History Main / RightHandedLeftHandedGuns

[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/right_hand_left_hand_gun_4165.jpg]]

** This is more because of its intended use than anything else (Samuel Colt actually was left-handed, but he had nothing to do with the SAA's design, having died about a decade before it came out). Pistols were originally meant to be used by officers and mounted units as a secondary weapon to their swords. Revolvers were worn in a cross draw holster high on the right hip for easy access from a saddle; they were historically used by cavalry ''far'' more often than by infantry (even nowadays, plenty of soldiers will tell you that, ounce for ounce, a couple extra grenades beats a pistol any day of the week). The SAA was originally intended for use by cavalry, and the .45 Long Colt cartridge, much like the massive Colt Walker, was intended to be powerful enough to bring down either man ''or horse'' with one shot. One should note that the reloading procedure for the revolver calls for holding the gun in the left hand while the right hand operates the ejector rod. As most people are right-handed, it is best for the user to use his dominant hand to operate the controls.
** In 1914, French officers were still expected to use their sidearm in conjunction with a sword. As a result, their standard-issue pistol in World War One was a revolver whose cylinder swings out to the right, for use in the left hand. Oh, and just like the case of the Colt Single Action Army, this means that the officer's right hand is doing all the complicated motions during a reloading cycle.
* The German Walther P38[=/=]P1 9mm automatic pistol, the standard service sidearm of the German Army during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and the West German ''Bundeswehr'' from 1958 to about 2004, is unusual in having its extractor and ejector both on the ''left'' side of the breech; most semiautomatic pistols have the extractor on the ''right'' side (including every other pistol Walther has ever made). As a result, the P38/P1 invariably ejects its "empties" straight out to the left, or up and to the left, the opposite of pretty much every other pistol in the world. No one at Walther has ever been able to adequately explain why this one pistol was built this way.
** Some people allege that the ejection to the left may have been to prevent strange accidents in shooting galleries, where ejected casings may hit other people. Getting hot brass in the face is obviously not pleasant.

** While most pistols eject empty casings to the right, some, like the H&K USP and Walther P99, are designed with ambidextrous magazine release levers and buttons which allow users to quickly remove the magazine with either hand, at the cost of being slightly awkward for first-time users; the USP also comes in nine different variants with safety lever, decocking lever, both, or neither, with the eight that include them split evenly between left-side for right handed shooters and right-side for left handed. Others, like the latest revisions of the Beretta 92 and the Glock series, have reversible release buttons for left-handed shooters. Still others use heel-mounted release levers, popular pretty much everywhere except America, which are also easy to use with either hand. Ambidextrous slide-release levers remain rare, but that's in part because the typical placement for one in the first place makes it about as easy for a left-handed shooter to hit with their trigger finger as it is for a right-handed shooter to hit with their thumb (that plus a growing number of shooters who prefer to manually rack the slide to release it after an empty reload, which can also be done regardless of which hand you hold the pistol with).

* Averted also in ''VideoGame/MedalOfHonor: Underground''.

* This happens a lot when people customise their miniatures for games such as ''[[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer40000}} Warhammer 40,000]]'' and do not pay attention. Sometimes the hand wielding the weapon is also wrong. Others do it intentionally for the Orks, because Orks genuinely don't care about such petty details like gun safety.

** ''VideoGame/{{Battlefield}} 1942'' and ''Vietnam'' had ''every'' gun modeled as left-handed; this practice stopped from ''2'' and onwards, save for the ''Bad Company'' spinoffs.
* ''VideoGame/{{Postal}} 2'' has a rather strange example. When you find a shotgun or sniper rifle on the ground, they will have a right-handed ejection port and bolt, but then once you pick it up and use it, the port/bolt is suddenly reversed. The corollary about simply flipping the right-side model for GunsAkimbo also comes up with the ''Paradise Lost'' DLC (which also has another straight example with its "Beta Shotgun"), though that's actually a lesser concern than, say, how the Dude makes a second copy of his current gun appear out of nowhere for a minute just from drinking a can of soda.

