History Main / IJustShotMarvinInTheFace

* In ''Creator/AbbottAndCostello: Comin' Round the Mountain'', Costello finds his grandfather's revolver and immediately starts pulling the trigger while aiming at the floor. Abbott takes it from Costello, but (still pointed at the floor) pulls the trigger himself several times, firing the one round loaded, unbeknownst to either. The result is more annoyance by Costello and their companion than anything else.

* ''Series/That70sShow'': In "Black Dog", during an argument about Jackie's affections, Kelso accidentally shoots a BB gun and hits Hyde in his left eye. Feeling guilty, Kelso spends the next week trying to help Hyde, before it's revealed that [[spoiler:Hyde ''wasn't'' actually shot and was simply going along with it [[ItAmusedMe for his own amusement]].]].

%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=mx7efuzcxgkcrwflducn1o0z
%% Please do not change or remove without starting a new thread.

%% Homer Simpson is an example of JugglingLoadedGuns, as are all comedic uses.

* The ''WesternAnimation/FatAlbertAndTheCosbyKids'' episode "The Gunslinger" has Shawn try to impress Albert and the gang by showing off his father's gun. Rudy pulls out a bullet he had found, and Shawn attempts to load it into the gun, but it doesn't fit properly (to his credit, he rejects Donald's suggestion to [[TooDumbToLive hammer the bullet in with a brick]]). Shawn finally manages to squeeze the bullet into the gun, and pulls the trigger.[[note]]thus violating two principles of gun safety generally overlooked in this sort of story: "don't use ammunition other than what your gun was designed for" and "don't use ammunition in poor condition or from an unknown source"[[/note]] The gun explodes, badly injuring his hand--though Shawn's lucky to be alive.

* In ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', [[TheyKilledKennyAgain Kenny has died this way]] at least a few times, particularly in "[[Recap/SouthParkS11E14TheList The List]]", where a gun goes off far away, missing its intended target, and then sails through Kenny's window while he and his family are eating dinner and hits him in the head.
* ''WesternAnimation/PorkysDuckHunt'': Porky, while modeling his hunting gear for his dog, accidentally drops his shotgun on the floor, causing it to fire into the ceiling. There is then a knock at the door and Porky is punched in the face by his upstairs neighbour, who walks, revealing a hole in his pants. When Porky comes home after the hunt, he throws his shotgun on the floor, causing it to fire again. The upstairs neighbour knocks at the door again and punches Porky in the face again, then walks away with a second hole in his pants.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': The headless clone of Agnew is killed in the episode "T: The Terrestrial" as a result of being accidentally shot with a disintegrating laser gun by Lrr's son Jrrr during one of Lrrr's invasions of Earth, which Lrrr forces his son to participate in. Even though this was clearly an accident, Richard Nixon's Head clamps an embargo on Omicron Persei 8 as a result, but it is very poorly enforced as a result of it being led by Zapp Brannigan.
* ''WesternAnimation/ParadisePD'': When he was five years old, [[IdiotHero Kevin Crawford]] found his father Randall's service pistol lying unattended in his uniform and began playing with it. He came into his parent's bedroom while they were having sex and pretended to "bust" them, only to accidentally pull the trigger and [[GroinAttack shoot Randall in the balls]].

* [[https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/sting/ihungmyhead.html "I Hung My Head"]] by Music/{{Sting}} (later covered by Music/JohnnyCash) features a young man pointing a rifle at someone to practice aiming. It doesn't end well.

* The music video for "Eighteen and Life" by Music/SkidRow features an example of this.

* ''Theatre/{{Assassins}}'': Sarah Jane Moore is written to be played with no regard for the proper operation or storage of her .38 revolver. She accidentally discharges it no less than five times during the course of the show, once while it's still in her handbag, 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 accidentally shot her own dog.
-->'''Sarah Jane:''' Shit, I shot it!
* ''Theatre/LaForzaDelDestino'': In Act 1 of Giuseppe Verdi's opera, Don Alvaro is eloping with Leonora. Her father, the Marquis of Calatrava, interrupts the lovers in mid-elope and threatens the young man with a sword. Don Alvaro decides not to resist and throws away his pistol... which goes off and kills the Marquis, who dies cursing them. Oops.

* ''VideoGame/HitmanBloodMoney'' features this as an assassination method. One of the hits takes place in an opera house with a target being the lead actor. During rehearsals, the actor is "executed" with a prop pistol -- 47 can either replace it with a real one, take the place of the executioner actor, or shoot the target at the same time the actor fires the prop. In a bit of black comedy, [[AllPartOfTheShow the play will continue for a little while]] before anyone realizes that the actor has ''really'' been shot.
** Bonus points here as the closed-in environment of an opera house would be too dangerous for the prop gun's blanks in the first place.
** And double bonus points for being darkly ironic -- the scene being rehearsed is the final act of ''Theatre/{{Tosca}}'', which has [[spoiler:Mario Cavaradossi gunned down by a firing squad who was issued guns with live ammunition instead of the blank firing ones that Scarpia promised Tosca in his namesake [[ScarpiaUltimatum ultimatum]]]].

* ''VideoGame/EmpireTotalWar'' features the use of a Gentlemen agent which can steal technology or duel other gentlemen of rival factions. If ordered to duel another gentleman, 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. [[CaptainObvious He loses the duel by the way.]]

* A case of RecklessGunUsage getting someone killed is a major plot point in ''VideoGame/GhostTrick''. Namely, [[spoiler: the BigBad]] takes a shot at [[spoiler:his own body while possessing Lynne]] while another main character, [[spoiler:his beloved cat Sissel]], was right next to his target. CollateralDamage ensues.
* Played for laughs when ''VideoGame/LegoStarWars'' spoofs the scene in ''Film/ANewHope'' where Obi-Wan gives Luke his father's {{l|aserBlade}}ightsaber. You know how in the movie, the blade comes within a couple of feet of skewering Obi-Wan? In the game, Obi-Wan dives out of the way and Luke beheads [=C-3PO=]. [[BloodlessCarnage Well, it's just LEGO, of course]].

