History Main / ATeamFiring

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': [[MoreDakka Orks + guns]] = [[HilarityEnsues hilarity.]] Orks in general tend to shoot more to hear the noise of their guns going off than to actually kill anyone with them. The ''TabletopGame/RogueTrader'' RPG points out that all Ork weapons are actually ''smoothbore'', as their genetically-engineered technical knowledge apparently doesn't include that whole "spin-stabilized ballistics" thing.

** ''[[WesternAnimation/BatmanGothamKnight Gotham Knight]]'' has some fun with this, where Bats tries to run straight at ComicBook/{{Deadshot}} while the latter is blazing away with a two-barreled automatic ArmCannon... and connects. Cue Deadshot quipping about how this was the first time he had ever seen anyone try to dodge his bullets by running at them.

* On September 23, 1989, in the Hilltop neighborhood of Tacoma, Washington, resident Bill Foulk, an U.S. Army Ranger Staff Sergeant, was having a cookout with several of his friends (also Army Rangers) and their families. [[MuggingTheMonster He and his party were attacked by local drug dealers in retaliation]] for Foulk's attempts to organize neighborhood watch and protection programs, which included videotaping of a nearby "crack house". In a gun battle lasting more than 10 minutes, over 300 rounds were reported to have been fired from semiautomatic pistols, rifles, and shotguns; without a single injury resulting on either side. Foulk's party was not prosecuted for their participation in the shooting, as city officials deemed it a clear case of self-defense. Their commanding officer was less forgiving, however, and ordered them to spend several months of extended time on the firing range for failing to hit their targets.

The opposite of this trope is ImprobableAimingSkills, and the bladed weapon counterpart is {{Flynning}}, in which swords clash but nobody goes for the kill. See also BloodlessCarnage and NonLethalWarfare, which often motivate this trope. Compare PowerfulButInaccurate, when the inaccuracy is canonically a property of the weapon.

* Lampshaded in one of the ''Soldiers of Barrabas'' novels when the SOBS have to break out of a police cordon without harming anyone. "It's going to be like ''Series/TheATeam''. Lots of bullets fired but no one dies."

* On a smaller scale, Church in ''Machinima/RedVsBlue''. A man who can point his gun at a guard, empty a full magazine from less than three feet away, and still manage to completely miss.

%% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order. Thanks!

%% Image kept on page with upgrade per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1581104836079180700
%% Previous thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1515713328020448700
%% Please do not replace or remove without starting a new thread.

%% Caption selected per crowner in Caption Repair thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/crowner.php/ImagePickin/ATeamFiringcaption
%% Please do not replace or remove without discussion in the thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1404492079030138900

This trope is often TruthInTelevision. Any sustained automatic fire from a handheld weapon will require divine intervention to actually hit its target because the recoil from each successive shot will force the weapon's muzzle to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muzzle_climb rise up]] until all of the rounds are passing harmlessly over it. That's why reckless automatic fire is nicknamed "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spray_and_pray spray and pray]]". As for non-automatic weapons, handguns are known for only having an effective range of about ''30 feet'' for most nonprofessional users, since they have a shorter sight radius to aim with, as well as less weight and fewer anchor points (i.e. buttstock and foregrip) to help control recoil. So under most conditions, this trope could be interpreted not as "all shots have bad luck" but as "no shot gets better than average results (i.e. a miss) no matter how many shots are fired."

%% * ''FanFic/PrettyCurePerfumePreppy'' has this happen to Hanae at one point in episode 36.

--> ''"God help you all if I actually '''hit''' something!"''

** The Assault Rifle, particularly its [[VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved original incarnation]]. That said, when it was re-introduced in ''VideoGame/{{Halo 3}}'', it became considerably more accurate. While ''VideoGame/HaloReach'' further improved its accuracy even more, it also added the so-called "bloom" mechanic; weapons quickly become rather inaccurate if you keep spraying instead of using controlled bursts. While bloom indeed has a negative effect on spraying, the AR's massive bullet magnetism (a function of the game's aim assist that directs bullets towards the target if your aim is off) made players who preferred single-shot and burst-fire weapons loathe the AR. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbvHYSnDaOk This short video]] demonstrates exactly why the AR was loathed that much[[labelnote:Explanation]] It takes exactly 16 rounds from the assault rifle to kill an opponent. In the first attempt (full-auto fire), more than half of the 32-rounds magazine miss and the opponent survived. In the second attempt (burst-fire), a total of 22 rounds were fired and the opponent dropped dead after 20 rounds (the last two-rounds burst was fired when the opponent was already dead). This means that the AR's massive bullet magnetism turned 16 of the 20 rounds fired into hits ''even though the outside of the reticle barely touched the opponent''[[/labelnote]]. Subsequent games have managed to fine-tune the AR's accuracy while simultaneously toning down on its bullet magnetism.

** In the latter half of the ''G1'' two-parter "Dinobot Island", the Decepticons not only succeed in hitting the Autobots but essentially pin them all to the ground with a sustained round of gunfire. Apparently they just had their guns set to "ticklefight"... at least, until the movie.

*** Third, training to react to fire: You get shot at, you return fire if you can see the enemy (or know where the enemy actually is). This training method alone raised the firing rates to up to 95% in Vietnam. [[note]]accuracy is not as important here as suppressive fire is.[[/note]]

* "Project SALVO," a US government research program that eventually led to the adoption of the M16 assault rifle, encouraged this. Analyzing thousands of battle reports from the Second World War, the researchers determined that traditional marksmanship training was of little use in maneuver warfare, that the chance of being hit by small arms fire in combat was essentially random, and that the single largest predictor of success in a firefight was the number of rounds fired. Due in large part to the troubled history of the M16, the Project SALVO report is ''highly'' contentious, with many claiming it was falsified or based on faulty data, and many others claiming it was accurate, but suppressed due to the ground forces' heavy emphasis on the rifle range. The rifle it spawned would lose its full-auto capability and gradually increase over time both weight and effective range.

* On September 23, 1989, in the Hilltop neighborhood of Tacoma, Washington, resident Bill Foulk, a US Army Ranger Staff Sergeant, was having a cookout with several of his friends (also Army Rangers) and their families. [[MuggingTheMonster He and his party were attacked by local drug dealers in retaliation]] for Foulk's attempts to organize neighborhood watch and protection programs, which included videotaping of a nearby "crack house". In a gun battle lasting more than 10 minutes, over 300 rounds were reported to have been fired from semiautomatic pistols, rifles, and shotguns; without a single injury resulting on either side. Foulk's party was not prosecuted for their participation in the shooting, as city officials deemed it a clear case of self-defense. Their commanding officer was less forgiving, however, and ordered them to spend several months of extended time on the firing range for failing to hit their targets.
* Televangelist John Hagee will happily retell an incident, caught on camera, where a gunman from [[SarcasmMode a "successful counselling session"]] stormed his church during a live broadcast, pointed a gun at Hagee, and demanded he get on his hands and knees and pray to Satan while denying the existence of God (which is ridiculous, since the official Church of Satan acknowledges that God created Satan). When Hagee refused, the gunman opened fire, and caused considerable property damage but failed to hit Hagee. Upon running out of ammunition, the gunman dropped his weapon and fled, right into waiting police officers, responding to the incident. Police forensics checking the footage and doing ray-tracing analysis concluded that Hagee ''should'' have been hit, repeatedly, and possibly killed. Hagee insists divine intervention for the fact that he was not.