* Zig-zagged in ''Videogame/PlanetSide 2''. There is little rhythm or reason to the placement of mechanisms on guns. Almost every TR weapon ejects to the right or downward, but the placement of the charging handle is seemingly random - the [[GatlingGood Mini Chaingun]] fires caseless ammo and has the bolt on the left, the CARV LMG both ejects and bolts on the right, and the TRAP-M1 has a left side-loaded magazine, ejects right, has a charging handle on the ''bottom'', and has a reciprocating firing hammer that recoils ''backwards'', which would have a good chance of whacking the shooter in the chin when aiming down the sights. Every gun's fire selector is animated on the left even when the gun has no visible selector switch; the [=T4 AMP=] pistol has the user flick the featureless grip when switching from semi to fully automatic.

* ''Videogame/Fallout4'' does this with most of its weapons, but a particular standout is the bolt-action hunting rifle. Every single one of the hunting rifles in the Commonwealth is a left-handed model, with the bolt hanging over the left of the stock. Yet the player character holds the weapon right-handed, meaning they must hold onto the rifle by the pistol grip to awkwardly cycle the weapon after every shot. The direction Bethesda took here is very confusing, as the hunting rifle from their [[VideoGame/Fallout3 previous]] ''Fallout'' game was modeled correctly.

** This is more because of its intended use than anything else (Samuel Colt actually was left-handed, but he had nothing to do with the SAA's design, having died about a decade before it came out). Pistols were originally meant to be used by officers and mounted units as a secondary weapon to their swords. Revolvers were worn in a cross draw holster high on the right hip for easy access from a saddle; they were historically used by cavalry ''far'' more often than by infantry (even nowadays, plenty of soldiers will tell you that, ounce for ounce, a couple extra grenades beats a pistol any day of the week). The SAA was originally intended for use by cavalry, and the .45 Long Colt cartridge, much like the massive Colt Walker, was intended to be powerful enough to bring down either man ''or horse'' with one shot.
** In 1914, French officers were still expected to use their sidearm in conjunction with a sword. As a result, their standard-issue pistol in WWI was a revolver whose cylinder swings out to the right, for use in the left hand.
* The German Walther P38[=/=]P1 9mm automatic pistol, the standard service sidearm of the German Army during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and the West German ''Bundeswehr'' from 1958 to about 2004, is unusual in having its extractor and ejector both on the ''left'' side of the breech; most autopistols have the extractor on the ''right'' side (including every other pistol Walther has ever made). As a result, the P38/P1 invariably ejects its "empties" straight out to the left, or up and to the left, the opposite of pretty much every other pistol in the world. No one at Walther has ever been able to adequately explain why this one pistol was built this way.

*** The P90 feeds from the top and ejects rounds downward behind the firing arm, with the selector switch just below the trigger and charging handles (and side-mounted backup ironsights) on both sides.

* AK series weapons have an ejection port on the right side that is far enough away from the shooter so that you can shoot it lefty. Whilst all the controls are on the right, they are all simple enough to operate them with either the support hand or firing hand with ease from either side, no matter the handedness of the operator (actual Soviet doctrine called for right-handed operation but using the right hand for everything else as well, from reloading to cocking and taking off the safety, to eliminate the possibility of [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace accidental discharges]]).

* [[TruthInTelevision Truth In Video Games]] for at least a couple of shooters. The [[SemperFi USMC]], for instance, has noticed that snipers using bolt-action rifles with the "wrong" bolt for their handedness (e.g. right-handed shooter using a lefty bolt) can cycle and refire the weapon faster than a sniper using the "correct" bolt for their handedness. The biggest reason for this is that the shooter can use their support hand to work the bolt rather than their firing hand. This gives a big benefit - the shooter doesn't have to break their grip with their firing hand, meaning they don't have to waste time ensuring their rifle is still on-target after a shot (especially since with any kind of precision supported shooting, such as with a bipod or sandbag, you don't need to support the weapon with your off hand). This has actually become a part of modern tactical shooting, from using the left hand to charge an M4, to reversible or ambidextrous charging handles on rifles like the SCAR and the above-mentioned G36.

