History Main / HandGuns

To be fair, the handgun does provide certain advantages for many walks of heroic life. It is small, easily concealed, and easily used. Even when better armaments are available and sometimes more advantageous, many heroes still carry a handgun as their primary firearm. Rifles and the like are reserved for supporting characters or the RedshirtArmy or EvilMinions to carry.

These are fairly standard primary armaments of police officers, detectives, security guards, or any other individual in an occupation that requires them to be ready for trouble but not necessarily expecting it. Any character in a work that deals with those archetypes can be assumed to be packing them either openly or in concealment, and to draw them when a situation gets tense.

** More to the point, he is the last of his world's professional gunslingers-and his AncestralWeapon is a pair of revolvers. The power of the gunslinger's revolvers (ALL of the gunslingers, of which he was merely the last one) is known throughout his world, with revolvers being held up as the "ultimate weapon". Of course this also becomes an important plot point, as Roland spends most of the story with a bad right hand, and loaning one of his two pistols away to Eddie or Suze - neither possible if he had been a rifleman.

* ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' has many types of pistols for the mid-health level characters (Engineer, Scout) as a standard side-arm, but the Spy is the only one to carry a [[RevolversAreJustBetter revolver]] because [[MagnificentBastard he's the spy]]. It happens to be [[AwesomeButImpractical quite loud with a very distinctive sound]]. It still aims well.
** One of the Spy's "sidegrade" weapons is The Ambassador, which is a bigger revolver. Its base accuracy is the same as the game's sniper rifle, and it does double damage on successful headshots. However, it actually is ''less'' damaging per shot otherwise, and its accuracy sustains a heavy penalty during a cooldown period after a shot (and the gun can't headshot during cooldown). It's meant to allow the spy to destroy damaged enemies from close-medium range.

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* The main crew of [[Anime/CowboyBebop the Bebop]] usually use handguns. Possibly justified by the crew being too poor to afford anything else, and by ridiculously powerful weapons being a bad idea when you need to bring in your target alive to get paid, as well as both dangerous and conspicuous in the populated areas they often have to fight in.

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In real life, handguns perform poorly when compared to most rifles. [[note]]Not to imply that you would enjoy getting shot with either one[[/note]] However, in addition to the advantages mentioned above, the handgun adds a level of dramatic appeal -- in effect, the handgun is the modern [[HeroesPreferSwords sword]], preferred by heroes over the more militarily common [[BladeOnAStick polearm]] for roughly the same reasons. If they ''really'' want power, they'll either use a shotgun or a HandCannon. Or, perhaps, [[GunsAkimbo carry two]].

* In ''LightNovel/AriaTheScarletAmmo'', the dress code at Tokyo Butei High School includes a gun and a blade of some kind. Nearly every student carries a pistol for their gun, which makes sense, if you were carrying a bag of books, you wouldn't want to lug around an AK-47 or shotgun as well.

* In ''LightNovel/FateZero'', while Kiritsugu Emiya and his assistant Maiya use all sorts of weapons to get the job done, his ultimate anti-magic Ace in the Hole is a Thompson Contender, a handgun designed to fire rifle bullets.

* ''ComicBook/TheF1rstHero'': Pete pulls out a revolver and points it at [[TheProtagonist Jake]]'s head when he sees him threatening Cooper with his powers.

* ''Comicbook/TheMall2018'': In Issue #1, the balding mobster brings a pistol to the confrontation he has with Leonard Cardini. It ends up in Diego's hands, and he drops it, causing it to go off and shoot the mobster in the leg. Then it ends up in Lena's hands.

* ''Film/{{Kruel}}'': In one of their meetings in the latter half of the movie, Ben reveals to [[TheProtagonist Jo]] that he has a gun, which he took from his father to use against Willie should the need arise. [[spoiler:He never gets the chance, as Willie kills him.]]

Actually, as main weapons handguns perform poorly when compared to, say, assault rifles. However, the appeal of handguns appears to trump such trifling tactical concerns - in effect the handgun is the modern [[HeroesPreferSwords sword]], preferred by heroes over the more militarily common [[BladeOnAStick polearm]] for roughly the same reasons. If they ''really'' want power, they'll either use a shotgun or a HandCannon. Or, perhaps, [[GunsAkimbo carry two]].

Military stories, of course, treat this trope differently, as rifles and other military-grade weapons are standard-issue for front-line combatants. Handguns are often issued to support personnel who work near the front line but not in combat roles. In combat they are often the reserve of commissioned officers, particularly in more historical settings. Despite what military video games may have you believe, it is uncommon for a rank-and-file soldier to carry both a rifle and a handgun, so merely having one often marks out a soldier as either an officer or support personnel; a small self-defence handgun is common for a CombatMedic.

* ''VideoGame/SplinterCell'' has Sam Fisher and his trusty FN Five-Seven alongside his other two favourite weapons, the custom [[CoolGuns/AssaultRifles FN F2000]] and, starting from ''[[VideoGame/SplinterCellChaosTheory Chaos Theory]]'', his knife.

* Teana Lanster's WeaponOfChoice in ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha''. Helps that it's a {{Magitek}} handgun that fires [[AbnormalAmmo magical bullets that pack a punch]] [[{{Roboteching}} and whose trajectory she can control]].

* Mana's close range WeaponOfChoice in ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'' are a [[GunsAkimbo pair of handguns]]. Don't think you're safe just because you're too close to be shot by her SniperRifle.

* The core five characters of Franchise/LupinIII have a specific handgun as their WeaponOfChoice, sans [[{{Ronin}} Goemon]] who feels that KatanasAreJustBetter.

** In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'', Eva's WeaponOfChoice is a Chinese copy of the Mauser C96. And just guess the weapon that [[RevolversAreJustBetter Revolver]] [[AnimalMotifs Ocelot]] carries.

* In ''VideoGame/DigitalDevilSaga'', ([[SilentProtagonist mute]]) Main Character Serph uses a pistol when in human form, and is shown in cut-scenes to have a deadly aim. [[spoiler: MUCH later on, the local MysteriousWaif Sera becomes a playable character, with a pistol also becoming her WeaponOfChoice while in human form.]]

* ''Film/TheBloodyMan'': In Amy's Bloody Man story, the Bloody Man uses a handgun to shoot a baby in its crib. We don't see the baby, but we do see blood spurt from the crib after the gun's fired.