* In ''VideoGame/TheOregonTrail II'', you can accidentally shoot ''yourself'' while hunting.
* When VATS targeting an enemy in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' and ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', it is not uncommon to accidentally inflict a Sneak Attack CriticalHit on a companion or other NPC, possibly killing them or turning them hostile. Even when attacking normally this can happen too, as your companions' attempts to avoid shooting you in the back often lead them to plant themselves right in your line of fire. The companions in ''New Vegas'' will even tell you to watch where you're pointing that thing if you aim down the barrel at them.
** ''New Vegas'' has the "[[http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Spray_and_Pray Spray and Pray]]" perk at level 22, which cuts damage from your friendly fire by 75% to your companions. While it's useful to have with the "[[http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Meltdown Meltdown]]" perk, Meltdown itself isn't all that useful and companions have a bad habit of getting in the way regardless. The game even takes note of this with the description: "Do companions annoy you by constantly running into the path of your lasers and missiles? Take the Spray and Pray perk to significantly reduce all damage you do to your companions."
* In the ''Franchise/StarWars'' version of ''VideoGame/BattleChess'', C-3PO does this to Boba Fett if the Rebel Knight captures the Imperial Bishop. Threepio grabs Fett's gun, [[HypocriticalHumor lectures him on how dangerous these weapons are,]] and throws it to the ground--the gun goes off, blasting Fett through the chest. PlayedForLaughs, as all of Threepio's capture animations are.

* Episode 2 of ''VideoGame/LifeIsStrange'' has Chloe and Max shooting a gun at bottles in a junkyard. After two bottles Chloe starts going for crazy trick shots off metal objects and will hit herself with a ricochet if you tell her to shoot a car's bumper. Thankfully, rewind is there to save the day.
** The [[VideoGame/LifeIsStrange2 sequel]] begins with an example of this when [[spoiler:a trigger-happy cop fatally shoots Esteban Diaz.]]

* A variation in ''VideoGame/PillarsOfEternity''. One sidequest deals with a young boy who dreams of joining the local knightly order and asks you to get a high-level dagger for him. You can do so, and later hear a story from a town crier about a local boy [[NiceJobBreakingItHero who lost several fingers after playing with a knife that some jackass gave him]]. Can be a DefiedTrope if the player character has sufficient skill in Survival, in which case you get the option to warn him that it is a weapon, not a toy, and also teach him how to care for it properly.

* Happens in the beginning chapter of ''VideoGame/DetroitBecomeHuman'' if Connor draws a pistol and tries to talk Daniel into releasing his hostage. Attempting to intimidate him twice in a row results in him panicking and shooting Connor in the head. [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]], given that he was already threatening to kill Connor, but he's still visibly and audibly regretful after firing. [[spoiler: [[DrivenToSuicide Enough so that he jumps off the roof]] with [[MurderSuicide the little girl he was holding hostage]], thus making this the worst ending to the chapter.]]
* ''VideoGame/GodEater'': Squadmate Kanon Daiba has a Blast Gun, radial bullets, and no concept of trigger discipline. Fortunately friendly fire will only knock a PlayerCharacter off their feet, but since Kanon's AI [[GameplayAndStoryIntegration skips any friendly fire checks]] it happens a '''lot'''. She's even notorious for this InUniverse: other characters grouse when they're put in a team with her, and in the sequel Licca initially refuses to install Kanon's [[MoreDakka Oracle Reserve]] upgrade.
** Every AI teammate and player voice set has a voice line for friendly fire incidents, often lampshading their lack of restraint. For most characters it's just a sheepish apology, some yell at you for getting in the way, and post-CharacterDevelopment Alisa is ''horrified'' with herself for shooting her LivingEmotionalCrutch.
* A humorous version occurs early on in ''VideoGame/Borderlands2.'' A man asks weapon-dealer Marcus for a refund because he claims a pistol doesn't work. Marcus tests the claim by pointing the gun at the customer and firing it, shooting him in the knee. Because it's Marcus though ("No Refunds!"), it's obvious that this was deliberate.
* On a meta level, the triggers on the Platform/PlayStation3's controller lack any sort of plastic lip underneath like its contemporaries have, meaning that when you set it down, about half the controller's weight is being put directly on them. This becomes especially problematic in ''VideoGame/DemonsSouls'', where not only is there no true pause feature, the triggers (used to attack) are inexplicably still functional while in a menu. It's possible to kill an important NPC by just setting the controller down to take a break. This came up multiple times during the ''WebVideo/TwoBestFriendsPlay'' stream of the game, and they specifically bring up this trope when Woolie manages to accidentally take a swing during an idle moment.
* ''VideoGame/Receiver2'', a realistic gun simulator FPS has this trope as a main mechanic. Needless to say, gun safety discipline (either by engaging the safety or simply slow holstering the gun) is essential.
* ''VideoGame/NotForBroadcast'': When [[spoiler:Jeremy]] holds the Channel One studio at gunpoint on Day 296, refusing to play the Disrupt videotape at his request results in a scene where he accidentally shoots one of the camera operators during a heated rant.

* ''WebAnimation/DrHavocsDiary'': This show is practically married to gun humor.
** Dr. Havoc accidentally injures himself with von Duct's trick gun [[spoiler:(and, eventually, with the pen gun in his shirt pocket)]] in Episode 2.
** Episode 2 has an army soldier pick up and examine a lamp... which is, in fact, a gun. Guess what happens next.
** Ally kills someone (and injures Brock) this way in Episode 5 due to having no experience with firearms whatsoever.
** A Minion shoots themself this way in Episode 14. By ''[[AteHisGun chewing on a gun]].''

* ''Webcomic/TalesOFZenith'': 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.

* ''Webcomic/{{Achewood}}'': [[http://achewood.com/index.php?date=09162002 "PS I got shot by Ray again"]]
* ''Webcomic/ProblemSleuth'': While holding a gun, Problem Sleuth gets distracted by a business card and shoots through his door and kills an [[http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=4&p=000246 unfortunate bystander.]]

* ''Webcomic/TheDreadful'': Combined with ImprobableAimingSkills when some idiot literally juggles his guns while talking down to [[TheGunslinger Kit]]. She even [[LampshadeHanging warns him]] it's a bad idea, but then he pushes one of her {{Berserk Button}}s, and she shoots the hammer of his revolver while it's in midair, causing it to fire through his head.

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': In "Barely Legal," the excuse a classmate (Jimmy, implied to be a popular jock) of Meg's gives when he clearly doesn't want to go to the prom with her. After answering the door and Meg asks the question, Jimmy leaves ... and then two shots ring out. Jimmy returns quickly in tears, claiming that his brother had just accidentally been shot and killed and the funeral is the night of the dance.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}''. Elisa is at one point seriously injured when Broadway accidentally shoots her while playing with her gun. [[RecklessGunUsage Broadway is a 1,000-year-old gargoyle who had came from a time before firearms]], but Elisa, an NYPD detective, shares the blame by leaving 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.
** This event is a major part of both characters' development -- after this incident, Broadway is a gun-phobic who destroys any gun he comes across on the nightly patrols (this does necessitate dragging them from the fingers of an assortment of startled criminals), and Elisa is always careful to lock up her gun, and presumably unload it when not on duty. Elisa spent the next few episodes on crutches while she was recovering from the gunshot, where most shows would have had her back to normal by the next episode. This is a key reason Broadway has no issues with a firearm in her hands: he knows he can trust her to ''not'' abuse hers. It really hammered home how incredibly dangerous guns can be.

* ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'':
** "How to Fire a Rifle Without Really Trying": Bobby's NRA safety instructor explains that he used to run right out onto the rifle range whenever he hit the target, resulting in the loss of his thumb and eye. Later, when the instructor witnesses Bobby's innate shooting skill, he ''again'' runs out onto the range in excitement, holding the targets Bobby shot up for all the other men on the range to see. It's likely he became an instructor due to being a walking example of what not to do on a range/a demonstration of what can happen.
** "Soldier of Misfortune": Dale, who by all rights should know better being the president of the local gun club, accidentally discharges his weapon. ''Should'' being the keyword. There's the small problem that Dale is a crazy idiot. Rather than be expelled from the club, he becomes a laughing stock and loses a snap-election for president.
--->'''Mad Dog:''' Well well. An accidental discharge. Or was there a South American dictator hiding the cash register?

* In one ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog'' episode, Sonic is made the sheriff of a cowboy town. While trying some sharpshooting, he proves to be an incredibly poor shot, causing all sorts of comic (But non-fatal) destruction with his bad aim. [[EpicFail He couldn't even shoot the broad side of a barn at point-blank range.]] Coincidentally, the Sonic Sez segment was all about gun safety, and how under no circumstances should you fool around with a real gun, even if you think it's unloaded.

* ''Series/FamilyMatters'': {{Discussed|Trope}} when Carl is working as a security guard on the set of some [=TV=] show when the main actor (playing a cop) scratches his head with his (prop) gun. This makes Carl laugh and explain that no cop in their right mind would do that because the gun might go off.
* Played with on ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' when Robin takes Marshall to the shooting range. She inadvertently points her gun at him while telling him not to tell her boyfriend (a pacifist) about her being a gun nut. While she seems nonchalant, the look on Marshall's face shows how terrified he is.
* ''Series/{{Engrenages}}'': Forms the basis for an entire plot point in the third season, where during a visit to a drug dealer with an informant, Gilou, when faced with trouble, takes out his gun and fires it up at the ceiling. [[spoiler:It hits someone. [[GroinAttack In the crotch.]]]]
* ''Series/ModernFamily'': Mitchell is pointing a skeet-shooting rifle at everyone in sight within seconds of getting it in his hands, and they all freak out, with his father advising him to try another activity.
* ''Series/{{Community}}'': In the BadEnd of "[[Recap/CommunityS3E04RemedialChaosTheory Remedial Chaos Theory]]", Annie drops her purse, causing the pistol inside it to go off and shoot Pierce in the leg, resulting in a series of DisasterDominoes that end in the apartment on fire. Pierce dies, the guilt drives Annie insane, Jeff loses an arm, Troy loses his voicebox, Shirley turns to drinking, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Britta dyes a streak of her hair blue]].
* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'': Leonard shoots himself in the foot when he takes Penny out to the gun range for a date and she kisses him while he has a gun in his hand.
* An episode of ''Series/QuincyME'' that deconstructs ArtisticLicenseGunSafety ends with a GoryDiscretionShot when a five-year-old shoots his sister, thinking that the revolver his father just got back from the police is a "space gun". His dad may as well be the poster boy for [[ArtisticLicenseGunSafety Failing Gun Safety Forever]]: he left said pistol fully loaded ''on the floor of his closet''.
* One guest on an episode of the Creator/NationalGeographicChannel show ''[[CrazySurvivalist Doomsday Preppers]]'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qth1k962_9A accidentally blew off a part of his own thumb]]. He later claimed that it was due to a gun malfunction that happened when he [[RecklessGunUsage put his thumb in front of the barrel]]. [[SarcasmMode A malfunction, sure.]]
* On ''Series/MadMen'' Ken Cosgrove is shot in the face while hunting with some Chevrolet executives. While he probably should not have been standing where he was, the executive was target-focused on a bird and did not pay attention to where he was aiming his gun. Fortunately, it was only bird shot and Ken survived with some cosmetic damage to the left side of his face. However, to add insult to injury the executives failed to appreciate the seriousness of the situation and decided to stop for lunch on the way to the hospital. Poor Ken already suffered through a broken foot due to a car accident caused by the same bunch of reckless executives and decides not to TemptFate and resigns from the Chevrolet account.
* {{Invoked|Trope}} in the ''Series/BlueBloods'' episode "This Way Out" when some gangbangers trick a mentally retarded kid from their housing project into pointing a loaded gun at the mayor and pulling the trigger. They told him it was a toy, but toys don't leave the mayor a paraplegic.
* Played with in an episode of ''Series/TheOfficeUS''. Dwight becomes acting manager and brings a gun to work. When it goes off, the bullet goes straight into the carpet but Andy's eardrums burst and he's taken to the emergency room.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** At the end of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E3FrontierInSpace Frontier in Space]]", the Master accidentally shoots the Doctor thanks to an unfortunate Ogron stampede and looks rather shocked about it, leading into the events of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E4PlanetOfTheDaleks Planet of the Daleks]]".
** The plot of the story "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E5PlanetOfFire Planet of Fire]]" revolves around the Master having been shrunk to a few inches tall and trying to find a way to return to normal size. Although he's too embarrassed to explain what happened in detail, it's strongly implied that he accidentally shot himself with his Tissue Compression Eliminator (a usually-lethal ShrinkRay).
* ''Series/OrphanBlack'': The inexperienced gun-user [[spoiler:Donnie]] accidentally shoots [[spoiler:Dr. Leekie]] in the head when he bangs his car steering wheel for emphasis with the hand he's holding a pistol in.
* In one episode of ''Series/TheCloser'', a guy at a gas station fires a warning shot to scare off a couple of gang bangers trying to steal his car, and ends up killing an innocent teenager a couple of blocks over. Since the kid died during the [[FelonyMurder commission of a crime]], the gang bangers take the fall for it and the guy who shot him gets off scot-free, but he is appropriately horrified when he finds out that he actually killed someone.
* ''Series/NewTricks'': One of the 'murders' in "The Rock" turns out to have been an accident caused by a boy stealing a gun from his father and using it to play soldier.
* ''Series/TheITCrowd'': In an episode of the British comedy series, Reynolm Industries president Douglas finds his grandfather's service revolver, left by his late father, in his work desk drawer. He points it at his mouth and pulls the trigger to see if it's loaded and finds it isn't. He later loads it and accidentally shoots himself in the leg while at work and goes through an important business meeting while pretending nothing's wrong before fainting due to blood loss.
* ''Series/SanfordAndSon'': When Fred is in St. Louis, Grady chases off some of Lemont's friends with a rifle. When Lemont talks to him about it the next day, Grady says he didn't load it and holds up a cartridge, then starts pointing it at the ceiling and says "you sure can scare people with an empty rifle", pulling the trigger in the process and shooting the ceiling, which startles Grady enough to let go of the rifle and flail his arms around.
* On ''Series/{{Grimm}}'' three teenage boys were drinking and smoking pot when one of them started showing off his father's heirloom katana. This is dangerous already given their inebriated state but then one of the other boys decides to show off his late father's police revolver. The gun was apparently stored loaded and when the third boy grabs it, it discharges and the first boy is fatally shot in the stomach.
* ''Series/InspectorGeorgeGently'': In "Son of a Gun", the commissionaire at the bank grabs the dropped Sten gun and opens fire at the getaway car, emptying the gun on full auto. Gently blows his top at him, pointing out that there was a phone box, a bus stop and a pub in the direction he was firing and has him charged with illegally discharging a firearm in a public place. It is later discovered that one of his shots had fatally wounded the getaway driver.
* ''Series/MurderSheWrote'': In "Night Fears", the murder happens when [[spoiler:an ex-cop fires at a mugging in progress. The bullet passes through the mugger and kills the victim. The ex-cop then tries to cover it up by staging an OrgyOfEvidence]].
* An atypical example in ''Series/TheGoodWife''. The bailiff in a courtroom where Will Gardner is defending a murder suspect inadvertently leaves his sidearm holster unstrapped. Will's client has a nervous breakdown, grabs the gun out of the holster, and opens fire, shooting the witness (who is suspected of being the real murderer) dead, winging D.A. Finn Polmar in the arm, and mortally wounding Will when he tries to get the gun away from his client.
* DefiedTrope in ''Series/ThePacific'' where Sgt. Haney, upon seeing a [[NewMeat shavetail Lieutenant]] flaying around his loaded Colt .45 while holding the trigger, immediately disarms the inexperienced officer and tells him to observe proper firearms handling.
* Henry's apparently accidental ([[spoiler:and ultimately fatal]]) shooting of DCI Morton when the latter wakes him up while he's camped out on the glacier in ''Series/{{Fortitude}}'' fits the trope.
* In ''Series/HowToSellDrugsOnlineFast'', Buba accidentally shoots himself in the head while waving around a plastic gun, because he assumes it is a harmless toy.
* ''Series/Adam12'' has an episode where a man surrenders an old shotgun his dad bequeathed him but that he doesn't want. When Officer Brinkman tries to unload it,it jams and he discharges it. No one gets shot, but the entire station fears they're under sniper attack. Sgt.[=MacDonald=], the supervisor, isn't amused when Brinkman tries to demonstrate and the thing discharges again. He says Brinkman should have remembered a safer way to get the rounds out.
* ''Series/SecretAgentSelectionWW2'', a trainee removes the magazine from his Browning pistol, pulls the slide to check for any remaining rounds, and then spins the gun on his finger in order to hand it to the instructor handle-side out. The instructor was not impressed.
* ''Series/TheBrittasEmpire'': When Gordon is shot at three times by Julie's police bodyguard, one of the bullets ricochets and shoots Colin in the head, causing him to lapse into unconsciousness. However, it doesn't damage his brain more than it already is, and he's back as cheerful as ever in the next episode.
** Gavin also gets accidentally shot in the shoulder and pinned to a door by a bumbling Colin with a harpoon gun in an earlier episode.
* In the trailer for Creator/{{Netflix}}'s ''Series/CowboyBebop2021'', Spike, Jet and Faye are shooting at their (off-screen) bounty when Faye recoils in horror and turns to Spike and Jet, telling them "Hey, nutbuckets! There's no payout if you shoot him in the face!" The trailer ends with Spike and Jet arguing with each other, blaiming the other for shooting the poor guy in the face.
* ''Series/That70sShow'': In "Black Dog", during an argument about Jackie's affections, Kelso accidentally shoots a BB gun and hits Hyde in his left eye. Feeling guilty, Kelso spends the next week trying to help Hyde, before it's revealed that [[spoiler:Hyde ''wasn't'' actually shot and was simply going along with it [[ItAmusedMe for his own amusement]].]].
* ''Series/TheRighteousGemstones'': This is how [[spoiler: Scotty]] meets his end; after being knocked unconscious following his car accident with [[spoiler: Baby Billy and Tiffany]], he suddenly wakes up, causing [[spoiler: Tiffany]], who has been haphazardly waving his gun around to accidentally pull the trigger and blow his brains out.
* ''Series/MidsomerMurders'': Exploited in "[[Recap/MidsomerMurdersS20E6 Send in the Clowns]]", which opens with Les Morrison trying to prank Terry Bellini during a performance with a prop gun, only for Bellini to be fatally shot through the heart. Everything appears to point to Morrison having grabbed a loaded gun without realizing it. However, a forensic report reveals that the bullet was indeed blank -- the round that killed Bellini was from a rifle, which was shot simultaneously with Morrison's handgun and at a similar angle [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident to give the illusion that he had a live gun]].
* ''Franchise/StarWars''. In ''Series/TheBookOfBobaFett'', Din Djarin uses his newly acquired Darksaber during a melee and slices open his own leg (fortunately it's OnlyAFleshWound). Even though Din is a badass with a blaster, a lightsaber is a weapon that requires training to use skillfully, especially if you're not Force-sensitive.

