History Main / LeaveBehindAPistol

* In one ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'' skit, WesternAnimation/DoraTheExplorer decides to climb a mountain and Swiper follows her up. Unfortunately for Swiper, he's not prepared for the cold and quickly succumbs to hypothermia. When Dora comes across him again, she leaves behind a pistol for Swiper so he can end his suffering. He tries to use it, only to find that it's empty.

* At the first ''Manga/SukebanDeka'' [[LiveActionAdaptation movie's]] end, a high-ranking member of the Japanese government, who supported a failed CoupDEtat, kills himself with a gun which was left behind by the [[EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep Dark Inspector]].

** French Army officer Alfred Dreyfuss, [[MiscarriageOfJustice falsely convicted]] of spying for the Germans in 1894, was given this option by an interrogator but refused. Good thing he did, as this kickstarted the "Dreyfuss Affair", in which writer Émile Zola took up his cause and published his famous missive ''JAccuse''.

* One of the weapons you can pick up in ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar 2'' mentions that leaving a shotgun with a single shell in it in the cell of someone charged with treason is common practice on Meridan. Considering the alternatives that have been described for treason convictions in the setting, this is a ''ridiculously'' merciful and humane act.

* A non-lethal variation often happens in the corporate world -- someone who deserves to be fired might instead be given the chance to resign. While they lose their job either way, they can at least honestly say they weren't fired.

* A similar example [[note]] As described in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHN5hYGs_cI this video]] at the 40:35 mark [[/note]] happened with an American Infantryman during the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Peleliu Battle of Peleliu]] in the Pacific War. He describes how a mortally wounded Japanese soldier collapsed near his foxhole. As he laid there dying, the Japanese soldier tried to commit suicide with his grenades, but all of them were duds. Seeing this, the American soldier then asked his sergeant to give him one of their own. The sergeant agreed, and infantryman offered a grenade to the enemy soldier, who gratefully accepted. He then tossed the grenade to the Japanese soldier, who then put it under his own stomach and blew himself apart.

** [[http://www.history.army.mil/html/moh/wwII-a-f.html Thomas Baker]] subverted this trope while badly injured and retreating from a Japanese attack. He told another soldier that he [[IWillOnlySlowYouDown was slowing down the retreat]] and asked to be left behind with a loaded pistol. He needed a new one because his existing one was damaged from [[PistolWhipping melee combat]]. He was last seen sitting against a tree, calmly holding a pistol and loading it -- with eight rounds. When they went back for his body, he was indeed dead, exactly where they left him, but they also found [[ImprobableAimingSkills eight dead enemy soldiers]]. Far from dishonor, Baker was [[http://www.history.army.mil/html/moh/wwII-a-f.html posthumously awared the Medal of Honor]] -- in effect, it was a DyingMomentOfAwesome.

* ''Series/{{Gotham}}'': When Bruce Wayne confronts [[spoiler:Patrick Malone, the man who killed his parents, he sees that Malone ''wants'' Bruce to kill him, but Bruce can't bring himself to do it. So what does Bruce do? He leaves behind the gun he brought, and Malone uses it to commit suicide.]]

* Dutch and Revy of ''Manga/BlackLagoon'' do a variation of this to a Neo-Nazi leader. Subverted in that the man doesn't have the courage to kill himself and tries to shoot them instead (they don't leave the room), only to find that the gun has no bullets. Turns out the bet they were discussing a minute ago was which one of them he [[BlackAndGreyMorality will try to shoot first]], the hulking black man Dutch, or the Chinese-American woman Revy. [[spoiler: "It wasn't much of a bet."]]

** When Erwin Romel was implicated in the "Valkyrie" plan to assassinate UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler, he was to that if he were to "die from his injuries" (from an earlier Allied air raid), his family would be protected as the heirs to a war hero. If he was convicted of treason, all his family property would be seized by the government. While he was left a CyanidePill and not a pistol, the principle is the same.