* It is no surprise that most shots fired from machine guns (or auto-cannons) at moving aircraft (unless one counts airships and hovering helicopters) tend to miss, as gravity and weather conditions mess with ballistic trajectories. And, of course, the target is ''moving.'' There is a good reason why anti-aircraft mounts have ring sights.

[[caption-width-right:350:Here, [[{{Pun}} Uzi]] how not to use firearms. ]]

Perhaps this trope is employed as an alternative to the opposite extreme of GunsAreWorthless and AnnoyingArrows. A writer trying to be realistic about how dangerous both arrows and bullets are in the right hands would have to make the people firing them unable to hit the broad side of a barn in order to draw fights out for dramatic effect. In the case of the {{Trope Namer|s}}, however, the real reason was that ''Series/TheATeam'' was nominally a kid's show in prime time, and [[BloodlessCarnage killing was a network no-no]]; It was overlooked at the time due to the RuleOfCool, and in fact the movie remake was [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks heavily criticized by fans for actually showing the heroes killing people]]. This trope can be related to instances where the goodies deliberately miss their shots because they do not wish to kill anyone, but ironically the intentionally non-lethal use of firearms tends to require the opposite trope--ImprobableAimingSkills--for tricks like BlastingItOutOfTheirHands or winging the bad guys in order to invoke OnlyAFleshWound. Most of the time, A-Team firing is depicted as unintentional.

This trope is often TruthInTelevision. Any sustained automatic fire from a hand held weapon will require divine intervention to actually hit its target, because the recoil from each successive shot will force the weapon's muzzle to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muzzle_climb rise up]] until all of the rounds are passing harmlessly over it. That's why reckless automatic fire is nicknamed "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spray_and_pray spray and pray]]". As for non-automatic weapons, handguns are known for only having an effective range of about ''30 feet'' for most nonprofessional users, since they have a shorter sight radius to aim with, as well as less weight and fewer anchor points (i.e. buttstock and foregrip) to help control recoil. So under most conditions, this trope could be interpreted not as "all shots have bad luck" but as "no shot gets better than average results (i.e. a miss) no matter how many shots are fired."

The effect of firearms with higher potential accuracy and rate of fire has been to change tactics, ironically leading to similarly low rates of accuracy for different reasons. Targets that move quickly and stay behind cover instead of lining up in the open are naturally harder to hit, and when they are returning fire one's own ability to concentrate, aim and shoot will be seriously impacted. Furthermore, a lot of bullets are fired for reasons other than directly killing the enemy. Modern small arms tactics revolve around [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suppressive_fire suppressive fire]] and maneuver, in which one part of a military force puts out sustained fire towards the enemy not so much to inflict casualties as to pin them down behind cover and restrict their ability to move or fire back. While the enemy is being suppressed, other elements can maneuver in close and go for the kill. Another ammo-intensive technique is Reconnaissance by Fire, in which a force which doesn’t know exactly where the enemy is hiding will shoot preemptively at potential enemy hiding places to cover their advance. The amount of ammo used in warfare today is staggering. Although ammo expenditure and enemy kill figures are notoriously unreliable, John Pike of [=GlobalSecurity.org=] [[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-forced-to-import-bullets-from-israel-as-troops-use-250000-for-every-rebel-killed-314944.html estimated]] that U.S. forces fired something like 250,000 bullets (including large numbers fired in practice) for each enemy combatant killed between 2002 and 2005.

* The first episode of ''Anime/BurstAngel'' sees two opponents firing away at each other at point blank range (like, four metres) like no tomorrow, without a single hit.

** In the actual first episode, the reason that little slice of real estate is unharmed is because it was shielded by the tavern's very sturdy sign, which, when no longer propped up by the repeated impact of incoming bullets on one side, fell over. It wasn't so much that they all ''missed'' the target as that there was something bulletproof in the way.

* Doubly subverted in ''ComicBook/LargoWinch''. When Penny reminds him that Largo ordered them to do the operation without killing, Simon tell that there is no need to worry, because he has terrible aiming skill. Then one mook is shot, and Simon explains that this prove how bad he is, because he aimed at the roof.

** Swerve is a comically bad shot. He's only scored three direct hits in the entire run of the comic. Two were accidental headshots on the ship's psychologist and himself (both of them got better). He manages to miss the broad side of one of the largest Transformers shown thus far at point blank range. He blames his lack of accuracy on the fact that he's quite small for a Transformer and most guns are made for someone larger. His accuracy does improve a bit after Brainstorm builds a gun specially crafted for him.

* Played painfully straight in the ''ComicBook/TwoFace: Year One'' comic. A SWAT team is sent in to a room full of unsuspecting supervillains [[ItMakesSenseInContext who are making phone calls on behalf of Harvey Dent's reelection campaign]], with orders to kill everyone but Dent. In spite of the order, and the fact the illustration makes it look like they're spraying the room with bullets, the most damage that the team inflicts is shooting Scarecrow's horse and (non-fatally) wounding the Ventriloquist. Everyone else is brought in unharmed.

* During the takeover scene in ''Film/AirForceOne'' the Russian terrorists kill Marines and Secret Service agents without one of the terrorists being killed or, at least wounded, by governments agents, who are supposed to be the best-shots in the business.

* Used in the ''Film/DerClown'' movie ''Payday'', but not played too straight: The German version of SWAT can fire their machine guns without hitting anyone. The unarmored villains can mow down most SWAT members in body armor with machine guns and shoot through steel ropes with pistols, but fail to hit the heroes unless by accidentally pulling the trigger. The heroes' firing is apparently so bad again, combined with their constant lack of [[MoreDakka dakka]], that they have to resort on [[spoiler:blowing up an entire aircraft to kill the baddies inside]].

* The 2007 Australian film ''Film/{{Noise}}'' ends with a realistic shootout, and it shows a lot of in-accurate shooting under pressure.
* PlayedForDrama in a famous scene from ''{{Film/Predator}}'' the heroes open fire onto the [[BigBad titular monster]] firing thousands of rounds into a jungle and only manage to tag it's leg. Justified in the fact that the creature was invisible.