* ''Series/InspectorRex'': In the episode "Snapshot", a young boy interested in becoming a photographer comes with his girlfriend to a damaged building. The case is that they bring a pistol to the scene, which they wrongly believe to be unusable. When the young boy is indicating her how to shoot, he accidentally shoots a tramp. The tramp was a former boxer who wasted his money and the pistol was from a criminal band. [[spoiler:The girl's father turns out to be a member of that criminal band]].

* In the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "Rules of Engagement", Worf is engaged in battle with a Klingon bird-of-prey that keeps firing and then cloaking to reposition itself. He fires where he expects the bird-of-prey to reemerge but instead hits a Klingon passenger transport that decloaks instead, which Sisko describes as a failure to properly ID his target before firing. [[spoiler:{{Subverted}}: The transport was actually empty and the Klingons were [[BatmanGambit deliberately trying to get Worf to hit it]] so they could [[FrameUp frame him for war crimes]]. [[PlotHole Left unexplained]] is how the Klingons expected people to believe both [[FridgeLogic a civilian ship being equipped with a cloaking device]] and that its hypothetical crew [[SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale was stupid enough to be within an astronomical unit of the battle in the first place]].]]
** Also in ''Deep Space 9'', in [[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E10TheMagnificentFerengi "The Magnificent Ferengi"]], Gaila accidentally kills Keevan, the titular band's Vorta hostage, whilst trying to shoot his partner Quark after learning that Quark had been planning to cheat him out of an equal share of the reward promised.

