History Main / RecklessGunUsage

* In ''{{Baccano}}!'', when the [[FiringInTheAirALot celebratory gun shot]] the head of the Martillo family fires is immediately met with "Oh my God, somebody just killed Isaac!" from the floor above (luckily, Isaac's PluckyComicRelief status means it actually only went through the brim of his hat without touching him).
* ''SoRaNoWoTo'': When sent to investigate another part of the base for a ghost (ItMakesSenseInContext, sorta), Kanata and Kureha showed bad gun safety. They were fingering the triggers of their rifles while arming up, although we don't know whether the rifles were loaded when they did that (still bad, though) and at least they weren't pointing them at each other. However, unlike the [[YouFailGunSafetyForever soldiers of episode 12]], they're young and likely have very little (read: non-existent) training with the stuff.
* ''HighSchoolOfTheDead'': This occurs somewhat often due to the main characters being [[OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent perfectly normal high school students]] during a ZombieApocalypse, however, since there's a resident gun {{otaku}}, their errors are quickly pointed out and UsefulNotes/GunSafety is properly followed.

* Subverted '''HARD''' in PulpFiction. [[spoiler: After driving away from the apartment where the briefcase was being held, Vincent turns around to ask Marvin (their contact) about their [[ItMakesSenseInContext Miracle]]. With a gun in his hand. In a moving car. With the barrel pointed at the guy. Suddenly, the car goes over a speed bump, Vincent's trigger finger slips, and '''BANG!'''. No more Marvin. This is also the trope namer for IJustShotMarvinInTheFace.]]
* In ''PlanetTerror'', half of the ''{{Grindhouse}}'' double-feature, Dr. Dakota Block gives a gun to her child, when she leaves him alone in a car. [[spoiler: He accidentally shoots himself within a few seconds of her leaving the car.]]
* In ''TheDarkKnight'', TheJoker ignores all gun-handling rules, but being ''the Joker'', he probably doesn't care at all if he accidentally shoots someone. Or himself, for that matter. Hell, he'd probably think it was ''hilarious''. In fact, there is a scene where he stumbles and accidentally sprays a burst of S&W M76 fire in a random direction.

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

* In ''Film/YesMan'', the hero goes skeet shooting with his girlfriend. She asks what to do, and accidentally shoots the ground. After the instructor shows her where to point, she hits the clay pigeon. In her excitement, she turns around still holding the gun and everyone in the shooting range ducks for cover.

* In ''{{The Blues Brothers}}'', while the band shops and haggles for instruments from Mr. Ray Charles, a kid attempts to surreptitiously steal an item. Without warning, Ray lifts up a pistol, and fires it between Jake's and Elwood's heads, scaring off the would-be thief. Imagine the Prop people handing a blind man a pistol with blanks, and telling him to fire it in the direction of two actors, a cameraman and assorted production staff.
* Memorably, Steve in the original DawnOfTheDead. Peter gives him a lesson in why it's not a good idea to point loaded guns at people, especially when you can't shoot straight.
* Done deliberately by an actor in PlanNineFromOuterSpace who wanted to see if director Ed Wood would stop filming when a character was being so blatantly unsafe with a firearm. Actions included keeping his finger on the trigger at all times, casually pointing at people with it and even scratching his head with the barrel. True to his nickname, One Take Eddie never stopped to correct him.

* In ''YearOfTheDragon'', later made into an OliverStone movie, one of the Triad gang members accidentally shoots off his toes with his own machine gun (in the movie, the cop shoots him in the foot).

* In TomClancy's ''Patriot Games'', in the heat of the final chase after the terrorists who attacked him, and his family, Jack Ryan sticks a gun into his belt, without engaging the safety, which causes a bit of a tense moment later on when one of the marines with him notices.

* In an episode of ''XPlay'', Adam Sessler went to a SWAT training session, and got chewed out for having his finger on the trigger.
* In an episode of ''TheDistrict'', [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace a woman gets shot]] with no one nearby. Turns out some punk got a hold of a WorldWarII gun and test-fired it by shooting down the apparently-empty street.