* In ''Film/PulpFiction'', a random gunman takes the lead characters by surprise and unloads a large-caliber revolver at them, only for him to miss every shot and get gunned down after a {{Beat}}. [[Creator/SamuelLJackson Jules]] interprets this unlikely scenario as divine intervention, and decides to give up the life of a gangster and [[WalkingTheEarth walk the Earth]]. Divine indeed: the two bullet holes over the shoulders is just coincidental. As for one bullet hole that suggest a shoulder hit and another that suggest a punctured lung, these can't be explained by science. It doesn't help that if you look closely during earlier scenes, you can see the bullet holes are in the wall ''[[SpecialEffectFailure before]]'' the gunman starts shooting.

* ''Blood Makes the Grass Grow Green'', Johnny Rico's (real name) autobiographical account of a self-described hippie liberal serving as a US Infantryman in Afghanistan, plays this trope straight. It is, after all, TruthInTelevision. In one scene, the soldiers and Taliban exchange fire for over a half hour. The soldiers engage with weapons they qualify with, most of them ranked Experts. The Taliban engage with weapons they've been carrying all their lives. Vehicle mounted weapons and rocket-propelled grenades are fired. There were no American casualties and no enemy bodies or blood trails were discovered. In another scene, Johnny forgets ConcealmentEqualsCover does not apply and dives behind a haystack, but the Taliban repeatedly miss at short range. Finally, a soldier unloads his M240 (light machine gun) when his platoon is engaged into a nearby hill where there might be enemies, but none are visible. He didn't want to carry all that heavy ammunition around anymore.

* Lampshaded in one of the ''Soldiers of Barrabas'' novels when the SOBS have to break out of a police cordon without harming anyone. "It's going to be like ''Series/TheATeam''. Lots of bullets fired but no-one dies."
* This trope is the reason for "Try Again" Bragg's nickname in Creator/DanAbnett's ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}: Literature/GauntsGhosts'' series. Fortunately, due to his sheer strength he is a heavy weapons trooper and usually totes a machine gun-equivalent with ammo to spare.

* ''Series/{{Alias}}'' used it for the first season and a half -- then Sydney started killing people. It's not that Sydney missed her shots, though; in general she used tranquilizers until the writers decided they preferred Sydney to off people instead.

* Everyone on ''Series/{{Chuck}}'' sucks with their guns. Many of the fights devolve into hand to hand combat, and any stand off is solved just by either side having an extra gun pointed at the rest.

* Parodied in a ''Series/{{MADtv|1995}}'' skit in which a veteran cop gets a new partner who's a rookie. The veteran cop is captured by a thug wielding a blade and the rookie tries to shoot the thug, only to hit his partner... repeatedly. The veteran suggests aiming for him instead of the thug and just ends up getting shot in the nut-sack. He declares that he'd rather take his chances with the blade, which is kind of dull, but the rookie cop insists he's not letting the thug get away. The thug eventually decides to leave the scene and he walks way. The rookie "pursues," but no matter how close he gets, he can't achieve the shot and the ricochet bounces to the veteran. The thug picks up a penny off the ground and leaves. The rookie cop calls for medical aid for the veteran, but reaches Domino's Pizza instead.

* The page quote comes from the Winter Olympics special of ''Series/{{Top Gear|UK}}'', where Jeremy Clarkson decides that the best weapon to use at a biathlon rifle range is [[MoreDakka an MP5 set to fully automatic]]. He somehow manages to knock down a tree that was directly ''behind'' his target, but never hits the target itself.

* In ''TabletopGame/D20Modern'', automatic weapons get the shaft. Two feats are required in order to properly use an automatic weapon, one for proficiency with guns, the other to not suffer a penalty when firing full-auto. And even if you have those feats, you target a 10-by-10 area with an AC of 10, to make the opponents have to make a DC 15 reflex save (fixed, with no way to modify) to take no damage; you use 10-rounds to attempt to hit at most 4 halfling-sized enemies with 1 bullet each. A third feat is required for you to be able to burst-fire, which is actually not useless. Without that third feat, you can target a single target with auto-fire, but it is a senseless waste of ammo because only 1 round (of the 10 fired) can hit. Some guns even have a 3-round burst mode, but if you don't "know" how to burst-fire, then tough luck, you can't use that mode (you can, but much like auto-fire against a single opponent, it's a waste of ammo). To summarize: Without building your character to fully use automatic weapons, you will quickly get to the point to where you can't do anything ''but'' spray-and-pray with automatic fire.

* In most co-operative and MMO games with gunplay; this can happen to any unlucky player who dumps rounds after rounds of ammo at their target only for the last shot to be "click, click, click!" and mentally cuss themselves from the relization as they are [[BoomHeadshot domed]] from the enemy player.

* Seen in the ''VideoGame/{{Battlefield}}'' series due to its use of realistic firearm accuracy. Automatic fire from a shoulder fired weapon will have little chance of hitting the target, doubly so if you are shooting on the run. Heavy support weapons are have even worse accuracy when fired from a standing position and will have problems hitting a target even at point blank range. This results in numerous instances of soldiers circling around each other at arms length burning through their entire magazine without hitting a thing.[[note]]These are likely veterans of earlier, ''VideoGame/{{Quake}}''-style FPS games that emphasized movement over cover as effective defense. Network latency may also be to blame.[[/note]]

** Gaige's Anarchy skill from ''VideoGame/Borderlands2''. It increases your damage at the cost of your accuracy. Up to -700% accuracy without using a specific item. If you do have said item, at around -900% accuracy the bullets stop being ridiculously inaccurate and start being ''impossibly'' inaccurate. They'll take sharp turns in mid air, zig-zag, land behind you... Anything you hit will be either by pure luck or [[MoreDakka sheer weight of numbers]], but anything you hit will also ''die''. Gaige herself comments on this.

* In ''VideoGame/DuneII'', House Harkonnen's ultimate palace weapon was a long range missile that could easily wipe out a decent chunk of a base. It was also so horrendously inaccurate that targeting dead center would, in all likelihood, hit an area that wasn't even ''on the screen'' (assuming you don't move the camera after firing). This is totally unacceptable considering it's a ''fucking missile'', the kind of thing that is supposed to have computer guidance. You would think they have a pair of drunks in the control room trying to eyeball it. You had to either aim away from your target, or build more than one because the game didn't limit you, and Carpet Bomb the whole enemy town.

* ''VideoGame/EmpireTotalWar'' is set in the 18th century and therefore features relatively inaccurate muskets and cannon. To offset this, commanders deploy their troops in large blocks of massed line infantry who fire at their enemies in volleys.