* ''Series/{{Firefly}}''
** The characters routinely break all of the basic rules constantly, yet no one gets accidentally shot -- except for Kaylee during the pilot when she startles Dobson. Of course, that wasn't an accident except insofar as he didn't intend to shoot Kaylee specifically. It was a failure to positively ID the target before he fired--he shot with intent to kill, he just wasn't aware what or who he was shooting until he'd pulled the trigger.
** The only other accidental shooting is in "Safe" when Book gets caught in a crossfire between Serenity's crew, the guys they're selling the cattle to, and the lawmen coming to arrest them. Again, this is only an accident in the sense that they didn't mean to shoot Book specifically.
** Mal had an appropriate reaction when River somehow managed to get her hands on a handgun that was loaded and chambered. The episode left it open as to who actually owned the gun or where she got it from.
* Similarly, season 6 of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' has Warren try to kill Buffy with a gun. After shooting her, he starts waving his gun around carelessly and accidentally [[spoiler:shoots Tara, who was standing near a window on the second floor]]. Buffy doesn't die, but [[spoiler:Tara is not so lucky, and Warren is even more unlucky when [[BewareTheNiceOnes Willow, her girlfriend, catches up to him]]]].
** In ''Series/The100'', season 3 episode 7, almost the exact same scene plays out, [[spoiler:with Lexa being shot accidentally by her advisor Titus as she walked through a door. He'd hoped to kill Clarke instead.]]
* This is TheReveal in an episode of ''Series/{{Flashpoint}}''. A decade earlier, Parker was the only cop in the vicinity when the mother of a little girl was shot during a raid, so the girl's boyfriend believes that Parker must have been the one who shot her, and kidnaps Parker to force him to confess; his belief is not helped by Parker's secretiveness about the matter. At the climax, Ed reveals the real secret that Parker was trying to keep: it was the girl who accidentally shot her mother, and Parker kept the secret because he didn't want her to have to live with that.
* ''Series/TeenWolf'': Stiles fiddles with Allison's crossbow and narrowly averts shooting Scott's thanks to his SuperReflexes as a werewolf.
* ''Series/TheDistrict'': One of the side plots in one episode has a woman getting shot with no one nearby. [[spoiler:Turns out some punk got a hold of a [=WW2=] gun and test-fired it by [[RecklessGunUsage shooting down the apparently-empty street]].]]
* ''Series/KnowingMeKnowingYouWithAlanPartridge'': Alan Partridge once accidentally shot an obnoxious food critic in the heart with an antique dueling pistol on live television. It is this (coupled with his later punching of a [[Creator/TheBBC BBC]] programming executive in the face with a partridge) that ended his TV career.
* In ''Series/{{Cheers}}'', a jealous man comes into the bar threatening Sam with a revolver. After the man is talked out of the shooting and the gun is taken from him, Sam puts it in his back pocket for storage. Afterward, he goes to sit down and shoots himself in the butt. None of the regulars had given any hints of having any firearms training.

* ''Series/BandOfBrothers'', episode "The Breaking Point". After hunting for a Luger as a souvenir, Cpl. Donald Hoobler finally finds one--only to accidentally fatally shoot himself in the leg with it. This is TruthInTelevision as the real Hoobler suffered the same fate, though it was apparently a Belgian pistol in .32 ACP.
** The Luger does have a notoriously tricky safety, at least according to the book.
* ''Series/{{Oz}}''. One of the inmates was sent to prison after brandishing a gun at school which went off, killing a girl on the floor above.
* In ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'', two involving TimeTravel and the not-gun-shaped Type 1 Phaser, which looks an awful lot like a cigarette lighter. In "The City on the Edge of Forever", a 1930s bum gets hold of one and vaporizes himself while playing with it. In "Tomorrow Is Yesterday", Kirk is captured by Air Police in 1969, and cringes (with priceless facial expressions) as they fiddle with his weapon, toss it around, and several times almost press the trigger, conflicted between justifiable fear and the need to not let them know who he is or what they have.
* ''Series/{{Chuck}}'' has an inept criminal take the Buy More hostage, and at one point he confronts Casey and Sarah. Chuck manages to talk him down and convince him to put the safety of the gun back on, which the criminal admits he doesn't know how to do (never mind that the gun is a ''revolver''). Chuck and the criminal then both start messing around with the gun trying to turn the safety on and accidentally shoot Casey in the foot. [[spoiler:Turns into FridgeBrilliance when the criminal turns out to actually be a Fulcrum agent, and probably shot Casey deliberately.]] In the third season episode "Chuck vs. the American Hero", Chuck demonstrates the problem with his relying on the Intersect's gun-handling subroutine: said subroutine was designed for users who, unlike Chuck, are already familiar enough with gun safety to avoid pointing their gun at people they're not currently killing.
* ''Series/TouchedByAnAngel'' has someone breaking just about all the rules -- carelessly waving a loaded [=WW2=]-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 [[WhatASenselessWasteOfHumanLife get knocked off a desk, unintentionally fire, and shoot someone right in the heart]]?
* ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' has Olivia telling a story about a fellow cop with asthma staying up for two days straight on a stakeout. After the stakeout ended, he went home and crashed. Later, he woke up because of an asthma attack, [[DamnYouMuscleMemory reached for his gun]] instead of his inhaler while half-asleep, and [[AteHisGun killed himself]].
** In the episode "Penetration" FBI Agent Dana Lewis is holding her rapist at gunpoint, with Benson and Stabler close behind her. Deciding to scare him, she shoots at a pipe behind him...and the bullet ricochets off and hits Stabler in the shoulder. It isn't a serious injury, but it does serve to act as a wake-up call at what bad gun safety she was displaying, and she later admits that she acted terribly and takes full responsibility. That being said, Stabler being injured whenever she's around is something of a RunningGag so his reaction is mostly one of resigned irritation, and it manages to be rather funny.
* A VerySpecialEpisode of ''Series/BeverlyHills90210'' (the original one) uses this [[spoiler:to kill off Scott Scanlon (played by Douglas Emerson), one of the regulars in the first season of the series]], in front of David Silver (Bryan Austin Green's character).
* ''Series/TalesFromTheCrypt'' episode "Judy, You're Not Yourself Today". A husband points his rifle at a random solicitor and pulls the trigger while pointing it at his wife to prove to his wife the gun was unloaded. In the end, he ends up trying to physically subdue his wife's body snatcher (an old witch traded bodies with her) while holding the gun and ends up shooting his wife.
* ''Series/OneThousandWaysToDie'', there are two guys who have been friends since they were in elementary. They do everything together and are generally chummy towards each other, and even decide to live together as roommates in college. Unfortunately, in adulthood one of the two friends gained an addiction to cigarettes and constantly bothers the other for money so he can buy more, or if he has some spares to share them with him. Becoming tired of having to supply cigarettes for his friend, the annoyed friend loads some cigarettes into his muzzle-loader, aims them directly into his roommate's face, and says, "Hey buddy want some cigarettes?" Who, being drunk at the time, didn't seem afraid of having a shotgun pointed at him and nods his head in approval at the idea of cigarettes. The cigarettes fly out of the firearm at supersonic speed and penetrate the guy's skull. He simply wanted to hurt his friend, he didn't think cigarettes would penetrate flesh as bullets do. This just goes to show you that you never point a gun at something or someone you are not intending to kill or destroy and that anything flying out of that said gun is going to be potentially lethal.
** For the record, the ''Series/MythBusters'' tested this one and found that cigarette butts, when smoked and fired point blank, will penetrate to the heart. At 7 feet they simply cause inconsequential flesh wounds.
** Another episode featured a magician attempting a bullet-catching trick; when tapping the barrel of the gun with his wand, part of the wand's tip fell off and into the barrel, which was then propelled by the blank cartridge with lethal force through a major artery in his neck.
** Yet another episode has an overprotective father chase off his girlfriend's boyfriend with a gun loaded with blanks. To demonstrate no one had any reason to really be afraid, the father put the gun to his temple and pulled the trigger. Unfortunately for him, the hot compressed air from a blank can be just as deadly as a bullet when you're pressing the barrel to your own skull.
* ''Series/PaperGirls'': Mac is waving a loaded gun around dangerously when she accidentally fires it, hitting Erin in the stomach.
* Narrowly subverted in the ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' episode "Common Ground", when during their escape Todd is at one point toying with his loaded gun while having it pointed right at the back of Sheppard's head.
** Out-of-story, one of the reasons SG-1 switched their standard-issue weapon from the [=MP5=] to the P90 was due to a scene which called for multiple people firing their weapons while standing side-by-side, which would have ejected hot brass into various faces during filming. Since the P90 ejects its cases downwards, it avoided that problem entirely.
* ''Series/HighwayToHeaven'' episode "The Torch" includes a group of Neo-Nazis. Among them is Rolf (played by Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Zach on ''Series/SavedByTheBell''). While handling an [[{{Irony}} Uzi]] in the Neo-Nazi lair, Rolf fires the weapon, hitting his father and another Neo-Nazi, killing his father.
* ''Series/MacGyver1985'': In a {{flashback}} during the "Blood Brothers" episode, [=MacGyver=] accidentally shoots and kills his childhood friend Jesse. This is why he DoesNotLikeGuns.
* ''Series/BodyOfProof'': The killer in one episode accidentally shoots and kills his own daughter. He confronted both his daughter and her fiance in order to intimidate the man into leaving her alone. When the daughter attempts to reach for the gun, it goes off.