** Ease of changing parts
*** The Steyr AUG for example, requires a quick change of the bolt and moving the ejection port cover to the other side; the weapon is issued with a spare bolt with the extractor and ejector on the opposite side for this purpose (save for "AUG NATO" versions compatible with M16 magazines, which are only right-handed, or variants used by the Irish military, which require specifically-ordered leftie versions).

*** The Browning M2 can be set up to load ammo belts from either side, since it's designed to be used in several different mountings, including side by side and quad-mount (like Charlie's sled from ''Film/WaterWorld''), which require flexible feeding and ejecting mechanisms.

* Minor cases in ''VideoGame/GoldenEyeWii''; one gun has a flipped ejection port (the Anova [=DP3=]), and a few others have the charging handles (Ivana Spec-R and Kallos TT-9) or the safety lever (AK-47) on the wrong side. It's downplayed in that they all still eject to the right, and the AK's model was fixed for the ''Reloaded'' UpdatedRerelease.

** Ease of changing parts: The Steyr AUG for example, requires a quick change of the bolt and moving the ejection port cover to the other side; the weapon is issued with a spare bolt with the extractor and ejector on the opposite side for this purpose (save for "AUG NATO" versions compatible with M16 magazines, which are only right-handed, or variants used by the Irish military, which require specifically-ordered leftie versions). The FAMAS has cutouts on both sides of the bolt for the ejector and ejection ports on both sides of the stock, requiring nothing more than partial disassembly to flip the ejector and the cheek rest to the other side to convert.
** Direction neutral design: The P90 feeds from the top and ejects rounds downward behind the firing arm, with the selector switch just below the trigger and charging handles (and side-mounted backup ironsights) on both sides. The F2000 ejects rounds ''forward'' into a tube along the side of the rifle before they go out to the right near the front, making the problem moot (although this leaves no room for an ambidextrous charging handle). The Ithaca model 37 shotgun has a unique combined loading and ejection port, which ejects spent shells downwards. The Browning M2 can be set up to load ammo belts from either side, since it's designed to be used in several different mountings, including side by side and quad-mount (like Charlie's sled from ''Film/WaterWorld''), which require flexible feeding and ejecting mechanisms.

* ''[[VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon F.E.A.R. 2]]'' has one particular odd standout of this trope among an otherwise-complete aversion to it with the SHO Series-3 shotgun: among the many embellishments added to its real-world base to make the in-game model are the bolt and case deflector of a [=C7/M16A2=] - on the left-hand side, the opposite of where they would be on the rifle they came from. Why this is the case is unknown, since while the animation for pumping it between shells only plays when firing from the hip, and you can clearly see that bolt opening and closing with the pump, the gun still properly ejects shells to the right like the previous game's VK-12.

** While most pistols eject empty casings to the right, some, like the H&K USP and Walther P99, are designed with ambidextrous magazine release levers and buttons which allow users to quickly remove the magazine with either hand, at the cost of being slightly awkward for first-time users; the USP also comes in nine different variants with safety lever, decocking lever, both, or neither, with the eight that include them split evenly between left-side for right handed shooters and right-side for left handed. Others, like the latest revisions of the Beretta 92 and the Glock series, have reversible release buttons for left-handed shooters. Still others use heel-mounted release levers, popular pretty much everywhere except America, which are also easy to use with either hand. Ambidextrous slide-release levers remain rare, but that's in part because the typical placement for one in the first place makes it about as easy for a left-handed shooter to hit with their trigger finger as it is for a right-handed shooter to hit with their thumb.

* In the final story adapted for the ''Manga/Golgo13'' manga, Golgo gets in a car accident and requires the assistance of a brilliant neurosurgeon to restore functionality to his right arm. Then he learns that the surgeon is the adopted son of his current target. While he doesn't give up the job, he makes a point of acquiring a left-handed M-16 to complete the job. He later tracks down and kills the man who hired him with a right-handed M-16.