* ''VideoGame/FullSpectrumWarrior'' uses the suppressive fire tactical variation, given its roots as a military simulation. The game often required you to order your soldiers (individually, or as an entire four-man squad) to lay down suppressive fire on any enemies in a given direction in order to advance; any enemies in that direction will be forced to remain behind cover and will not return fire while being suppressed. While suppressive fire might, on rare occasion, score a hit on an enemy, this was typically so your other soldiers could safely advance, flank, and shoot the enemy with a more precise volley without being shot at themselves. This was counter-balanced by the fact that suppressive fire burned your ammo quickly, and you could only resupply at specific points on the map.

** The Assault Rifle, particularly its [[VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved original incarnation]]. That said, when it was re-introduced in ''VideoGame/{{Halo 3}}'', it became considerably more accurate. While ''VideoGame/HaloReach'' further improved its accuracy even more, it also added the so-called "bloom" mechanic; weapons quickly become rather inaccurate if you keep spraying instead of using controlled bursts. While bloom indeed has a negative effect on spraying, the AR's massive bullet magnetism (a function of the game's aim assist that directs bullets towards the target if your aim is off) made players who preferred single-shot and burst-fire weapons loath the AR. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbvHYSnDaOk This short video]] demonstrates exactly why the AR was loathed that much[[labelnote:Explanation]] It takes exactly 16 rounds from the assault rifle to kill an opponent. In the first attempt (full-auto fire), more than half of the 32-rounds magazine miss and the opponent survived. In the second attempt (burst-fire), a total of 22 rounds where fired and the opponent dropped dead after 20 rounds (the last two-rounds burst was fired when the opponent was already dead). This means that the AR's massive bullet magnetism turned 16 of the 20 rounds fired into hits ''even though the outside of the reticle barely touched the opponent''[[/labelnote]]. Subsequent games have managed to fine-tune the AR's accuracy while simultaneously toning down on its bullet magnetism.
** The Submachine Gun originated as the Assault Rifle's ''VideoGame/{{Halo 2}}'' replacement, and managed to be even more inaccurate, since the barrel would climb if you fired it on full-auto (even more if you were firing [[GunsAkimbo two of them at once]], which was especially bad since it was ''designed'' to be used two at once and thus pretty terrible on its own). However, it eventually evolved into a semi-precision weapon; ''VideoGame/Halo3ODST''[='s=] version was actually the first automatic weapon in the series to come with a scope!
** The Scorpion in ''Combat Evolved'' had a ridiculously large reticle, meaning that the co-axial machine gun was ludicrously inaccurate even at medium range. Depending on the game, even the main cannon had ridiculously wide spread for what it did.

* One of the main gameplay mechanics behind ''VideoGame/PAYDAY2'' is that weapons have stats determining how accurate they are (how close to the center of the screen the bullets land) and how stable they are (how much recoil causes them to pull upwards). Attachments can be added as well to modify their stats, but for the most part increasing one stat means decreasing another, meaning that to make a gun stable under automatic fire, or heavily concealable for stealth, the player will almost always have to sacrifice any semblance of accuracy; failing that, focusing on high accuracy will usually impact the stability, requiring slow and careful shot placement because the weapon will pull up a noticeable amount with each bullet fired, especially in full-auto. The fire-mode-locking mods exemplify this further, with the one to lock a weapon in semi-automatic increasing accuracy while decreasing stability, and the one that locks one in full-auto doing the opposite.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Return of the Obra Dinn}}'', [[spoiler: four seamen participated in the execution of Formosan passenger Hok-Seng Lau by firing squad for the murder that [[BigBad Second Mate Edward Nichols]] actually committed. Played straight when three of them missed, but averted when Seaman Henry Brennan managed to fire a gunshot that hit Lau... and was therefore labeled as a murderer. Surprisingly, of the other three who missed their mark and are not labeled as murderers, only John Naples (himself a murder victim) is rewarded for his valiant efforts, while Patrick O'Hagan and Aleksei Toporov are fined for other crimes such as kidnapping and attempted desertion]].

* Even with maxed-out fire control systems, upgraded radar, and the most advanced guns available, 20% chance to hit is considered excellent for ships in ''VideoGame/UltimateAdmiralDreadnoughts'', and if it's any higher than that it means you're fighting at point-blank range and the enemy will have no problem hitting you, either. This is [[TruthInTelevision accurate for the time period depicted]]; it was very difficult to hit one ship from another with any sort of unguided weapon when both ships were moving, maneuvering, pitching, and rolling on the open sea, [[UsefulNotes/HistoryOfNavalWarfare a problem that wasn't solved until the invention of]] [[UsefulNotes/NavalWeapons guided munitions]] in the 1940s and 50s.
* This trope could easily be called ''VideoGame/XCom Firing'', given the terrible accuracy of rookies who go the route of [[MoreDakka Dakka]]. Fortunately, the aliens aren't much better hitting their targets.

* Parodied in a ''WebVideo/DoorMonster'' sketch based on ''VideoGame/XCom2''. The soldiers has such poor aim that they actually had 'better luck'' while firing in blind panic. Of course, firing in blind panic also meant that they were liable to dismiss orders and fire at allies, something their commander found out the hard way.

** In ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-mVFSd1TKA Another Typical French vs English Debate]]'', Fuck Cares attempts to shoot Bowl, but misses when he ducks under the desk.

-->'''Vegan:''' YOU MANIAC! YOU COULD HAVE KILLED ME!
-->'''Harry:''' Don't take it personally. With my terrible aim I could have killed anyone.

* Parodied in the Website/NewGrounds video ''Mr. T vs Superman'', in which Mr. T pulls an AK-47 out of thin air and despite Superman only being a foot away from him, misses with the entire clip, Mr. T forgetting about this trope, though Superman points [[ImmuneToBullets that wouldn't have worked anyways]]. Later we have members of the A-Team shooting at bad guys that believe in this trope, but it's subverted, as the A-Team learned how to aim.
* ''LetsPlay/{{Mahu}}'': In "Crownless Eagle", the Commonwealth's main ranged troops (a mixture of regular infantry and militia) only manage to hit a few men after each volley at the start. As technology and training improves though, their aim begins to improve.
* In ''WebVideo/SuburbanKnights'' people unload machine guns at each other for several seconds and fire guns at each other from pointblank range without ever hitting. Occasionally sparks indicate that bullets are bouncing off of the swords people are holding, but never hit an inch to the right or left.

* Pretty much the entire cast of ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'' is guilty of this, especially Lana and her dual guns, but ''any time'' Cyril gets his hand on a rifle this happens "SUPPRESSING FIIIIIIRRRREEE!"

** Example: Two pissed off Black guys take semiautomatic guns, point it at each other (one is ''directly against the cheek'', the other ''directly up the nose'') and fire for about three seconds, completely missing.

** In the comics the main reason Batman operates at night as well as the massive cape he wears are to cause this trope by having the darkness plus their fear cause the shooters be unable to effectively aim at him, the heavy body armor deals with the few shots that do get through.