* '' {{Stargate SG-1}}'' avoids the trope almost a little ''too'' much when a museum worker is ordered by a guard to hold Cam and Vala at gunpoint and while he certainly points the gun at them, his finger is not even ''close'' to the trigger. To be fair, he was on SG-1's side and as such, had no intention of killing them.

* In an episode of ''TopGear'', the hosts travel to the North Pole, and are given a variety of firearms in case they need to defend themselves from polar bears. At one point, though, James May earnestly looks down the barrel of his shotgun, and is yelled at by their guide, who grabs the weapon out of his hands.

* In the ''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 (a old witch traded bodies with her) while holding the gun, and ends up shooting his wife.

* In an episode of ''[[LiveActionTV/ClassAct Class Act]]'' two robbers are planning a heist. One gets a little excited and fires two shots, prompting his partner to find an excuse to take the gun away. When Gloria manages to disarm the same robber and threatens his partner with a shotgun up close, said partner is unimpressed because he knows he didn't give a loaded gun to a complete nutter. Zigzagged since although he did take proper precautions, he is still betting his life that a gun he last saw in the hands of a complete nutter is still unloaded.

* In ''{{Half-Life}}'', the player can ''twirl'' a loaded revolver at vital characters (it's part of an idle animation, and all conversations are in-game so you'll see it a lot) which almost guarantees a friendly fire incident or six. The sequel makes Gordon lower his weapon automatically when pointing the crosshairs at a friendly NPC so it no longer applies.

* In an episode of ''CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers'', Wheeler had been showing off his gun-twirling skills with a loaded revolver. The gun went off but since it's a cartoon, it hit the sign, making it fall and hit Ma-Ti on the head.

[[folder: Comic Books ]]
* In ''{{Y The Last Man}}'', an untrained woman is holding a hostage at gunpoint, whom she kills by mistake when her finger slips.
** This is more correctly IJustShotMarvinInTheFace.
[[/folder]]

* Subverted '''HARD''' in PulpFiction. [[spoiler: After driving away from the apartment where the briefcase was being held, Vincent turns around to ask Marvin (Their Contact) about their [[ItMakesSenseInContext Miracle]]. With a Gun in his hand. In a moving Car. With the barrel pointed at the guy. Suddenly, the car goes over a speed bump, Vincent's trigger finger slips, and '''BANG!'''. No more Marvin. This is also the trope namer for IJustShotMarvinInTheFace.]]

* Subverted '''HARD''' in PulpFiction. [[spoiler: After driving away from the apartment where the briefcase was being held, Vincent turns around to ask Marvin (Their Contact) about their [[ItMakesSenseInContext Miracle]]. With a Gun in his hand. In a moving Car. With the barrel pointed at the guy. Suddenly, the car goes over a speed bump, Vincent's trigger finger slips, and '''BANG!'''. No more Marvin. This is also the trope namer for IShotMarvinInTheFace.]]

* [[KnowingMeKnowingYouWithAlanPartridge Alan Partridge]] once [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace accidentally shot an obnoxious food critic in the heart with an antique dueling musket on live television]]. It is this (coupled with his later punching of a [[TheBBC BBC]] programming executive in the face with a turkey) that ended his TV career.

* In ''[[DerFreischuetz Der Freischütz]]'', and the rock opera version, ''The Black Rider'' (which was written by RobertWilson, TomWaits and WilliamSBurroughs), combine this trope with literal DiabolusExMachina, and the heroine [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace gets shot on her wedding day]]. In Carl Maria von Weber's original version, the bullet gets deflected by her bridal wreath, though, and she's okay.

* ''Der Freischütz'', and the rock opera version, ''The Black Rider'' (which was written by RobertWilson, TomWaits and WilliamSBurroughs), combine this trope with literal DiabolusExMachina, and the heroine [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace gets shot on her wedding day]]. In Andrew Lloyd Webber's version, the bullet gets deflected by her bridal wreath, though, and she's okay.