* A similar example [[note]] As described in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHN5hYGs_cI this video]] at the 40:35 mark [[/note]] happened with an American Infantryman during the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Peleliu Battle of Peleliu]] in the Pacific War. He describes how a mortally wounded Japanese soldier collapsed near his foxhole. As he laid there dying, the Japanese soldier tried to commit suicide with his grenades, but all of them were duds. Seeing this, the American soldier then asked his sergeant to give him one of their own. The sergeant agreed, and infantryman offered a grenade to the enemy soldier, who gratefully accepted. He then tossed the grenade to the Japanese soldier, who then put it under his own stomach and blew himself up to end his own life.

* In the end of the first episode of ''Anime/{{Mnemosyne}}'', Maeno gets hit by CloningBlues hard, so Rin just hands him a loaded gun and leaves. Although it looks like he kills himself, it is later revealed that he wavered in the last moment, being left with just a light scratch on the forehead. In the end, he stays with Rin for the half of the series.

* A similar example [[note]] As described in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHN5hYGs_cI this video]] at the 40:35 mark [[/note]] happened with an American Infantryman during the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Peleliu Battle of Peleliu]] in the Pacific War. He describes how a mortally wounded Japanese soldier collapsed near his foxhole. As he laid there dying, the Japanese soldier tried to commit suicide with his grenades, but all of them were duds. Seeing this, the American soldier then asked his sergeant to give him one of their own. The sergeant agreed, and infantryman offered the grenade to the enemy soldier, who gratefully accepted. He then tossed the grenade to the Japanese soldier, who then put it under his own stomach and blew himself up to end his own life.

* A similar example [[note]] As described in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHN5hYGs_cI this video]] at the 40:35 mark [[/note]] happened with an American Infantryman during the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Peleliu Battle of Peleliu]] in the Pacific War. He describes how a mortally wounded Japanese soldier collapsed near his foxhole. As he laid there dying, the Japanese soldier tried to commit suicide with his grenades, but all of them were duds. The American soldier then asked his sergeant to give him one of their own. The sergeant agreed, and infantryman offered the grenade to the enemy soldier, who gratefully accepted. He then tossed the grenade to the Japanese soldier, who then put it under his own stomach and blew himself up to end his own life.

* A similar example [[note]] As described in this video at the 40:35 mark [[/note]] happened with an American Infantryman during the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Peleliu Battle of Peleliu]] in the Pacific War. He describes how a mortally wounded Japanese soldier collapsed near his foxhole. As he laid there dying, the Japanese soldier tried to commit suicide with his grenades, but all of them were duds. The American soldier then asked his sergeant to give him one of their own. The sergeant agreed, and infantryman offered the grenade to the enemy soldier, who gratefully accepted. He then tossed the grenade to the Japanese soldier, who then put it under his own stomach and blew himself up to end his own life.

* A similar example [[note]] As described in this video at the 40:35 mark [[/note]] happened with an American Infantryman during the [[{{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Peleliu}} Battle of Peleliu]] in the Pacific War. He describes how a mortally wounded Japanese soldier collapsed near his foxhole. As he laid there dying, the Japanese soldier tried to commit suicide with his grenades, but all of them were duds. The American soldier then asked his sergeant to give him one of their own. The sergeant agreed, and infantryman offered the grenade to the enemy soldier, who gratefully accepted. He then tossed the grenade to the Japanese soldier, who then put it under his own stomach and blew himself up to end his own life.

So when they leave, the hero will Leave Behind a Pistol. A loaded pistol, with [[OneBulletLeft one round]] in the chamber. And maybe a bottle of Scotch, if you're lucky. [[RedemptionEqualsDeath The implication]] [[DrivenToSuicide is clear]].

* A variation occurs in ''Anime/JuniTaisenZodiacWar'': rather than a gun, Boar leaves her sister a perfectly sharp knife when she's been holed up after she started killing her schoolmates and masnion staff, muttering to herself about killing something.