* For all that they're programmed and trained war robots who've been through millennia of combat, the Franchise/{{Transformers}} seem to have an awfully hard time hitting anything; particularly the Decepticons, especially considering that not only are they the military bots and should have the better hardware and accuracy, but also that their leader (Megatron) transformed into a gun himself. Granted, they're a bit better than the cast of ''WesternAnimation/GIJoe'' in that they can actually aim at all, but still.

** In the latter half of the ''G1'' two-parter "Dinobot Island", the Decepticons not only succeed in hitting the Autobots, but essentially pin them all to the ground with a sustained round of gunfire. Apparently they just had their guns set to "ticklefight"... at least, until the movie.

* Pretty much embodies battlefield tactics from the 17th century to the mid 19th century. The average infantryman of the period had a muzzle-loading musket that was troublesome and slow to reload, as well as literally being unable to hit the broad side of a barn at 200 yards (the average effective range of a smooth-bore long gun shooting at a man-sized target was about 100 yards). Most muskets were made with sights little more than a little bit of metal at the end of the barrel, the remainder without any at all. Instead of the popular "ready, aim, fire", "aim" was replaced by another word along the lines of "point your gun in a general direction" or omitted altogether. Rather than rely on any sort of individual marksmanship, massed fire was relied on to overcome these inherent disadvantages, and so a soldier was incessantly drilled and trained like an automaton to fire as fast as the man next to him.

*** The reason for the rather unsophisticated (even for the time) tactics employed in the Civil War was that the armies consisted almost entirely of raw conscripts. Normally an army during that period would consist of mostly thoroughly-drilled line infantry, lots of cavalry and very effective artillery. Furthermore, the chief mode of employment for line infantry would be to fire one massed volley at the enemy and then charge with bayonets. The point was ''not'' to spend much time under the enemy's fire. Because generals on both sides had mostly infantry of at best suspect quality at their disposal (and the low quality and experience of the officers themselves made any coherent movement on the battlefield difficult) this kind of charge was pretty much out of the question; most times it was tried, it ended in complete disaster for the attacker, e.g. Pickett's infamous charge at Gettysburg. So with really no other options, generals in the war were forced to just line their troops up right in the opposing side's fire and hope their own men outlasted the enemy. European officers embedded with the American forces were appalled by what they saw, but there was very little practical advice they could give with the limited resources available.
* This was actually an accepted strategy for naval gunnery for the half century from the first armored warships in the late 1850s until after the construction of the ''Dreadnought'' in 1906. Simply put, despite improvements in guns and propellants that allowed warships to shoot farther than in the days of WoodenShipsAndIronMen, there was no way of guaranteeing that you could actually hit anything at ranges much beyond a mile or so. The initial solution was to fit large numbers of small but relatively quick-firing guns to supplement the handful of {{BFG}}s carried as the main armament, because the more shells were in the air, the more likely it was that some of them would hit the target. Ranging shots had to be fired first, and these were expected to miss enemy ships almost all the time. After the ranging shots were fired, the fire-control director would order the gunners to set their sights and gear to match a calculated range and relative heading of the target. If the target and/or the attacking ship changed course and/or speed, ranging had to be redone. This process was rendered moot by radar-assisted gun-laying.

** Most First World armies now emphasize fire-and-maneuver and copious use of suppression fire. The reason a large portion of gunfire doesn't impact the enemy is because it's not ''meant'' to impact the enemy, but to force them to duck and cover to allow somebody to go around and fire into them at close range. The other option is to force the enemy to stay still until something bigger comes onto the scene (artillery barrages, vehicular assault, or air-strikes).

--> "[[SarcasmMode Nice shootin',]] ''WesternAnimation/ElmerFudd''."

*** Accuracy in any firefight is abysmal. Also, they don't train with their firearms as much as a front line unit would, which can be reasonably expected to be practicing, either in a simulation (EST systems are good for this), or with live ammunition on a more regular basis. The police are still far more accurate than most perpetrators, though.

* There are three main reasons for poor accuracy in a high stress environment: First, the instinctive reluctance for most people to use lethal force. Second, the stress itself ensures that you aren't steady while firing. And finally, recoil alone kills accuracy. As a note, Heinlein's factors to thousands of rounds to kill a single man are from studies done during the Second World War.

*** First, instead of standard targets (i.e. precision bullseyes), targets such as the US Armed Forces E-Type silhouette are used. This trains soldiers to fire at human shaped targets. It also trains them to aim for center mass, increasing the likelihood to hit the target.
*** Second, rewards for good performance on the range ranging from shinies to add to the uniform (or keeping the shinies, like marksmanship medals), to added pay (old method, still used for specialized marksmen such as snipers in some cases), to unofficial rewards such as a three or four day pass.

*** Fourth, training in "accurate" un-aimed fire, or SRM. This is basically snap the weapon up, double-tap, snap it down. Ranges vary from service to service, but are designed to build the habit of bringing the weapon up and already having it aimed more or less towards center mass, without the aiming part.
*** The final part is the stress-shoot. Using physical activity, and possibly other factors, such as explosive simulators (which can be loud for the Artillery sims), to force the heartrate up and shoot accuracy to hell. It is also timed, and you are graded on accuracy and speed.
* In his book on the Congo rebellion, mercenary commander Mike Hoare defined "reconnaisance by fire" as "firing wildly at everything in sight to see what's not there" -- however he does note one incident where failure to use this technique led to his men driving into an ambush.
* The North Hollywood Shootout in 1997 was considered the greatest shootout in Californian history between the police and two heavily armed and armored bank robbers, with hundreds of rounds shot during a 44 minutes period. Although about a dozen people were injured, NOBODY was killed except the two robbers, one of them actually committing suicide after he was shot and surrounded, though he reportedly received a potentially fatal hit at the same time he shot himself.

* In the Battle of Manila Bay during the UsefulNotes/SpanishAmericanWar, the American fleet fired some four to six-thousand shells at the (mostly stationary) enemy ships, and only about eighty to 141 (estimates vary) of them actually hit their targets, due to a lack of training and effective fire-control. However it was no less of a CurbStompBattle and the Spanish lost. To the American fleet's credit, when the Spanish flagship [[note]]''Reina Cristina'', already damaged by this point[[/note]] attempted to ram Commodore Dewey's own flagship, it was quickly shot to pieces.
* "Project SALVO," a US government research program that eventually led to the adoption of the M16 assault rifle, encouraged this. Analyzing thousands of battle reports from the Second World War, the researchers determined that traditional marksmanship training was of little use in maneuver warfare, that the chance of being hit by small arms fire in combat was essentially random, and that the single largest predictor of success in a firefight was the number of rounds fired. Due in large part to the troubled history of the M16, the Project SALVO report is ''highly'' contentious, with many claiming it was falsified or based on faulty data, and many others claiming it was accurate, but suppressed due to the ground forces' heavy emphasis on the rifle range. The rifle it spawned would lose its full-auto capability, and gradually increase over time both weight and effective range.