* Zig-zagged in ''Videogame/PlanetSide 2''. There is little rhythm or reason to the placement of mechanisms on guns. Almost every TR weapon ejects to the right or downward, but the placement of the charging handle is seemingly random - the [[GatlingGood Mini Chaingun]] fires caseless ammo and has the bolt on the left, the CARV LMG both ejects and bolts on the right, and the TRAP-M1 has a left side-loaded magazine, ejects right, has a charging handle on the ''bottom'', and has a reciprocating firing hammer that recoils ''backwards'', which would have a good chance of whacking the shooter in the chin when aiming down the sights. Every gun's fire selector is animated on the left even when the gun has no visible selector switch; the [=T4 AMP=] pistol has the user flick the featureless grip when switching from semi to fully automatic.
* Inverted by ''Franchise/DieHard: Nakatomi Plaza''. Probably the only LicensedGame that bothers to take into account that John [=McClane=] is [[TheSouthpaw left handed]], the models of guns are flipped over to make them suitable for a lefty. Particularly notable with the Steyr AUG, which needs a conversion kit to be fired left handed, which would make them useless to all the right handed terrorists encountered in the game.

* This comes up on occasion in ''WebVideo/ForgottenWeapons'', given that Ian [=McCollum=] is TheSouthpaw, so his chances to shoot some of the guns he discusses usually very quickly display how unfriendly they are for anything but right-handed operation. Interestingly, he actually fired one gun where his left-hand preference came in handy - due to the odd design of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3fd4goVs-4 the USFA ZiP .22,]] he would have been burning his trigger finger with hot brass if he fired it from the right (and if the gun [[ReliablyUnreliableGuns were consistently able to fire and cycle properly]]).

[[AC:AnimeAndManga]]

[[AC:Film]]

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]

[[AC:TabletopGames]]

[[AC:VideoGames]]

* Every gun in the ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'' games have their magazine either at the bottom or on the left side while every playable character is right-handed, no matter how little sense it makes to hold a gun by the stock to reload it (even when the magazine is at the bottom). Again, this series is all about [[RuleOfCool looking cool as hell]] while shooting bad guys with [[CoolGuns otherwordly cool guns]], then [[MST3KMantra who cares?]]
** Borderlands 3 makes a joke about this: a fire in the hold of your spaceship requires several burning crates of supplies to be shot out into space. Ellie complains that this included all the left-handed guns.

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[[AC:RealLife]]

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* ''VideoGame/HaloReach'''s DMR ejects spent cases to the right, but the charging handle is on the left and visibly slides back and forth with each shot, putting the user's face in danger if he should ever look down the sight when firing. In a neat aversion, your Spartan can unlock a piece of armor which makes your left arm robotic and switches your use to that arm.

** Ease of changing parts: The Steyr AUG for example, requires a quick change of the bolt and moving the ejection port cover to the other side; the weapon is issued with a spare bolt with the extractor and ejector on the opposite side for this purpose (save for "AUTO NATO" versions compatible with M16 magazines, which are only right-handed, or variants used by the Irish military, which require specifically-ordered leftie versions). The FAMAS has cutouts on both sides of the bolt for the ejector and ejection ports on both sides of the stock, requiring nothing more than partial disassembly to flip the ejector and the cheek rest to the other side to convert.
** Direction neutral design: The P90 feeds from the top and ejects rounds downward behind the firing arm, with the selector switch just below the trigger and charging handles on both sides. The F2000 ejects rounds ''forward'' into a tube along the side of the rifle before they go out to the right near the front, making the problem moot (although this leaves no room for an ambidextrous charging handle). The Ithaca model 37 shotgun has a unique combined loading and ejection port, which ejects spent shells downwards. The Browning M2 can be set up to load ammo belts from either side, since it's designed to be used in several different mountings, including side by side and quad-mount (like Charlie's sled from ''Film/WaterWorld''), which require flexible feeding and ejecting mechanisms.
** While not direction neutral, lever-action rifles and pump-action firearms tend to at least be control neutral, since the loading mechanism is usually located under the receiver rather than on either side, most are comfortable for both right and left-hand shooters. Some, like the more famous among Winchester's lever-action firearms, also eject upwards rather than to any one side, with the 1887 in particular also loading shells in the same way.

