy until he fired it and blew a giant hole in a truck.
    • Given that he was explicitly being given it as a weapon, even if it looked like a toy, he definitely should've known better. Especially since he had no idea of what it could or could not do.
  • Way Of The Gun averted as various characters are pointedly shown holding guns without their fingers on the triggers. The director hired his brother, an ex-Navy SEAL, to coach the actors on how to properly handle guns.
  • Starship Troopers, the book. The book was written by Robert Heilein, who actually knew a thing or two about weapons and the military, and Rico is instead punished for a similar safety protocol violation that doesn't result in anyone being hurt, and which he only does because he knows it can't possibly result in any harm in that particular case. So it's a complete inversion, as the punishment is designed to make the point to him that you always follow the rules, even when you're absolutely sure it would be safe not to.
  • Shooter averts: Bob Lee Swagger shows exemplary gun safety, to be expected of an experienced sniper. Central to the plot is the fact he responsibly disables his guns before leaving his house, swapping out the firing pins - "...looks right, you'd need a micrometer to tell... but the gun don't shoot." It should be noted that this is far beyond normal safe storage and is being done because he is Properly Paranoid.
  • Phantasm averted: Jody gives some firearms combat instruction to his younger brother Michael.

Jody: Now, remember: you don't aim a gun at a man unless you intend to shoot him. And, you don't shoot a man unless you intend to kill him. No warning shots. Hey, you listening to me? No warning shots. Warning shots are bullshit. You shoot to kill, or you don't shoot at all.

  • The Sentinel averted: a Secret Service agent is shot on his doorstep, and the Arlington PD initially assumes that he didn't have time to get the safety off. Keifer Sutherland, (who is not to be questioned), says that Secret Service agents only draw when they absolutely intend to fire, so he would have released the safety in one motion.
  • Kick-Ass, Big Daddy teaches his preteen daughter not to be scared of guns by putting her in a bullet proof vest and shooting her. Averted later on, when Big Daddy pulls a gun on an intruder, before realizing that the intruder is on his side. Big Daddy removes the magazine, empties the chamber and then puts it on the table pointing away from them.
  • The Punisher (2004) averted: Each and every time Frank Castle racks the slide to load one of his Custom .45 autos he always carefully eases the slide open a quarter-inch afterwards to confirm a round was indeed chambered using the grooves on the front of the slide, which is exactly what they were put there for.
  • The Baader Meinhof Complex brings up this trope during a scene in which Andreas Baader's gang is counting the money they have robbed from several banks. One of the members is examining a loaded pistol and it discharges, the bullet narrowly missing Andreas' head. After he grabs the gun and shouts at her, he unloads the magazine, clears the chamber and leaves it open before throwing the gun down on a table.
  • Battlefield Earth averted. The humans raid Terl's weapons room and start threatening him. Unfortunately...

Terl: If you rat-brains knew ANYTHING about firearms, you'd know that you never store loaded weapons!