* ''StarTrekFirstContact'': Watch closely when Lily Sloane returns the phaser to Picard: the tip is flashing red shortly, as a sign for the VFX people to add a phaser beam. Luckily, they didn't.

* ''StarTrekFirstContact'': When Lily Sloane returns the phaser to Picard, watch closely: the tip is flashing red shortly, as a sign for the VFX people to add a phaser beam. Luckily, they didn't.

* ''StarTrekFirstContact'': [[spoiler: When Lily Sloane returns the phaser to Picard]] watch closely: the tip is flashing red shortly, as a sign for the VFX people to add a phaser beam. Luckily, they didn't.

* ''StarWars'': Watch very closely as Luke Skywalker [[http://irregularwebcomic.net/373.html first ignites his lightsaber]] in ''StarWars: A New Hope'' — he doesn't know how long the beam is and yet is pointing it at Obi-Wan. Of course, this is also Obi-Wan's fault for giving Luke a weapon he is totally unfamiliar with and letting him play with it.
* ''InBruges'' averts the trope. Ken is very careful with his guns. Harry locks his guns away when he's at home so his kids can't get at them. Ray is a bit more careless, but as he's young, reckless and a bit suicidal, this is in character for him (and he never points a gun at anyone he doesn't want to kill, though his occasional poor aim when he does want to kill someone tends to get him in trouble.) At one point a man tries to rob Ray with a gun loaded with blanks — Ray wrestles the gun off him and fires it directly into the man's eye. The blanks leave him permanently blind.

* ''StarWars'': Watch very closely as Luke Skywalker [[http://irregularwebcomic.net/373.html first ignites his lightsaber]] in ''StarWars: A New Hope'' — he doesn't know how long the beam is and yet is pointing it at Obi-Wan. Of course, this is also Obi-Wan's fault for giving Luke a weapon he is totally unfamiliar with and letting him play with it.
* ''InBruges'' averts the trope. Ken is very careful with his guns. Harry locks his guns away when he's at home so his kids can't get at them. Ray is a bit more careless, but as he's young, reckless and a bit suicidal, this is in character for him (and he never points a gun at anyone he doesn't want to kill, though his occasional poor aim when he does want to kill someone tends to get him in trouble.) At one point a man tries to rob Ray with a gun loaded with blanks — Ray wrestles the gun off him and fires it directly into the man's eye. The blanks leave him permanently blind.

* ''StarWars'': Watch very closely as Luke Skywalker [[http://irregularwebcomic.net/373.html first ignites his lightsaber]] in ''StarWars: A New Hope'' — he doesn't know how long the beam is and yet is pointing it at Obi-Wan.

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

* ''XPlay'' hangs a lampshade on the trope. Adam Sessler went to a SWAT training session, and got chewed out for having his finger on the trigger.

* ''[[CrimeSceneInvestigation CSI]]'': [[spoiler: 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 the backyard, in the suburbs within city limits, a big-time city ordinance no-no, and a stray bullet went into the air and [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace 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!"]]

* ''SoraNoWato'': When sent to investigate another part of the base for a ghost (ItMakesSenseInContext, sorta), Kanata and Kureha showed bad gun safety. They were fingering the triggers of their rifles while arming up, although we don't know whether the rifles were loaded when they did that (still bad, though) and at least they weren't pointing them at each other. However, unlike the [[YouFailGunSafetyForever soldiers of episode 12]], they're young and likely have very little (read: non-existent) training with the stuff.
* ''HighSchoolOfTheDead'': This occurs somewhat often due to the main characters being [[OrdinaryHighSchoolStudents perfectly normal high school students]] during a ZombieApocalypse, however, since there's a resident gun {{otaku}}, their errors are quickly pointed out and UsefulNotes/GunSafety is properly followed.

** It seemed implied that [[spoiler:[[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace it was a fatal shot]], but Issac survived due to recently drinking the immortality serum.]]