* In ''ComicBook/YTheLastMan'', an untrained woman is holding a hostage at gunpoint, whom she kills by mistake when her finger slips.

* ''ComicBook/PaperGirls'': the four girls get their hands on a gun and promptly shoot one of their own by accident.
* Happened in the backstory of ''ComicBook/TheMultiversity'', overlapping with PoorCommunicationKills: [[spoiler:when President Harley was a kid, he accidentally shot and killed his father, the superhero Yellowjacket. He had found one of Yellowjacket's guns and was fooling around with it when Yellowjacket returned home through his window; Harley mistook him for a robber and reflexively pulled the trigger.]]
* Stinky accidentally commits suicide by angrily placing the barrel to his head after an evening of drunken target practice in ''{{ComicBook/Hate|1990}}''.

* In one strip of ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'', cavemen were sitting around cleaning their clubs when one made the mistake of [[https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/64/9d/cf/649dcf714b2976b193688f0cb535e5f2.jpg looking straight at his.]]

* ''Fanfic/HarryPotterAndTheNightmaresOfFuturesPast'': one of the enchanted objects Mr. Weasley has in his office is a gun, which he thinks does not work and shows it to Harry by putting it to his head and pulling the trigger. The only reason he is still alive is that he wasn't depressing the trigger safety in the middle of the Glock's trigger.
* ''Fanfic/JimmysVisitWithDrFranklin'': Kevin and Ray tackled Jimmy which caused Richie to get shot.

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]

* ''WesternAnimation/RayaAndTheLastDragon'': In a tense stand-off, [[AntiVillain Namaari]] ends up accidentally shooting [[spoiler:Sisu]] in the chest with a crossbow when [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Raya, paranoid and nervous, attacks her first]] and causes her to [[DamnYouMuscleMemory reflexively pull the trigger]].

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* In the climax of ''Film/LaHaine'', [[spoiler:one of the {{Corrupt Cop}}s from earlier in the film harasses Vinz by waving a gun around in his face, which accidentally goes off and kills him, resulting in his friend Hubert coming over with Vinz's gun. Cue MexicanStandoff between Hubert and the Cop]].

* ''Film/BringMeTheHeadOfTheMachineGunWoman'': When Santiago grabs Mecánico's gun, he comes out shooting blindly. Literally, as he has his eyes shut. He somehow manages to kill the hitman el Tronador, but he also kills the hapless mechanic who is standing behind him.
* ''Film/TheLadykillers2004'': When the dimwitted Lump suddenly develops a conscience, he turns the Professor's revolver against him after being ordered to kill Mrs. Munson. The first chamber is empty, but the second isn't, so when it doesn't work, a confused Lump tries to look down the barrel and shoots himself in the face.
* In ''Film/{{Taps}}'', during a scuffle between some of the cadets and local boys, General Bache tries to put an end to the fight. One of the local kids struggles with him and tries to grab his sidearm. The gun ends up going off and killing one of the other local boys. In shock, Bache states that this is the only time the gun has fired in years, and he's always checked to make sure it was empty (he forgot about the bullet in the barrel). Later on, when a tank rolls up to the military academy, one of the younger cadets panics and runs to surrender. He drops his rifle, which goes off. While the rifle doesn't hurt anyone, the National Guard open fire and kill another cadet.

* ''Literature/HouseOfLeaves'': [[spoiler:Holloway accidentally shoots and kills his friends, thinking them to be the monster he believes to lurk in the house, and thus is DrivenToSuicide]]; this could be argued to be MurderByMistake, though.

* ''SchroedingersBall'' begins with the main character having just shot ''himself'' in the face, fatally, while cleaning his grandmother's gun. However, he's hardly an expert. In fact, the book goes so far as to point out his inexperience in handling firearms in the "Dramatis Personae" section at the very beginning.