* John Haguee, the televangelist, will happily retell an incident, caught on camera, where a gunman from [[SarcasmMode a "successful counselling session"]] stormed his church during a live broadcast, pointed a gun at Haguee, and demanded he get on his hands and knees and pray to Satan, while denying the existence of God (which is ridiculous, since the official Church of Satan acknowledges that God created Satan). When Haguee refused, the gunman opened fire, and caused considerable property damage but failed to hit Haguee. Upon running out of ammunition, the gunman dropped his weapon and fled, right into waiting police officers, responding to the incident. Police forensics checking the footage and doing ray-tracing analysis concluded that Haguee ''should'' have been hit, repeatedly, and possibly killed. Haguee insists divine intervention for the fact that he was not.
* John Foley, a British tank commander in UsefulNotes/{{W|orldWarII}}W2, related in ''Literature/MailedFist'' how he was graded "marksman" with the Webley pistol, and that his men frequently cleaned up on bets on his winning shooting contests on the ranges. But in the aftermath of his tank being destroyed in Normandy, he was leading the remnant of his crew back to British lines when he encountered a group of German soldiers trying to emplace a machine-gun. In the heat of battle, he shot at the Germans from barely six feet away - and missed by miles. The Germans did abandon the machine gun and run for it, which, given the circumstances (angry Englishmen in their faces), was a rational course of action.

* Happens quite a lot with poorer countries and, even more commonly, non-state militants. Setting up firing ranges, giving soldiers practice rounds, and dealing with the added cost of gun maintenance all cost money that isn't readily available. Insurgents not only have to deal with these issues, but also with the fact practice firing is noisy and even rudimentary training bases make tempting targets for enemy strike aircraft. Many of these fighters are only given a quick lesson about how their guns work and how to properly aim without firing rounds, which, combined with often poorly maintained and improperly sighted guns, leads to wildly inaccurate fire.

* It is no surprise that most shots fired from machine guns (or auto-cannons) at moving aircraft (unless one counts airships and hovering helicopters) tend to miss, as gravity and weather conditions mess with ballistic trajectories. And, of course, the target is ''moving.'' There is a good reason why anti-aircraft mounts have ring-sights.

** ''[[WesternAnimation/BatmanGothamKnight Gotham Knight]]'' has some fun with this, where Bats tries to run straight at Characters/{{Deadshot}} while the latter is blazing away with a two-barreled automatic ArmCannon... and connects. Cue Deadshot quipping about how this was the first time he had ever seen anyone try to dodge his bullets by running at them.

* WesternAnimation/SupermanUnbound: In the opening scene, the terrorists and SWAT team fire at each other with machine guns from about 20 feet away and no cover for nearly ten seconds before any of them score a hit.

* While an {{aver|tedTrope}}sion of this trope isn't usually notable, the fact that ''Film/TheATeam'' film adaptation]] averted it is. Partially. When someone needs to get killed, they do, but there ''are'' sequences of a hailstorm of [[MoreDakka dakka]] failing to connect with anyone on either side.

* In ''Film/PulpFiction'', a random gunman takes the lead characters by surprise and unloads a large-caliber revolver at them, only for him to miss every shot and get gunned down after a {{Beat}}. [[Creator/SamuelLJackson Jules]] interprets this unlikely scenario as divine intervention, and decides to give up the life of a gangster and WalkTheEarth. Divine indeed: the two bullet holes over the shoulders is just coincidental. As for one bullet hole that suggest a shoulder hit and another that suggest a punctured lung, these can't be explained by science. It doesn't help that if you look closely during earlier scenes, you can see the bullet holes are in the wall ''[[SpecialEffectFailure before]]'' the gunman starts shooting.

* In ''Literature/HomageToCatalonia'', everyone taking part in Spanish Civil War was a terrible shot, according to Orwell. 'In this war, everyone always did miss everyone else, when it was humanly possible.' It saved his life on several occasions.

* ''Series/HawaiiFive0'': One episode had a particularly egregious example, in that this trope and ImprobableAimingSkills happen one after the other. The protagonists get in a shootout with a couple of thugs while protecting a old man who’s using an oxygen tank. None of the heroes can actually hit either thug while they are not even taking cover and just standing out in the open firing at them, but when one of the good guys throws the old man's oxygen tank as an improvised explosive, another somehow manages to hit the much smaller and moving target with pinpoint accuracy to take out the thugs.

* Parodied in a ''Series/MadTV1995'' skit in which a veteran cop gets a new partner who's a rookie. The veteran cop is captured by a thug wielding a blade and the rookie tries to shoot the thug, only to hit his partner... repeatedly. The veteran suggests aiming for him instead of the thug and just ends up getting shot in the nut-sack. He declares that he'd rather take his chances with the blade, which is kind of dull, but the rookie cop insists he's not letting the thug get away. The thug eventually decides to leave the scene and he walks way. The rookie "pursues," but no matter how close he gets, he can't achieve the shot and the ricochet bounces to the veteran. The thug picks up a penny off the ground and leaves. The rookie cop calls for medical aid for the veteran, but reaches Domino's Pizza instead.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Return of the Obra Dinn}}'', [[spoiler: four seamen participated in the execution of Formosan passenger Hok-Seng Lau by firing squad for the murder that [[BigBad Second Mate Edward Nichols]] actually committed. Played straight when three of them missed, but averted when Seaman Henry Brennan managed to fire a gunshot that hit Lau... and was therefore labeled as a murderer. Surprisingly, of the other three who missed their mark and are not labeled as murderers, only John Naples (himself a murder victim) is rewarded for his valiant efforts, while Patrick O'Hagan and Aleksei Toporov are fined for other crimes such as kidnapping and attempted desertion.]]

* According to the [[AllThereInTheManual in-game encyclopedia]], [[TheHero Edge Maverick]] from ''VideoGame/StarOceanTheLastHope'' suffers from this, which is why he prefers to fight close-range with a [[HeroesPreferSwords sword]]. [[spoiler: It's later revealed that Edge is genetically engineered, with reflexes that are much, much faster than a normal human. The flip side is that Edge's reaction time is so fast, he instinctively aims at the spot where the enemy is ''going'' to be instead of where it actually is; hence this trope]].

* The Franchise/{{DCAU}} version of Franchise/{{Batman}} frequently swung down to kick automatic-weapon-toting enemies, inexplicably not being hit by the massive amounts of lead coming his way. Bullets coming his way seem to vanish into the aether milliseconds before they should rightfully swiss-cheese him.