When somebody who ''should'' know proper gun safety, such as soldiers or police, use guns recklessly, that's YouFailGunSafetyForever. If somebody gets shot because guns are used recklessly and it's played seriously, that's IJustShotMarvinInTheFace. If safety is ignored or somebody gets shot for laughs, that's JugglingLoadedGuns. If a gun goes off randomly despite observance of UsefulNotes/GunSafety, that's ShurFineGuns.

* ''{{8mile}}'', the movie: Eminem's friend shoots himself (in a very sensitive part) in the act of putting a gun in his waistband - with surprising little reaction.

* In ''YesMan'', the hero goes skeet shooting with his girlfriend. She asks what to do, and accidentally shoots the ground. After the instructor shows her where to point, she hits the clay pigeon. In her excitement, she turns around still holding the gun and everyone in the shooting range ducks for cover.

There are [[UsefulNotes.GunSafety some basic rules for safely using guns]]. Unfortunately, not everyone knows what they are since many people are not used to firearms. This can result in things that are [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace tragic]] or [[JugglingLoadedGuns hilarious]] depending on the work in question.

When somebody unfamiliar with firearms does something reckless with guns that endanger others, what's occurred is RecklessGunUsage.

When somebody who ''should'' know proper gun safety, such as soldiers or police, using guns recklessly, that's YouFailGunSafetyForever. If somebody get's shot because guns are used recklessly and it's played seriously, that's IJustShotMarvinInTheFace. If safety is ignored or somebody gets shot for laughs, that's JugglingLoadedGuns. If a gun goes off randomly despite UsefulNotes/GunSafety being observed, that's ShurFineGuns.

* ''{{Baccano}}!'', when the [[FiringInTheAirALot celebratory gun shot]] the head of the Martillo family fires is immediately met with "Oh my God, somebody just killed Isaac!" from the floor above (luckily, Isaac's PluckyComicRelief status means it actually only went through the brim of his hat without touching him).

* ''SoraNoWato'': when sent to investigate another part of the base for a ghost (ItMakesSenseInContext, sorta) had Kanata and Kureha showing bad gun safety. They were fingering the triggers of their rifles while arming up, although we don't know if they were loaded when they did that (still bad, though) and at least they weren't pointing them at each other. However, unlike the [[YouFailGunSafetyForever soldiers of episode 12]], they're young and likely have very little (read: non-existent) training with the stuff.

* ''HighschoolOfTheDead'': This occurs somewhat often due to the main characters being [[OrdinaryHighSchoolStudents perfectly normal high school students]] during a ZombieApocalypse, however, since there's a resident gun {{otaku}}, their errors are quickly pointed out and UsefulNotes/GunSafety is properly followed.

* PlanetTerror (half of the {{Grindhouse}} double-feature), in which Dr. Dakota Block gives a gun to her child, when she leaves him alone in a car. [[spoiler: He accidentally shoots himself within a few seconds of her leaving the car.]]
* TheDarkKnight the Joker ignores all gun handling rules, but being ''the Joker'', he probably doesn't care at all if he accidentally shoots someone. Or himself, for that matter. Hell, he'd probably think it was ''hilarious''. In fact, there is a scene where he stumbles and accidentally sprays a burst of S&W M76 fire in a random direction.
* {{Film/House}}, ([[{{House}} no relation]]), William Katt's character pretends that his shotgun went off while he was cleaning it, in order to explain the sound of gunshots. He ''actually'' used it to shoot a demonic witch-thing, but [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness he's afraid it may have actually been his ex-wife.]]
* Film/TheHost, Nam-il keeps pointing the barrel of his shotgun at objects (and people). In one scene, he pointed and ''thrust'' the shotgun at Gang-du's head while the latter was asleep.