    • However, in another scene, Terl intentionally hands a human prisoner a ready-to-fire weapon, to prove his point that the "human animals" are too stupid to operate firearms. The prisoner ends up killing Terl's lieutenant with it.
  • Picket Fences series is one in which Zachary Brock, bitter about his brother's injury in a school shooting, calmly retrieves his father's gun from its supposed place of concealment, pantomimes firing it at his brother's attacker, and then just as calmly returns the weapon to its place. Zack's father is the town sheriff, yet his means of securing his weapon barely even slow his son down. Oh, and did I mention that Zachary is about nine at the time?
  • Law and Order, was usually quite good about gun safety. One episode dealt with an autistic boy prone to self-injury. He was in the holding cell when he started hitting his head against the wall. Detective Logan quickly hands his revolver, butt first, to Detective Briscoe for safekeeping before opening the cell and restraining the boy. When the boy goes wild, Detective Briscoe puts his own gun on his desk, as does Detective Profaci. This was all incidental and in the background. Sometimes gun safety went right out the window, usually when a Detective had had a really, really bad day (eg. Det. Logan's partner was murdered and Logan puts the suspect on his knees with a gun to the back of his head. A confession followed.).
  • Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater: Snake Eater averted, where Naked Snake, in all of his cutscenes, place his finger outside the trigger guard. You don't want to accidentally shoot blindly when you are on a sneaking mission. It appears that Solid "Old" Snake does so as well in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots as well. During an early cutscene, you can see Snake turn on his rifle's safety before putting it down to inspect another gun, which he does sensibly, even pointing it straight at a wall when testing the trigger pull.
    • Ocelot plays it straight, juggling and spinning the Single Action Army with all six chambers loaded. The gun is so notorious for accidental hammer drops that most gunfighters would only load it with five rounds.
    • Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots has an odd inversion of the trope, in fact; during the beginning of the third chapter where Snake is searching for a resistance cell that has possession of Big Boss's body, he gets stopped by some guards and is told to come with them. He refuses, and they aim their rifles at him, obviously about to shoot... except if you look closely, though, NONE of the soldiers' fingers are on their triggers. Justified, however, in that they're expecting Snake to show up, but the fact that he's entered with a hostile gesture and looks seventy makes them initially unsure of his identity.
    • Old Snake also uses the battlefield rule of guns in an early cutscene where he picks up a rifle near a dead soldier—namely, "never trust an abandoned weapon." He very, very, VERY carefully checks under the rifle with his knife for booby traps before claiming it as his own.
    • Snake calls out Meryl on her lack of combat experience, noting that even though she shows every intention of shooting Snake right then and there, she hasn't even taken the safety off on her rifle.
  • Deus Ex,Lampshaded where gun safety leaflets can be picked up and read. Averted otherwise, as JC always holsters any weapons when initiating dialog. Even if he's caught flat-footed by someone he may rather keep his gun on. Civilian NPCs will run away if you have your gun out. If you want to talk to them, you have to put your gun away.
  • Resident Evil early games had this in droves, though the most recent examples (Degeneration and Resident Evil 5) have an almost obsessive focus on gun safety in the cutscenes. In-game, however, the characters do run with their guns down and safe, until you hold the button which readies them.
  • Operation Flashpoint and the ArmA series: averted, characters move their fingers out of the trigger guard on a weapon when they lower it. For primary weapons, at least; there's no way to lower a pistol or ordnance launcher without putting them away.
  • Call of Duty 2: Big Red One, averted: when one private points his rifle at someone, the CO yells at him.
  • Battlefield: Bad Company 2 lampshaded: When the player points a gun at any member of his squad, the player character diverts the gun away from them. Again, in all other situations, you're free to point weapons and even fire at them when you so choose.
  • Fallout series, many characters will refuse to talk to you or will even try and kill you if you refuse to put your weapon away in their presence. It's also perfectly possible for your trigger happy teammates to accidentally blow you to pieces in combat, especially if they're using burst weapons.
  • STALKER most characters will tell you to holster your weapon and won't talk with you if you don't obey. Some characters may even attack.
  • Whateley Universe frequently averted: The Range staff are very, very hot on gun safety, understandably given that they work at a school. A couple of the writers appear to be gun enthusiasts and/or soldiers of one stripe or another. Big deals are made in-universe of the times when people don't follow the rules.
    • It's kind of jarring, though, that the school isn't nearly as fastidious about safe use of their students natural powers.
  • The Simpsons: The episode where Homer buys a gun after riots erupt in Springfield. After Marge told him to get rid of the gun he hides it in the vegetable crisper. During the Gun Club meeting he's shown to be very irresponsible with his gun using it to open his bear, turn on the TV, etc. Of course his fellow gun club members chew him out for this and kick him out of the party.

played for laughs (which should be on Juggling Loaded Guns!)