** ''[[WesternAnimation/BatmanGothamKnight Gotham Knight]]'' has some fun with this, where Bats tries to run straight at Comicbook/{{Deadshot}} while the latter is blazing away with a two-barreled automatic ArmCannon... and connects. Cue Deadshot quipping about how this was the first time he had ever seen anyone try to dodge his bullets by running at them.
* The episode of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' where Peter and friends dressed up as the A-Team lampshaded this, which then turned into something like a deconstruction. When Peter explained to some loggers what they would do to stop them from cutting down some trees, referring to actions from the show such as driving them off a road, causing the logger's vehicle to tumble over only for them to climb out dazed but unharmed, the main logger explained how a friend of his suffered debilitating injuries from a low-speed crash.
** Actually ''averted'' earlier, when a girl's cat is stuck in a tree, what does the team proceed to do? [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill Unleash their full armament on the tree's trunk, eventually whittling it down enough for the tree to topple over.]] They don't miss a single shot.

* In the Creator/MichaelDouglas film ''Film/FallingDown'', gang members attempt to get revenge on Bill Foster during a drive by shooting, but end up wounding everyone else on the block but him; before crashing into a telephone pole and dying themselves.

* Parodied in a ''Series/MadTV1991'' skit in which a veteran cop gets a new partner who's a rookie. The veteran cop is captured by a thug wielding a blade and the rookie tries to shoot the thug, only to hit his partner... repeatedly. The veteran suggests aiming for him instead of the thug and just ends up getting shot in the nut-sack. He declares that he'd rather take his chances with the blade, which is kind of dull, but the rookie cop insists he's not letting the thug get away. The thug eventually decides to leave the scene and he walks way. The rookie "pursues," but no matter how close he gets, he can't achieve the shot and the ricochet bounces to the veteran. The thug picks up a penny off the ground and leaves. The rookie cop calls for medical aid for the veteran, but reaches Domino's Pizza instead.

* Parodied in a ''Series/MadTV'' skit in which a veteran cop gets a new partner who's a rookie. The veteran cop is captured by a thug wielding a blade and the rookie tries to shoot the thug, only to hit his partner... repeatedly. The veteran suggests aiming for him instead of the thug and just ends up getting shot in the nut-sack. He declares that he'd rather take his chances with the blade, which is kind of dull, but the rookie cop insists he's not letting the thug get away. The thug eventually decides to leave the scene and he walks way. The rookie "pursues," but no matter how close he gets, he can't achieve the shot and the ricochet bounces to the veteran. The thug picks up a penny off the ground and leaves. The rookie cop calls for medical aid for the veteran, but reaches Domino's Pizza instead.

* All bosses in the ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' series, who are fond of [[BulletHell firing more bullets than you can count]], many of which are fired in the opposite direction to you; this isn't so much a terrible aim as to force you to dodge in certain areas, but they sure as hell will be causing a lot of collateral damage. Special mention for Cirno and [[MemeticMutation "Icicle Fall -Easy-"]].

* This trope runs rampant in ''WesternAnimation/GIJoeARealAmericanHero''. The only exception is when shooting at a manned vehicle, wherein the people inside get to escape before the vehicle is destroyed... often making their escape before even coming under fire, let alone the vehicle actually taking any damage.

-->-- '''James May''', ''Series/TopGear''

* The page quote comes from the Winter Olympics special of ''Series/TopGear'', where Jeremy Clarkson decides that the best weapon to use at a biathlon rifle range is [[MoreDakka an MP5 set to fully automatic]]. He somehow manages to knock down a tree that was directly ''behind'' his target, but never hits the target itself.

* In the course of a documentary, [[Series/TopGear Jeremy Clarkson]] opened up on a (stationary, unoccupied) van from a couple of yards away with an AK-47 ([[AKA47 or something that looked like one]]) and didn't hit it once. He would have done more damage if he had just flung the gun at it.

* The page quote comes from the Winter Olympics special of ''Series/TopGear'', where Jeremy Clarkson decides that the best weapon to use at a biathlon rifle range is [[MoreDakka an MP5 set to fully automatic]].

%% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order.
%%
%%

* In ''TabletopGame/D20Modern'', automatic weapons get the shaft. 2 feats are required in order to properly use an automatic weapon, one for proficiency with guns, the other to not suffer a penalty when firing full-auto. And even if you have those feats, you target a 10-by-10 area with an AC of 10, to make the opponents have to make a DC 15 reflex save (fixed, with no way to modify) to take no damage; you use 10-rounds to attempt to hit at most 4 halfling-sized enemies with 1 bullet each. A third feat is required for you to be able to burst-fire, which is actually not useless. Without that third feat, you can target a single target with auto-fire, but it is a senseless waste of ammo because only 1 round (of the 10 fired) can hit. Some guns even have a 3-round burst mode, but if you don't "know" how to burst-fire, then tough luck, you can't use that mode (you can, but much like auto-fire against a single opponent, it's a waste of ammo). To summarize: Without building your character to fully use automatic weapons, you will quickly get to the point to where you can't do anything ''but'' spray-and-pray with automatic fire.

** Also parodied in ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'' series 4 where both Duke and Cobra Commander note that their respective "Walls of Honour" don't list a single name (aside from Junkyard the dog who died after eating too much chocolate)
** But averted in the later ''[[WesternAnimation/GIJoeResolute Resolute]]'' mini-series which not only shows most shots by the Joes hitting their targets, but several Joes - including "kind-and-gentle" Scarlett - killing unaware soldiers in cold blood in order to infiltrate a Cobra base.

* On September 23, 1989, in the Hilltop neighborhood of Tacoma, Washington, resident Bill Foulk, a US Army Ranger Staff Sergeant, was having a cookout with several of his friends (also Army Rangers) and their families. [[MuggingTheMonster He and his party were attacked by local drug dealers in retaliation]] for Foulk's attempts to organize neighborhood watch and protection programs, which included videotaping of a nearby "crack house". In a gun battle lasting more than 10 minutes, over 300 rounds were reported to have been fired from semiautomatic pistols, rifles, and shotguns; without a single injury resulting on either side. Foulk's party was not prosecuted for their participation in the shooting, as city officials deemed it a clear case of self defense. Their commanding officer was less forgiving, however, and ordered them to spend several months of extended time on the firing range for failing to hit their targets.

* ''Series/TheATeam'' [[TropeNamers made this famous]], with heroes and villains both firing ridiculous amounts of bullets at the climax of almost every episode, to practically no effect. (Although, if you watch it with the sound muted, you'll realize that they're only shooting in semi-automatic mode. The sounds of machine gun fire were added in post-production.)
** They hit lots of glass windows, car tires, radiators, and other such things. They just never hit any people. (Website/{{Cracked}}, the source of the page image, also [[http://www.cracked.com/article_16433_6-supposed-action-heroes-you-could-probably-take-in-fight.html speculated]] on "[[InferredHolocaust the hundreds of bystanders they likely gunned down with their hail of stray bullets.]]")