* Specifically averted in ''Literature/StarshipTroopers'' as opposed to the film of the (blurb on the back cover of the) book. The incident that causes Rico to be is flogged is that he fails to take adequate precautions with a ''simulated'' nuke during a training exercise (he flips the visor of ''his own'' helmet up to check visually on the dummy nuke's positioning). Only direct testimony from his drill sergeant that he may be salvageable prevents him from being dismissed from the service.
* This causes everything to start falling apart in ''Literature/ThingsFallApart''. During a gun salute at the funeral, Okonkwo's ancient and shoddy gun explodes and hits a young man in the heart. Though it was an accident, the laws of the Igbo stated that it had to be punished and Okonkwo and his family is temporarily exiled.
* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000: Literature/SpaceWolf'' has one of Ragnar's fellow SpaceMarine initiates literally [[YourHeadAsplode blow his own head off]] after being less-than-careful while cleaning his bolt pistol. Another one blew himself up with his own grenade.
* In ''The Nagasaki Vector'', the pilot of a TimeMachine that accidentally traveled [[InterdimensionalTravelDevice sideways into an alternate history]] is a trained and experienced pistoleer and the proud owner of a rare match-grade handgun. That said, when he hands it to another character to show it off, he is berated for failing to clear it properly ''and'' for having his finger on the trigger. [[spoiler:It turns out that the agency he works for uses {{brainwashing}} to make their agents partake in very [[TooDumbToLive reckless behavior]] when at risk of revealing their secrets.]]
* Creator/KurtVonnegut's novel ''Literature/DeadeyeDick'' is about a man who, as a boy, fired a rifle in the air and accidentally killed a pregnant woman in her home on the other side of town.
* ''Swallowing Stones'' by Joyce [=McDonald=] is a young adult novel about a teenager who fires a gun in the air and accidentally kills a man a mile away.
* ''[[Literature/CiaphasCain The Last Ditch]]'': "Jinxie" Penlan uses the butt of her lasrifle to unjam another weapon, in the assumption that the safety is on. It wasn't. But [[UnluckilyLucky being "Jinxie"]], the lasbolt takes out one of the attacking orks (who then crashes his flyer into a crowd of his buddies).
* In one Literature/MissMarple story, Sir Henry Clitheroe recalls a case when he had to investigate a man shooting another man with an ancient pistol that had been hanging on the wall. Sir Henry brought to justice the person who had loaded the gun and controlled the conversation, calling the shooter "entirely innocent", although it seems likely he was at least done for reckless misadventure.
* In the ''Literature/{{Drenai}}'' saga, [[spoiler:this is how Waylander eventually gets killed -- with his own crossbow, no less]].
* In the ''Literature/StonesOfPower'' series, Jon Shannow's silent raid on a Hellborn camp suddenly goes awfully noisy when one of his allies (who, to be fair, had never handled a gun before) tries to cock a stolen pistol while simultaneously squeezing the trigger.
* In ''Literature/{{Curtain}}'', one of [[spoiler:Poirot]]'s initial ideas for killing [[spoiler:Norton]] was pretending to play the trope straight and "forgetting" a gun was loaded. [[spoiler:With his current mental decline (as the observers think) and spotless reputation, people would have been taken in]].
* In ''Literature/ChanceAndChoicesAdventures'', the Butterfield Gang are attacked by birds while trying to attack the Williams farm. They try to kill the birds assaulting them by shooting directly into the air. [[TooDumbToLive The result is one of them getting hit in the shoulder with a bullet, which then becomes infected and results in his death.]]
* In the climax of ''Literature/{{Eileen}}'', [[spoiler: Rebecca kidnaps Mrs. Polk in order to extort a confession out of her and free the Polk by for prison, or something... She intimidates her into a confession, but then accidentally shoots her, completely ruining her plans and forcing her and Eileen to improvise a new plot.]]
* ''Literature/ChickenSoupForTheSoul'': This happens to one boy in a story after his friend recklessly plays with his dad's gun, not realizing it was loaded.
* In Katherine Anne Porter short story "[[Literature/TheCollectedStoriesOfKatherineAnnePorter Hacienda]]", a Mexican boy is literally JugglingLoadedGuns (well, one gun). It goes off, and shoots his sister through the heart. The boy was acting in a film production, and the producers regard it as a minor annoyance in that they have to bribe a judge to get the boy out of prison.

* ''Series/MyNameIsEarl'': Chubby has a squirt gun full of vodka he uses to top off patrons drinks at his strip club, and an identical looking real gun. He didn't learn from his mistake when he shot a drink with the wrong gun on screen. You can all guess how he died off screen.