* StarWars: Watch very closely as Luke Skywalker [[http://irregularwebcomic.net/373.html first ignites his lightsaber]] in ''StarWars: A New Hope'' - he doesn't know how long the beam is and yet is pointing it at Obi-Wan.
* InBruges averted, Ken is very careful with his guns. Harry locks his guns away when he's at home so his kids can't get at them. Ray is a bit more careless, but as he's young, reckless, and a bit suicidal, this is in character for him (and he never points a gun at anyone he doesn't want to kill, though his occasional poor aim when he does want to kill someone tends to get him in trouble.) At one point a man tries to rob Ray with a gun loaded with blanks--Ray wrestles the gun off him and fires it directly into the man's eye. The blanks leave him permanently blind.
* {{Commando}}. After ArnoldSchwarzenegger gets locked up in a police van, Rae Dawn Chong tries to free him with a quad-barrelled missile launcher. Unfortunately she points the wrong end at the target and blows up the shops behind her. Although given that the launcher, the M-202 "Flash", fires rockets tipped with a compound similar to white phosphorus (and would have incinerated the van), someone was getting screwed no matter where it was pointing.
* YesMan, the protagonist goes skeet shooting with his girlfriend. She asks what to do, and accidentally shoots the ground. After the instructor shows her where to point, she hits the clay pigeon. In her excitement, she turns around still holding the gun and everyone in the shooting range ducks for cover.
* {{8mile}}, the movie. Eminem's friend shoots himself (in a very sensitive part) in the act of putting a gun in his waistband - with surprising little reaction.
* StarTrekFirstContact [[spoiler: When Lily Sloane returns the phaser to Picard]] watch closely: the tip is flashing red shortly, as a sign for the VFX people to add a phaser beam. Luckily, they didn't.
* {{Film/Go}}, with a scene where a one character plays with a loaded handgun in a moving car while his increasingly-concerned friend attempts to get it back from him before it goes off. [[spoiler: It doesn't.]]
* HarryBrown: The street scum villains handle their weapons in ridiculously unsafe manners. Lampshaded when, at a crucial moment, one bad guy's weapon jams due to his poor treatment and maintenance of it, allowing Harry to kill him.
* {{The Blues Brothers}}, while the band shops and haggles for instruments from Mr. Ray Charles, a kid attempts to surreptitiously steal an item. Without warning, Ray lifts up a pistol, and fires it between Jake's and Elwood's heads, scaring off the would-be thief. Imagine the Prop people handing a blind man a pistol with blanks, and telling him to fire it in the direction of two actors, a cameraman and assorted production staff.

* SchroedingersBall begins with the main character having [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace 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 to as to point out his inexperience in handing firearms in the "Dramatis Personae" section at the very beginning.
* YearOfTheDragon (later made into an Oliver Stone movie) one of the Triad gang members accidentally shoots off his toes with his own machine gun (in the movie the cop shoots him in the foot).
* TheFireDuke by Joel Rosenberg averted. One of the locals is watching over a portal to another world when someone arrives to relieve him. He carefully removes the magazine, unchambers the loaded round then loads it back into magazine before handing over his firearm.

* MyNameIsEarl: Chubby had a squirt gun full of vodka he used 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.
* {{Monk}} After fighting a suspect for a gun, Natalie turns around, gun in hand. She tells Monk, who had already been shot in the leg earlier in the episode and was trying climb down some stairs to assist Natalie, that she was okay...and [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace accidentally shot Monk in his uninjured leg.]]
* ''[[CrimeSceneInvestigation CSI]]'', [[spoiler: 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 the backyard, in the suburbs within city limits, a big time city ordinance no no, and a stray bullet went into the air and [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace 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!"]]
* XPlay lampshaded, Adam Sessler went to a SWAT training session, and got chewed out for having his finger on the trigger.
* TheDistrict [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace when a woman gets shot]] with no one nearby. Turns out some punk got a hold of a WW2 gun and test-fired it by shooting down the apparently-empty street.
* {{Torchwood}} A shooting lesson scene showed Gwen playfully pointing a loaded gun at Jack's face. Admittedly, he can [[IGotBetter get better]], [[YouFailGunSafetyForever but as an ex-soldier he should have reacted more than]] "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_0uX1etAcY Target's that way!]]", if only to save the next guy she did it to.
* DoctorWho, MadeForTVMovie the Doctor shows he's an ActualPacifist by threatening to shoot ''himself'' in order to commandeer a policeman's motorcycle. However, when Grace wants a word with him, he starts pointing the gun vaguely in the direction of the policeman while looking the other way. It's not even clear if he's actually aiming at the cop or if it's simply [[AbsentmindedProfessor slipped his mind]] that the object he's holding is a gun. And then there's the bit where the Doctor does the DramaticGunCock every time he aims again. Does he think he needs to hold the gun very, very still to prevent in uncocking itself? It shouldn't even be possible to do that.
* {{Stargate SG-1}} Avoided almost a little ''too'' much when a museum worker is ordered by a guard to hold Cam and Vala at gunpoint and while he certainly points the gun at them, his finger is not even ''close'' to the trigger. To be fair, he was on SG-1's side and as such, had no intention of killing them.