  • Full Metal Panic!? Fumoffu plays a too-literal adherence to this trope for laughs. Sousuke is playing an arcade light gun game, and doing quite well until the light gun runs out of bullets. Sousuke immediately pulls his personal very real pistol and blows the game away. When it's explained to him that you're supposed to shoot away from the screen to reload, his response is that this would have been horribly unsafe.
    • It should be noted that Sousuke observes proper gun safety, and indeed takes pains to introduce Kaname to the basics in an episode of The Second Raid. He just has No Social Skills—no concept of the idea that civilian life and open battlefields have different social standards for when it's acceptable to pull a loaded firearm on someone.
  • Tag & Bink: Revenge of the Clone Menace Parodied on the cover, where one of the titular characters is scratching his head. With a deactivated lightsaber. And then there's how in the Star Wars universe, it's standard practice to have someone wave around a deadly weapon with their eyes covered. At least the Padawans have it down to Training Power, and even then it's powerful enough to cause welts and burns.
  • Monkey Business, a gangster hands revolvers to both Groucho and Zeppo on two separate occasions. Both times he does so he immediately realizes that they are absentmindedly pointing them right at him, and grabs their hands to turn the guns aside. Don't hand weapons to people who don't know proper gun safety, somebody will get shot in the face. Another gangster in the same film gives guns to Chico and Harpo.
  • Hot Fuzz is a parody of cop movie genres, they seem to have made a list of the most common gun un-safety practices. From an old man who repeatedly whacks a dud ocean mine to Danny accidentally shooting the local Doctor in the leg twice, and all of the firing-a-full-magazine-into-the-air drama in between. Given all the Shown Their Work in the film, it was probably deliberate.
  • How I Met Your Mother, Robin is a gun enthusiast who routinely loses her guns, accidentally points a gun at another character while making vague threats, and apparently goes to the shooting range while blackout drunk.
  • Battlefield Heroes has the National Army Soldier class characters inspecting their submachine guns should they be using it when you do not perform any abilities, move, or move the crosshair for a bit. By looking into the barrel. In the middle of a battle. While ammunition is loaded into it. Since if you fire while they are doing this and they will go back into a normal firing stance and fire, it can be assumed there is no safety on (or there possibly isn't one at all). This can also happen should you be in, but not driving, a moving vehicle, which is even more dangerous. But since the game is based around the Rule of Fun, it can be assumed it was used for a joke, as such an action is clearly dangerous and stupid. Not to mention scratching your ear with a pistol!
  • Empire: Total War features the use of a Gentlemen agent which can steal technology or duel other gentlemen of rival factions. If ordered to duel another gentlemen a cinematic scene plays which shows many different outcomes. One of these outcomes has the two duelists march a few paces turn but not fire. Hilariously, one of them looks down the barrel of the gun then the gun promptly discharges in his face. He loses the duel by the way.
  • Tales Of Zenith, 5, the manager of the homeless shelter disarms a woman who pulled a rifle, and sets it on the counter, noting that she should have known better, the Remington 20 has a well-known habit of accidental discharge. At this point it goes off, shooting the front-desk clerk in the gut. One of the inmates yells out "You just shot Marvin in the face!" 5 breaks the fourth wall by pointing out that they're not parodying Pulp Fiction in this cartoon in the strip, and besides, he shot him in the stomach.
  • Robin Hood has prison guard Trigger and "Old Betsy", his not-so-trusty crossbow, which he is none too careful with aiming. At one point he absentmindedly has the arrow aimed right at the sheriff's nose; when told to point the crossbow the other way, Trigger assures that the safety is on, patting Betsy's side and immediately causing an accidental discharge. Minutes later as he and the sheriff investigate a strange noise, he is pointing the arrow right at the sheriff's back.

Sheriff: Wait a minute. Is the safety on Old Betsy?
Trigger: [while patting the crossbow] You bet it is, sheriff.
Sheriff: That's what I'm afraid of. You go first!