* In ''VideoGame/FarCry'', this is why selective fire weapons such as the M4 are best used in semi-auto mode at long range.

* The M247 Sergeant York self-propelled anti-aircraft gun is infamous for its habit of only being able to hit things it wasn't supposed to be targeting. Even when presented with a target floating stationary at point-blank range or drones with radar reflectors on them[[note]]these make the radar signature bigger[[/note]], it ''still'' [[EpicFail managed to miss.]] This is likely because of issues with the electronic hardware (including the targeting computer and its radar interface) not being moisture-resistant and being adapted from the [[CoolPlane F-16]] fighter. The Bofors 40mm L/70 autocannon is known to be highly accurate and is widely used for other nations' anti-aircraft batteries. But those other systems that use it actually have functional targeting control radars and computers.
* The Villar Perosa M15 was a UsefulNotes/{{W|orldWarI}}W1 Italian submachine gun. It had two barrels meant for use as an aircraft gun (or, more likely, for a light flak gun). An infantry version was created with a largely useless bipod and few other changes to make it usable by soldiers on the ground. Each barrel fired independently of the other, and the only sight was a small hole. When shot, particularly when both barrels were fired at the same time, the gun would bounce all over the place, rendering the sight useless and making it virtually impossible to aim. This would be rectified by a dedicated tripod, but this rendered the gun immobile.
* The Lee-Metford Mk I rifle, when updated to Mk [=I*=] standard to accomodate the new cordite-powered cartridges in service with the British Army, was found to miss targets a lot owing to the practices of the era. The iron sights were forged and marked to match hypothetical bullet trajectories without any live-fire testing being done at all.

* Suppressive fire deserves a mention. This is when, for instance, your enemy is behind a wall or something, and you know that if he gets around the wall then he'll start shooting at you (or whatever else he's got planned), so you deliberately fire into the empty air right around the edges of the wall. As long as you keep firing, the enemy can't get around the wall without taking a big risk. This allows you time to call for backup or whatever. This more common in real life than in movies, because it's always more dramatic if someone is actually trying to shoot someone else, instead of deliberately shooting at empty space for strategic purposes.
** Suppressive fire forms part of the "fire and manuver" tactics that have been developed in some form by everyone since WWII. The idea is you do suppressive fire to hold the enemy down with one group (a "base of fire") while the others go around to engage the enemy. Then when the enemy is no longer a threat, the base of fire moves to a new location. Rinse and repeat until the engagement is done.
** This probably led to the statistic floating around on the internet that for every casualty in combat, thousands of rounds have been expended.

** This is [[DiscussedTrope discussed]] by Sergeant Foley during the tutorial for ''Modern Warfare 2'', where he admonishes the Afghan militia for just randomly firing from the hip and never hitting anything.

* Played straight in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', where assault rifles spray wildly, submachine guns even more so, and even sniper shots in VATS frequently go wide from their target, especially on lower experience levels, after which you may gain ImprobableAimingSkills. The inaccuracy is much worse with {{sho|rtRangeShotgun}}tguns, even the Double-Barreled Shotgun from ''Point Lookout''. You can even miss at point-blank range [[CriticalFailure in rare cases]]. Worse, in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}'', miss shots will sometimes ''[[EpicFail pass through]]'' the target.

* Pretty much embodies battlefield tactics from the 17th century to the mid 19th century. The average infantryman of the period had a gun that was troublesome and slow to reload, as well as literally being unable to hit the broad side of a barn at 200 yards. Most muskets were made with sights little more than a little bit of metal at the end of the barrel, the remainder without any at all. Instead of the popular "ready, aim, fire", "aim" was replaced by another word along the lines of "point your gun in a general direction" or omitted altogether. Rather than rely on any sort of individual marksmanship, massed fire was relied on to overcome these inherent disadvantages, and so a soldier was incessantly drilled and trained like an automaton to fire as fast as the man next to him.
** Any attempt at accuracy was further bodged by the enormous amounts of smoke black gunpowder would produce. After more than a few volleys of men doing this, the battlefield was shrouded in gray-black smoke.

** This trope was {{inverted|Trope}} during UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar, where newer rifles actually tended to hit what they were pointed at, with disastrous consequences. This was the result of infantry weaponry recently becoming more advanced and deadly, but the doctrine of their use was still based around that of massed volleys of musket fire.

* This was actually an accepted strategy for naval gunnery for the half century from the first armored warships in the late 1850s until after the construction of the ''Dreadnought'' in 1906. Simply put, despite improvements in guns and propellants that allowed warships to shoot farther than in the days of WoodenShipsAndIronMen, there was no way of guaranteeing that you could actually hit anything at ranges much beyond a mile or so. The initial solution was to fit large numbers of small but relatively quick-firing guns to supplement the handful of {{BFG}}s carried as the main armament, because the more shells were in the air, the more likely it was that some of them would hit the target.

** Most First World armies now emphasize fire and maneuver and copious use of suppression fire. The reason a large portion of gunfire doesn't impact the enemy is because it's not ''meant'' to impact the enemy, but to force them to duck and cover to allow somebody to go around and fire into them at close range.

* This is one of the modern military strategies -- powerful machine guns, operating on a MoreDakka concept, lay down enough suppressive fire to keep the enemy in hiding long enough for air support to show up. Suppressive fire in general is expected to not hit whatever it's firing on -- it's to force the enemy to not return fire, stop them from moving into the cone of fire's direction, or just plain scare them to keep their heads down. Suppressive fire is also generally utilized for the purpose of soldiers just getting closer and flanking the suppressed enemy so they can (very reliably at such ranges) shoot them.

* The North Hollywood Shootout in 1997 was considered the greatest shootout in Californian history between the police and two heavily armed and armored bankrobbers, with hundreds of rounds shot during a 44 minutes period. Although about a dozen people were injured, NOBODY was killed except the two robbers, one of them actually committing suicide after he was shot and surrounded, though he reportedly received a potentially fatal hit at the same time he shot himself.

* John Haguee, the televangelist, will happily retell an incident, caught on camera, where a gunman from [[SarcasmMode a "successful councelling session"]] stormed his church during a live broadcast, pointed a gun at Haguee, and demanded he get on his hands and knees and pray to Satan, while denying the existence of God (which is ridiculous, since the official Church of Satan acknowledges that God created Satan). When Haguee refused, the gunman opened fire, and caused considerable property damage but failed to hit Haguee. Upon running out of ammunition, the gunman dropped his weapon and fled, right into waiting police officers, responding to the incident. Police forensics checking the footage and doing ray-tracing analysis concluded that Haguee ''should'' have been hit, repeatedly, and possibly killed. Haguee insists divine intervention for the fact that he was not.