* OlderThanDirt: Per the 12th-century BCE [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judicial_Papyrus_of_Turin Judicial Papyrus of Turin]], certain royal personages of the "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harem_conspiracy harem conspiracy]]" to assassinate the [[UsefulNotes/AncientEgyptianHistory Twentieth Dynasty Pharaoh Ramesses III]][[note]]Which was successful in killing the king but failed in installing its preferred heir to succeed him on the throne[[/note]] were "left where they were" after being found guilty of high treason but pointedly not (yet) explicitly sentenced to death. These conspirators are then noted to have taken their own lives.
* When Erwin Rommel was implicated in the "Valkyrie" plan to assassinate Hitler, he was told that if he were to "die from his injuries" (he'd been injured by an Allied air raid) his family would be protected as the heirs to a war hero. If he was convicted of treason, all his family property would be seized by the government. Whilst he was actually left a cyanide pill and not a pistol, the principle is the same.
** Following the Night of the Long Knives, Ernst Röhm (unlike the other victims of the purge) was offered this. [[DefiantToTheEnd Reputedly, he responded by saying that Hitler should kill him himself]], and when the guards returned to execute him [[OpenShirtTaunt he had pulled open his shirt to bare his chest for them to shoot]].
** Ludwig Beck offered to commit suicide after being arrested for his role in the Valkyrie plot. Unfortunately he survived the gunshot (''twice'') and a sergeant had to deliver a coup de grace.
** At the climax of the battle of Stalingrad, Hitler promoted [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Paulus Friedrich Paulus]] (commander of the German forces in the city) to Field Marshal, with particular emphasis on the fact that [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled no German or Prussian field marshal had ever surrendered]]. Paulus [[SubvertedTrope did not take Hitler up on his offer]], and Hitler swore Paulus would be the last Field Marshal he ever appointed.
*** But later, he appointed other Field Marshals, for example Schörner or Ritter von Greim.
* [[http://www.history.army.mil/html/moh/wwII-a-f.html Thomas Baker]] subverted this trope while badly injured and retreating from a Japanese attack. He told another soldier that he was slowing down the retreat too much, so he asked to be left behind with a loaded pistol, requesting a new one because his was too damaged from '''[[PistolWhipping melee combat]]''' to shoot. He was last seen sitting against a tree, calmly holding a pistol loaded with 8 rounds. When they went back for his body, they found it in the same place, [[ImprobableAimingSkills facing 8 dead enemy soldiers.]]
** That would qualify as a badass [[TakingYouWithMe Dying]] [[DyingMomentOfAwesome Moment of Awesome]]. Bit of a mouthful though...
** [[http://www.history.army.mil/html/moh/wwII-a-f.html Sergeant Thomas Baker received the posthumous Medal of Honor for the feat.]] [[TooCoolToLive May his legacy of asskicking live on...]]
* In a subversion of sorts, the former Head of the Metropolitan Police (Head of the Greater London police and generally regarded as the top policeman in the UK) Sir Iain Blair was once described as the sort of man who if offered the traditional revolver and bottle of whiskey, would drink the whiskey and come out shooting.
** Preventing this type of reaction is why the TropeNamer pistol is loaded with only one round.
* Colonel Alfred Redl was head of the Secret Service of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the years prior to WWI. He was selling secrets and agents to the Russian Empire (the Russians had him in their clutches by blackmailing him: they knew he was a closeted homosexual). He was finally discovered in 1913 (ironically by his subordinates, who applied the very methods Redl had developed for the Secret Service) and was offered a revolver with a single bullet. He took the offer.
* A variant of this trope happened during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII in Poland: a captured officer of [[LaResistance the Home Army]] was released from prison to deliver an offer of limited cooperation to the LaResistance command. However, the command refused to even think of it, instead telling him to "solve the matter in an honorable way". After a couple of days, he shot himself.
* The case of the Roman general Regulus was even more badass: captured by the Carthaginians and sent back to Rome to negotiate a surrender, he told the Senate to fight to the end rather than give in to the hated enemy, even though it meant that all the prisoners would be tortured to death. He then went back to Carthage to die alongside his men.
* During the Estonian first independence 1918-1939 the legitimate way of carrying the death penalty was to first to offer the convict "a cup of legally approved swift-effecting and painless poison". If the convict refused from it, he was to be executed by a firing squad. The poison option was abolished during the Soviet regime 1939-1991. Death penalty was abolished in Estonia in 1995.