  • The Simpsons: The episode where Homer buys a gun after riots erupt in Springfield. After Marge told him to get rid of the gun he hides it in the vegetable crisper. During the Gun Club meeting he's shown to be very irresponsible with his gun using it to open his bear, turn on the TV, etc. Of course his fellow gun club members chew him out for this and kick him out of the party. Later Homer goes through his house using the gun to shut off the lights.
    • Also in "$pringfield" frenzied over Lisa's nightmare Homer believes that the boogeyman is really out there and he brandishes a shotgun which he points at Marges face when she comes home, upon realizing that she's not the boogeyman he tosses the gun onto the ground causing it to discharge, thankfully no one was hit.

results in I Just Shot Marvin in the Face

  • So Ra No Wo To has an Inferred I Just Shot Marvin in the Face instead of an Inferred Holocaust. Episode 12, like in graduation ceremonies, helmets were tossed into the air by the troops upon learning they don't have to fight. It's all well and good until you spot loaded rifles up in the air with the helmets...
  • Super Dickery provides an example: This.
  • Pulp Fiction, the Trope Namer for I Just Shot Marvin in the Face, Vincent, an experienced hitman, is talking with Marvin, a guy he and Jules picked up in the aftermath of their hit near the beginning of the movie, in the backseat of Jules' car. While speaking with Marvin, Vincent is casually waving his handgun in the air, and when Jules hits a bump, Vincent accidentally fires the weapon, shooting Marvin in the face and blowing his brains all over the rear window, showing everyone in the audience just why you should always watch where you're pointing your weapon and, perhaps more importantly, keep your finger away from the trigger unless you intend to shoot wherever the gun points. See the scene in question here.
  • First Blood, John Rambo doesn't kill anybody. All of the deaths are due to the Sheriff and his deputies flagrantly ignoring any semblance of safety. (Shooting without knowing what you're aiming at, unbuckling the safety harness while riding in a helicopter, etc. etc.)
  • Starship Troopers frequently and constantly fails gun safety. During the long-shot of the "Live Fire" exercise, you can see that the range has no walls to the sides and other trainees are doing their thing right next to it. The recruits take the course in teams, with the next sent directly behind the previous! Then, the characters must face off against targets that shoot lasers at their training vests, which give the victim an electric shock. This causes one soldier to clamp down on the trigger and fire wildly in all directions, killing another. Rico is blamed for taking the recruit's helmet off, when the whole scene was a disaster waiting to happen. This was definitely intentional on the part of the director, who was satirizing military culture.
  • Silent Night, Deadly Night part II after witnessing Ricky kill a few people a police officer confronts him to arrest him while casually twirling his gun, Ricky punches him causing him to shoot himself in the face.
  • Oregon Trail games, you can be randomly killed by an accidental gunshot while hunting.
  • Tales Of Zenith, 5, the manager of the homeless shelter disarms a woman who pulled a rifle, and sets it on the counter, noting that she should have known better, the Remington 20 has a well-known habit of accidental discharge. At this point it goes off, shooting the front-desk clerk in the gut. One of the inmates yells out "You just shot Marvin in the face!" 5 breaks the fourth wall by pointing out that they're not parodying Pulp Fiction in this cartoon in the strip, and besides, he shot him in the stomach.
  • Gargoyles: Elisa is at one point seriously injured when Broadway accidentally shoots her while playing with her gun. To be fair, Broadway is a 1,000-year-old gargoyle who had never handled a gun before... but Elisa, a NYPD detective, had left her sidearm, holster and gun belt unattended in another room from where she was (she admits later that she should have known better). Notably, she's much more careful for the rest of the series.
  • Looney Tunes short "Porky's Duck Hunt": Porky is fooling around with his new gun at his apartment he pretends to fire it and points it at his dog, the dog is reasonably frightened and Porky insists that it isn't loaded and he blows a hole through the ceiling hitting on of his neighbors he comes down and punches Porky for it revealing he blow a hole in his pants, it happens again after he's had it with Daffy's antics he throws his gun on the ground and it hits his neighbor again with the same results.