* TheAdventuresOfBriscoCountyJr, while Brisco is tussling with a bad guy. The GirlOfTheWeek wants to help, and grabs a nearby pistol by the barrel and is about to hit the bad guy before Brisco stops her. He beats up the bad guy himself, then demonstrates that fact that if the woman had struck someone with the butt of the ''loaded, flintlock'' pistol, [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace it would've gone off. Directly into ''her''.]]
* {{Cheers}}, where a jealous man comes into the bar threatening Frasier 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 [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace shoots himself in the butt]].
* TheWire. Kima is assigned to a murder of a State's witness in an alley. There's quite a bit of backroom scheming because it's a mayoral election year, so she under pressure from one side to solve the case quickly and from the other to bury it. [[spoiler: It turns out, a pair of drunken knuckleheads two blocks away were shooting at beer bottles and hit the guy by accident.]]

* {{Oz}}. One of the inmates was sent to prison after brandishing a gun at school which went off, [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace killing a schoolgirl on the floor above]].
* BattleStarGalactica: In "Valley of Darkness" Dualla tells Billy (a civilian) that [[PantsPositiveSafety sticking a pistol in his pants]] with the safety off is a [[GroinAttack bad idea]]. Later Billy has an accidental discharge when taking the safety off, giving away their position to the Cylons.
* {{Entourage}} , after a break-in, when the guys decide to arm themselves. Drama comes home with a bag full of loaded guns, and Turtle starts playing with one, at which point Drama grabs it from him and says "Careful, Turtle, that's a loaded weapon!" At which point the gun goes off and blows out a window, prompting the guys to maaaaaaaybe think about getting some professional security.
* StarTrekTheOriginalSeries, both involving TimeTravel and the not-gun-shaped Phaser. In "The City On The Edge of Forever", a 1930s bum gets hold of one and [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace vaporizes himself playing with it]]. In "Tomorrow Is Yesterday", Kirk is captured by Air Police in 1969, and cringes with [[CrowningMomentOfFunny priceless]] facial expressions as they fiddle with his weapon, toss it, and several times almost press the trigger, conflicted between justifiable fear and the need not to give away future information.
* TopGear, the hosts travel to the North Pole, and are given a variety of firearms in case they need to defend themselves from polar bears. At one point, though, James May earnestly looks down the barrel of his shotgun, and is yelled at by their guide, who grabs the weapon out of his hands.

* 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]]?
* PerryMason If there was a gun involved in the murder-of-the-week, odds are good PerryMason will recklessly wave that gun around. One episode was particularly egregious: district attorney, Hamilton Berger, fondles the murder weapon (a revolver marked as exhibit whatever) during the trial and rests it casually on the witness box, his finger on the trigger, the barrel aimed directly at the weapons expert's head. After a few questions, he turns it toward the jury, gesturing dramatically. Then, Mason does exactly the same thing when cross-examining.
* BeverlyHills90210 A VerySpecialEpisode of the original uses this [[spoiler: [[DroppedABridgeOnHim to kill off one of the regulars]],]] in front of Bryan Austin Green.
* 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 (a old witch traded bodies with her) while holding the gun, and ends up shooting his wife.
* AThousandWaysToDie 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 room mates 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 shotgun and fires them directly into his room mates 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 shotgun at super sonic speed and penetrate the guy's skull. He simply wanted to hurt his friend, he didn't think cigarettes would penetrate flesh like 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 a gun is going to be potentially lethal.