* This is pretty much standardized in the medieval FarEast when the elite were implicated in capital offenses less than treason. The reason was, like all examples, to protect the person's honor. It is often effected by an Imperial "gift" of things that can be used this way (sword, long pieces of silk, or poison). While nobody mentioned what are those gifts used for, the giftee can usually get the idea.
* A non-lethal variation often occurs in workplaces where a sympathetic supervisor might discover that a liked employee has nonetheless done something worthy of termination and presents them a resignation form instead of reporting it or before an investigation occurs. In some situations it's simply done so that the person can honestly say that they left voluntarily, and were not fired.\\
\\
This variant is especially common in politics. So common that in some countries it's virtually unheard of for a member of government to actually be fired. In fact, the usual ostensible reason for such a resignation-in-disgrace -- "to spend more time with my family" -- is so broadly recognized that it's a common euphemism for the practice.
* Before confessing to killing her two sons, Susan Smith asked the sheriff to give her his gun so that she could take her own life.
* The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webley_Revolver Mess Webley]] in the [[UsefulNotes/BritsWithBattleships British Army]] refers to a [[http://www.arrse.co.uk/wiki/Mess_Webley metaphorical or actual pistol handed to officers]] when they really screw up or turn traitor and need to do the decent thing rather than suffer the ignominy of resigning their commission and leaving the mess. Though actual honorable suicides are practically non-existent nowadays (and it is arguable whether or not they ever actually took place), the "Mess Webley" now refers more generally to the last resort of actually taking responsibility for a fuckup when there are no feasible means of disguising it or passing the buck (or, more rarely, if the buck can only be passed to those the clumsy officer regards with affection). If the usage of the Mess Webley will make a mess (either literally or in terms of fallout), the unfortunate is requested to "spread some newspaper down" to avoid such mess, which would, depending, be either blood and brains or punishments for other officers.
* {{Pirate}}s would strand people (usually mutinied captains) on deserted islands and give them a flintlock with a single bullet to save them the pain of dying from hunger or exposure if they didn't get rescued before it was clear they were done for. This is one of the more historically accurate facts ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' got right.
* [[MiscarriageOfJustice Alfred Dreyfus]] was offered this by an interrogator. He refused, and the affair became a public scandal.
* A political variant, in the climax of the Watergate scandal. On the night of August 7, 1974 (two days after the release of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watergate_scandal#.22Smoking_Gun.22_tape "smoking gun" tape]]), a group of Republican Congressman met with UsefulNotes/RichardNixon, informing him that his support in Congress had evaporated, the House was certain to approve articles of impeachment, and no more than 15 Senators were willing to vote for his acquittal. Nixon subsequently announced his resignation the next day.
* Aleksandr Krymov, a leader in the Kornilov Plot against the Russian Provisional Government shot himself in the heart after the Plots failure. He left a note to Kerensky, the Provisional Prime Minister, explaining his actions. He was an honorable military leader who believed in honesty, and if he stayed alive he would have to lie to keep himself out of jail. He also felt that Russia was doomed to destruction without a strong central government that could crush leftist agitation and carry on the War resolutely.
* An American paratrooper during the Battle of the Bulge witnessed a [[MercyKill merciful]] version of this trope this first hand: Following a skirmish with a German squad, a great majority of the enemy soldiers surrendered, most of them wounded and freezing in the cold weather. However, the American squad did not have the supplies, nor the manpower, to guard or feed the prisoners (like the Americans, the Germans were badly low on supplies and food, and one of the reasons they surrendered was to get aid for their wounded.) Finally, the American squad leader grabbed a German machine pistol, gathered just enough ammo for it, and disposed of the rest of the weapons and ammo, telling the German squad leader (who spoke English) the cold hard truth that they could not take them prisoner, and that he was leaving the submachine gun behind for those who wanted to end it quickly. A few minutes after the Americans left, they began hearing single gunshots behind them.

* A variation occurs in the anime of ''LightNovel/JuniTaisenZodiacWar'': rather than a gun, Boar leaves her sister a perfectly sharp knife when she's been holed up after she started killing her schoolmates and masnion staff, muttering to herself about killing something.