demonstrates stupidity or insanity or general "out of it", not played for laughs

  • Pretty Cure Heavy Metal: During any of Shugo's temporary Face Heel Turns in the second half of the first season her finger will always be on the trigger of her gun, and she will aim as though she was confused as to who she's aiming for. Thankfully, she'll only spend approximately one minute (usually; she was reckless with her gun for the entirety of episode 45) as a Heel before going through the revolving door to the Face side. As for the aforementioned episode 45... her Face Heel Turn lasted for the duration of that episode (during which she's a Well-Intentioned Extremist whose quarry is a Satanist), only ending when she realizes she had recklessly endangered her own friends in chasing the Satanist.
  • The Dark Knight. The police officers and the National Guard troops are all shown carrying their weapons in the proper manner, but when Two-Face goes on his rampage, he flagrantly ignores all safe gun-handling rules - which is understandable, as he is not necessarily trained in how to really handle firearms. Additionally, he wasn't exactly in his right mind at that point.
    • Harvey Dent is a bit schizophrenic about gun safety which is expected, given who he becomes - on the one hand, when a gangster pulls a gun on him in court and it jams, he punches out the gangster, grabs the gun, releases the magazine, and clears the chamber. On the other hand, he threatens a criminal with a gun if he doesn't tell him what he knows about the Joker, saying that he'll shoot him if the coin he starts flipping comes up tails. Batman calls him on this, saying that Gotham expects better from its white knight. And since he never intended to shoot the criminal, it being a two-headed coin, this violates the "don't point the gun at anything you're not killing" rule.
  • Lethal Weapon 3 has Murtaugh accidentally firing his revolver in the locker room while putting it in his holster, showing that he's either getting too old for this shit, or that he's not all with it. Riggs covers the mishap by smashing in some lockers, producing an apparently identical sound.
    • The NRA newsletter had a few articles about the ludicrous lack of basic gun safety shown throughout the series. A few anti-NRA posters in the police station during the fourth one might have had something to do with their interest...
    • In Lethal Weapon 4, Riggs in effect tells Leo, "You haven't got a badge so you ought not to have a gun--" (throws Leo's property into the ocean) "--but I have a badge, so it's okay for me to point my gun at your face point-blank for a laugh. Clear?"
  • I Robot, Detective Spooner (Will Smith's character) wakes up, pulls a gun out from under his pillow, and scratches his head with it. With his finger on the trigger.
  • Iron Man 2 - For being in the weapons manufacturing business, Justin Hammer has a serious disregard for practicing trigger control. Even if you're willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that he made sure none of those guns were loaded before his little show and tell with Rhodey and the other USAF guys, he points at least two of the weapons directly at them and has his finger actually on the trigger for almost all of them. Not to mention, those showoff-y cocking motions he kept making? The audible "clicks" likely were from TAKING THE SAFETY OFF. Though it is entirely possible this was intentional as part of his character.
    • As Rod from The Editing Room put it, "why the hell did I give them live ammunition for a trade show?"
  • Doctor Who: The episode The Doctor's Daughter, has the Doctor hurling a loaded pistol, apparently with the safety off, in the direction of a crowd of people. He was pretty ticked off, as his clone-daughter had just been shot with said pistol, but even though the Doctor Doesn't Like Guns, you think he'd know that throwing a loaded pistol around isn't a great idea.
  • Sherlock, in the final scenes of the first series, our eponymous hero waves a loaded pistol around and gestures with it like there's no tomorrow. This includes nonchalantly scratching his head with it. Admittedly, he's just been through a very traumatic confrontation, but it's a very Ditzy Genius moment for him.
  • Heavy Rain: if Ethan gets arrested and Jayden intervenes while Blake is vigorously interrogating him, Blake will pull out his gun and point it at Jayden with his finger on the trigger. Which just further drives the point home that Blake is more than a bit reckless, to say the least.
  • Girl Genius: Agatha puts her eye under Gil's lightning generator, as he repeatedly presses the trigger mechanism while commenting that it takes too long to recharge. Apparently a lot of new Sparks die in lab accidents, although often of the No! I am your creator! variety.
  • Beauty and The Beast: Gaston declares his intent to marry Belle by pointing his gun at her. Not a good idea. It is true that his blunderbuss had recently been discharged and should have been empty, but later in the film he demonstrates that his blunderbuss is fully automatic, which is another problem entirely.