* ''Series/{{Monk}}'':
** In "Mr. Monk on Wheels," after fighting to grab [[spoiler:Sarah Longson's]] pistol, Natalie turns around, said pistol in hand. She tells Monk, who had already been shot in the leg earlier in the episode and is trying climb down some stairs to assist Natalie, that she was okay... and accidentally shoots Monk in his uninjured leg (much to his surprising joy, as it means that [[SkewedPriorities his wounds are symmetrical]]). Somewhat justified, as depending on your interpretation, either Natalie has not taken any basic firearms training, or, as it was mentioned in the episode "Mr. Monk and the Three Julies", she just hasn't actually fired a gun in at least ten years.
** In "Mr. Monk and the Panic Room," a man is found shot dead in his panic room. Also in the panic room is the man's pet monkey, Darwin, with a pistol in its hand. Captain Stottlemeyer is dubious that the monkey could even use a gun, let alone shoot his owner four times, so he tries an experiment -- he asks Randy for an unloaded gun, who hands him a pistol that he claims to have unloaded, and Stottlemeyer gives it to the monkey. [[ArtisticLicenseGunSafety Neither Disher nor Stottlemeyer verified that the gun was unloaded.]] Stottlemeyer then tries to agitate the monkey enough so that it fires the gun, while Randy, Monk, and Sharona leave the two in an interrogation room. Only after the fact does Randy realizes that he accidentally gave Stottlemeyer a loaded gun, and try to warn him, but Darwin then fires the gun and shatters the one-way mirror. Stottlemeyer then declares the case closed.
* ''Series/{{CSI}}'' has several examples.
** In one case Nick Stokes investigates how a woman got shot with no evidence of a shooter anywhere near. The answer is that there was an idiot who had a gun and made a shooting range in his backyard, which is in the suburbs and within city limits, a big-time city ordinance no-no. A stray bullet went into the air and struck the woman on the decline. When they arrest him, he protests it was an accident and Stokes contemptuously responds, "Well, that's why it's illegal to shoot guns within city limits, genius!"
** In another episode, a hunter fails to follow one of the most important rules of shooting things -- always positively identify your target. So, when a drunken guy stumbles out of a UsefulNotes/{{Furry|Fandom}} convention wearing a raccoon suit and wanders out into the desert, the hunter takes him down, thinking the victim was a coyote. The episode is vague on whether or not he'll get prosecuted for it, although it leans towards "no" since it was pretty dark at the time.
** Averted in the episode "Better Off Dead", when Greg is sharply scolded by Bobby Dawson, the lab's ballistic expert, for failing to properly clear a gun gathered in evidence. There was a bullet left in the chamber because Greg had mistakenly assumed that all the guns recovered from a broken gunshop counter were unloaded, as required by law. Both Greg and Sara look obviously rattled at this clear breach of gun handling protocol, and no-one in the lab relaxes until Bobby Dawson verifies for himself that the gun is, in fact, now properly unloaded.
** Yet another example when a suspect in the murder of an FBI agent accidentally shoots himself in the head in the middle of a crowded arena while trying to show everyone that the gun he had taken from Brass wasn't even loaded. He thought it wasn't loaded because the FBI agent he had killed was really just a crazy guy pretending to be an agent running around with an empty gun, plus he was delirious and on a drip at the time for ''ripping an entire necrotic bicep out of his arm''.
** And in ''yet another'' example and possibly the most extreme example of this Trope in the series, the CSI Las Vegas Team investigates the case of a young man who was shot fatally with one bullet in a shed that was riddled with ''hundreds'' of bullets, thinking at first that it must have been some weird gangland hit. Turns out, it was the inevitable result of a bunch of idiot teenagers playing games with a loaded, automatic MAC-10 by having someone standing on a second story balcony spin the gun down on a metal pole and the others would try to dodge the shots.
** A robber managed to kill a man with a blank round when he put the gun to the victim's head and pulled the trigger. The blast propelled a button on the victim's hat into his brain.
* ''Series/{{CSINY}}'':
** A man accidentally killed another with a blank round. According to the evidence, the suspect fired the gun at point-blank range (singeing the victim's clothes) and it was the discharge, despite the lack of a projectile, that tore a hole in the other man's torso.
** Jo Danville's would-be killer indirectly invokes this during "Means to an End" after he removes the magazine from her gun. She points out [[PreMortemOneLiner people ALWAYS forget about that one round still in the chamber]] right before she shoots him.
** Sadly, this comes into play again in season 9's "Unspoken" when a little boy and girl begin playing with a gun they see a fleeing suspect toss into a dumpster. The boy, thinking of safety, removes the magazine, but also forgets about the one in the chamber and accidentally shoots his friend.
** In a backstory of one killer, as a young boy, he was playing with his recently-deceased father's guns one day when his little sister came up behind him and startled him. When he swing around to face her, the gun went off, killing her.
** Two teenagers killed a man with a shotgun, then travelled several buildings over to dispose of the weapon. There was one round still in the barrel, and when the gun bounced off a stone gargoyle on the way down, it fired, hitting and killing a random woman on the street.
* ''Series/{{CSI Miami}}'':
** A variation with Tim Speedle's death. Part of gun safety is also keeping the weapon cleaned and working properly. Speed ignored Horatio's warnings to clean his gun and was shot by the villain when his wouldn't go off during a shootout.
** Also how Ryan Wolfe ended up with a nail to the eye in one episode; the shooter was the fiancé of the [[VictimOfTheWeek episode victim's]] ex husband and had overheard the victim plotting with one of his building contractors to murder them. She armed herself with a loaded nail gun and hid in the closet, which Wolfe had the misfortune of opening, and fired thinking it was the contractor coming to get her.

* ''Series/MidsomerMurders'': Exploited in "Send in the Clowns", which opens with Les Morrison trying to prank Terry Bellini during a performance with a prop gun, only for Bellini to be fatally shot through the heart. Everything appears to point to Morrison having grabbed a loaded gun without realizing it. However, a forensic report reveals that the bullet was indeed blank -- the round that killed Bellini was from a rifle, which was shot simultaneously with Morrison's handgun and at a similar angle [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident to give the illusion that he had a live gun]].

* On a meta level, the triggers on the UsefulNotes/PlayStation3's controller lack any sort of plastic lip underneath like its contemporaries have, meaning that when you set it down, about half the controller's weight is being put directly on them. This becomes especially problematic in ''VideoGame/DemonsSouls'', where not only is there no true pause feature, the triggers (used to attack) are inexplicably still functional while in a menu. It's possible to kill an important NPC by just setting the controller down to take a break. This came up multiple times during the ''WebVideo/TwoBestFriendsPlay'' stream of the game, and they specifically bring up this trope when Woolie manages to accidentally take a swing during an idle moment.

* In ''Film/SalvationBoulevard'', Pastor Dan Day is trying to make a point about the need for religion to enforce morality by stating the argument that, without religion, people would just kill without abandon. To illustrate the point, he picks an antique gun up off of Professor Blaylock's coffee table and waves it around. It goes off when pointed at the professor.

* In a flashback of ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'', [[spoiler:a young Miles Edgeworth, while stuck in a elevator that had lost power with his father and a court baliff, picked up the closest object to him (he couldn't tell what it was in the dark) and threw it an an effort to break up the fistfight that had broken out between his father and the stir-crazy baliff. Said object was the baliff's pistol, which had fallen out of its holster in the fight. The pistol fired when it hit the ground, and soon Miles fell unconscious from the lack of oxygen in the elevator. When he woke up, his father was dead from a gunshot, leading him to think he had accidentally killed his father. What actually happened was the bullet went through the window on the elevator door and hit Manfred von Karma, who was already in a sour mood from recieving his first ever court penalty thanks to Edgeworth's father and certainly didn't feel any better after getting shot. He pried open the elevator door, saw a gun on the floor and three people unconscious, one of which being the man he hated, so he picked up the gun and shot him]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/MenInBlack'' episode "The Neuralyzer Syndrome", a variation happens when Jay accidentally [[LaserGuidedAmnesia neuralyzes]] Kay, leaving him with his teenage memories.

Guns are weapons. That's why there're various rules for [[UsefulNotes/GunSafety safely handling]] them. When these rules are not followed, whether it be by [[ArtisticLicenseGunSafety supposed experts]] or [[RecklessGunUsage untrained John Q. Dumbass]], there's a chance for an unwanted discharge. That's when somebody gets shot. Sometimes in the face. Being named Marvin is rare, however. Either way, it's not funny the same way that JugglingLoadedGuns is, because somebody just got shot. We mean, it ''can'' still be funny ([[BlackComedy hilarious, even!]]), but on the other hand, somebody did just get wounded or killed.

This trope is named after Vincent's line in ''Film/PulpFiction'' after he exhibits staggering incompetence with basic firearms safety, resulting in things getting worse for him and Jules, and [[BoomHeadshot much worse]] for Marvin. See the entry in the Film folder for details.