[[folder: Music ]]

* ''Der Freischütz'', and the rock opera version ''The Black Rider'' (which was written by RobertWilson, TomWaits, and WilliamSBurroughs), combine this trope with literal DiabolusExMachina, and the heroine [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace gets shot on her wedding day]]. In Weber's version, the bullet gets deflected by her bridal wreath, though, and she's okay.

* ''{{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 hand bag, narrowly missing Squeaky Fromme, once into the air when she's supposed to be clicking the hammer of an unloaded weapon in "The Gun Song," once when startled with her finger prematurely on the trigger, damaging Charles Guiteau's hearing in the process, and twice during two separate scene change blackouts, with the lights coming up on her scene the second time to reveal she's just accidentally shot her own dog.

* SecondSight: Justified on [[http://www.mobygames.com/game/second-sight/cover-art the cover]] of as the protagonist is mentally unstable, possibly even suicidal.
* {{Half-Life}}, the player can ''twirl'' a loaded revolver at vital characters (it's part of an idle animation, and all conversations are in-game so you'll see it a lot) which almost guarantees a friendly fire incident or six. The sequel makes Gordon lower his weapon automatically when pointing the crosshairs at a friendly NPC so it no longer applies.
* ResidentEvil 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.
* EternalDarkness: during Maxamillion's chapter. After he picks up two flintlock pistols, an insanity effect involves dropping one of them while reloading, [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace killing him]].
* {{Fallout}} 2 features a cruel variant - one of the ways to assassinate [[spoiler:Orville Wright]] is to give one of his kids a loaded gun and tell them "Why don't you wave this in your daddy's face and pull the trigger?"
* GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas: [[GTARadio one of the radio segments]], [[TheAhnold Jack Howitzer]] threatens to kill host Billy Dexter unless he touches Jack's genitals (ItMakesSenseInContext... sorta) and then says he was just fooling around and that his gun was unloaded, only for it to go off and kill Dexter.

[[folder: Web Comics]]

* SluggyFreelance: Alt-Bun-Bun [[http://sluggy.com/daily.php?date=040607 invokes this trope]], enough that Torg yells, "''Quit pointing that empty gun at me, it's not really for making points in conversation!''" [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] since Alt-Bun-Bun comes from a dimension without guns (or much in the way of violence at all).
* QuestionableContent, where Marten [[JugglingLoadedGuns doesn't observe]] ''taser'' safety and [[http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=529 accidentally electrocutes himself]]. Of course, he ''was'' drunk.

* GirlchanInParadise: "It's out of bullets, anyway!" "Then that means I can do this!" (''[[TooDumbToLive BANG]]'')
* TheOnion: [[http://www.theonion.com/articles/8yearold-accidentally-exercises-second-amendment-r,725/ this]] article , an 8-year-old boy who accidentally shoots himself in the thigh wins praise from {{Strawman Political}}s for having exercised his constitutional rights.

* {{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.
* BatmanTheAnimatedSeries: While being chased by Alfred, a young hooligan in the Wayne mansion discovers a collection of antique firearms. He grabs a blunderbuss off the wall and proceeds to wave it around like a toy. Alfred immediately backs off, but Batman jumps in and grabs the gun out of the boy's hands. He notes, "It's not loaded, but it could have been."
* CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers, Wheeler had been showing off his gun twirling skills with a loaded revolver. The gun went off but since it's a cartoon, it hit the sign, making it fall, and ended up hitting Ma-Ti on the head.

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