arming the untrained

  • Tequila Sunrise Kurt Russell's police detective character hands Michelle Pfeiffer's totally gun-untrained character a pistol to protect herself while meeting a drug lord, telling her "That's ready to fire."
  • Silent Hill has an unintentionally funny scene in the first game, in which police officer Cybil Bennett confirms that the hero she's just met, a professional writer, has never handled a gun in his life, and so proceeds to hand him her spare gun for protection. The entirety of her instructions are "know what you're shooting, and don't go blasting me by mistake" (Foreshadowing!)). A little justified in that they're in a Survival Horror environment (and even used as a game mechanic, as, due to Harry's inexperience, the player can't accurately aim at long range), though you have to wonder why, as a police officer sworn to protect and serve, she didn't just accompany Harry instead of giving him a gun and sending him on his merry way.
  • Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi hands a Luke a weapon with out first explaining how it works. Mind you, a weapon that will instantly kill or maim you if you even slightly mishandle it. Luke happens to be rather important...
    • Luke is also allowed/encouraged to use the lightsaber around other people on a flying starship before he has gained any acceptance or knowledge of the mystical abilities that help Jedi to not demolish everything around them. This is roughly akin to letting someone who has heard a couple of stories about what a bomb technician does practice on live explosives on a submerged submarine.
      • This may be somewhat averted by the fact that the power of the lightsaber in question could be adjusted. Minimal-power lightsabers aren't able to cause serious damage, and it's reasonable to consider that Obi-Wan may have made it as safe as possible before handing it to Luke.


gesturing with weapons

  • A number of first-person shooters play this one straight as an arrow, showing the gun being held with a finger on the trigger and twitching. This may be justified since the character has to fire the gun instantly. If the character's finger was off the trigger, there would either be a delay in the firing animation or it would look weird.
  • Knights of the Old Republic Several of your party members can be armed with blasters. These same party members have scripted hand gestures that they make while talking. They make these gestures regardless of what weapons they are holding. This can be especially unnerving when Carth Onasi is snapping at you about how he isn't sure he can fully trust you... while waving a heavy blaster pistol in each hand.
    • The same gestures frequently cause melee fighters to impale themselves or others to make a point. At least Jedi will be waving around inactive lightsabers...
  • BioShock (series): in the first game, the main character reloads his Webley .455 by putting rounds in, then putting the cylinder back in place by flicking his wrist. This may look cool, but there is a very high chance it will misalign the cylinder.
  • Mass Effect While characters usually put their guns away during cutscenes, some don't, which can lead to situations like a security guard waving a sniper rifle at you one-handed while he's telling you what a good job you did.
  • GoldenEye, the guards had an animation in which they would wave a hand as if to shoo away a fly, and then threaten the offending insect with their assault rifles. (Even worse, they do the same thing while the cheat code that gives them all rocket launchers is active...). Similar nonsense can happen with James Bond as well, as various tweaks to the game can affect which gun shows up in level-ending cutscenes. Putting a bazooka down his pants is entirely possible.
  • Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 sometimes averted. When reloading every gun in the game (most obviously on the FAMAS) the player character takes their finger out of the trigger to avoid discharging the weapon. However most all other gun safety rules get tossed out the window, simply looking at a friend requires you to point your loaded gun directly at them with your finger on the trigger, although the game will not allow you to fire in single player. Multiplayer? Fire away!

unremarked upon or generally unclear

  • Cowboy Bebop, Spike loads his handgun and then points it directly at his partner for no reason. Jet, a freaking former cop, fails to comment.
    • This picture may very well be a reference to the above.
  • Asobi Ni Iku Yo: Manami shows bad firearm discipline despite having live experience, although she likely wasn't formally trained in their handling. In episode 6, she waves a revolver in Kio's face with her finger on the trigger, and that it was unloaded is no excuse. She does it again later, when she loads the revolver and waves it around in a fast-food joint, once slamming it down on the table while pointed at Aoi. Aoi, for her part, shows better trigger discipline, save for that one incident where she was threatening to Shoot the Messenger, although the fact that she was present when Manami was waving her revolver around and did nothing is a strike against her.
  • ToyHammer: Averted and excused when Vincent does his best to observe basic firearms safety (safety catch, finger off trigger), although earlier he does ignore a few basic rules. Justified in that he had almost been murdered by Ax Crazy cultists (it took more than one attempt to reload the pistol).
  • Independence Day, during the Gondor Calls for Aid scene, specifically the bit in Iraq with the British soldiers, one of them can be seen holding his sidearm for no apparent reason while looking at the map, with his finger clearly on the trigger, and the barrel pointed directly at one of the other officers.
  • League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Tom Sawyer is shown being taught to shoot by Alan Quartermain, before the former puts his foot in his mouth asking about the latter's son. Sawyer then takes a moment to lean on the upturned gun contemplatively, putting his chin on the barrel of the explicitly loaded weapon. Especially stupid considering Sawyer is a Secret Service agent and should have received proper weapon training. It is generally assumed that gun safety is a must when your job is protecting the President and involves handling guns on a regular basis.
  • Big Jake. In the first, Wayne's character casually shoves a pistol into the front of his pants; it probably wasn't loaded, but he doesn't even bother to check first.
  • Once Upon a Time in the West In the opening scene one of the gunmen catches an annoying fly in the barrel of his gun, then keeps it in by putting his finger on the end, keeping his index finger on the trigger the entire time.
    • Though as we all know from Cartoon Physics, firing a gun with a finger plugging the barrel results in the total destruction of the gun but no damage to the finger. (Note: The MythBusters proved that this doesn't work in Real Life.)
  • Plan 9 from Outer Space had a cop in the graveyard using his revolver to gesture around, point out things, and even scratch the side of his head. Legend has it that the actor knew exactly what he was doing, but had heard that Ed Wood was unwilling to reshoot anything, so he was trying to see what he could get away with. Everything apparently...
  • Bad Boys 2 has a scene where Marcus and Mike decide to mess with the teenage boy picking up Marcus' daughter for a date. Mike pretends to be a drunk ex-con and points his gun at the kid's head.
  • Law and Order Special Victims Unit, there's a scene where the detectives are involved in a stand-off with a woman who has a gun pointed at her abusive ex-boyfriend. As such, the cops have their guns drawn and trained towards the woman. Perfectly reasonable during a hostage situation... except for that fact that Det. Benson steps directly into Det. Stabler's line of fire and stays there throughout the entire ordeal, while Stabler doesn't bother to adjust his aim even though he can clearly see that Benson is in the way.
  • Final Fantasy Tactics - When showing off his gun in a cutscene, Mustadio very clearly points it at Ramza. (Ramza, who doesn't know any better, also very unwisely tells a recently awakened weapon of mass destruction to "beat up Mustadio" as a joke, not realizing that he'd be taken seriously.)
  • Red Dead Redemption, you get the FN Model 1903 (called High Power Pistol in the game) when Ross presents it barrel-front to John's stomach. He wants him dead anyway, and he's an asshole.
  • Sym-Bionic Titan: Galaluna's military academy has the worst security imaginable. Baron, who admittedly had the best record at the school, is able to take full charged laser weapons to try to kill Lance without having to go through any security or check out procedures. It gets worse when they enter the training wing, where both boys are able to hijack fully-armed[1] battle mechs without so much as a security code. The only way to deactivate these things is a shutdown switch built on the mech rather than in a remote station since they are training devices.
  1. ↑ and loaded
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