** The German army G36 standard assault rifle is designed to be used by both right- and left-handed soldiers. The ejector is on the right side of the weapon, but a good distance away from the optics, so that a left-handed shooter won't be hit in the face by the casings. It also has a symmetric grip, the safety-selector switch on both sides of the grip, and a unique charging handle that can be quickly grabbed and pulled from either side, so that it can easily be operated from the left hand. It is, however, more difficult for a left-handed soldier to carry the rifle, as it misses a hole for the carrying belt on the right side of the weapon, but this is mainly to avoid interference of the belt with the ejector. The [[RareGuns XM8]] and [[CoolGuns/SubmachineGuns MP7]], both based on the G36's action, are much the same, the latter also adding a bolt release button inside the trigger guard to be hit with the trigger finger, rather than the left-mounted bolt release on the M4 and M16 it was attempting to replace.

** While most pistols eject empty casings to the right, some, like the H&K USP and Walther P99, are designed with ambidextrous magazine release levers and buttons which allow users to quickly remove the magazine with either hand, at the cost of being slightly awkward for first-time users; the USP also comes in nine different variants with safety lever, decocking lever, both, or neither, with the eight that include them split evenly between left-side for right handed shooters and right-side for left handed. Others, like the latest revisions of the Beretta 92 and the Glock series, have reversible release buttons for left-handed shooters. Still others use heel-mounted release levers, popular pretty much everywhere except America, which are also easy to use with either hand.
* The Stoner 63 zig-zagged this trope, depending on its configuration. Eugene Stoner (who also designed the AR-15) envisioned a "system weapon," or in modern parlance, a modular weapon. The Stoner 63 rifle could be reconfigured into a carbine, squad automatic weapon, or light machine gun by swapping and or rearranging a few parts. The rifle fed from a detachable box magazine under the receiver and ejected to the right. The carbine was simply the rifle with a shorter barrel group and folding stock. For the SAW configuration, you installed a heavy barrel group with integral bipod and flipped the receiver upside-down, feeding the magazine from the top and ejecting to the left. The LMG setup took the SAW configuration and replaced the mag well with a belt-feed mechanism that fed from the right and ejected to the left. All of these conversions could be performed in the field without tools in a matter of minutes. The Stoner 63 was field-tested in Vietnam to great reviews - the [=SEALs=] especially liked it as an LMG, "forgetting" to turn in a few of them when testing concluded and holding onto them long enough to see use in Grenada in 1983 - but was not adopted because the M16 was cheaper and already in mass production.

* AK series weapons have an ejection port on the right side that is far enough away from the shooter so that you can shoot it lefty. Whilst all the controls are on the right, they are all simple enough to operate them with either the support hand or firing hand with ease from either side, no matter the handedness of the operator (actual Soviet doctrine called for using the right hand for everything, from reloading to cocking and taking off the safety, to eliminate the possibility of [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace accidental discharges]]).

* The M1 Garand and Short Magazine Lee-Enfield from UsefulNotes/WorldWarII both had sniper mods featuring scopes that were mounted to the left of the receiver, rather than above like most other scoped weapons, so as not to block the insertion (or, in the case of the Garand, ejection) of their clips when the user needed to reload. The improved Lee-Enfield No.4's sniper mod, the No.4 (T), averted this, using a 90-degree bent mount that fits to the left side of the receiver but still places the optic on the weapon's centerline. The later M14 more or less followed the same principle - the normal weapon kept the top of the receiver open, so that when the bolt was locked back the user could refill an attached magazine with stripper clips, while the M21 sniper rifle variation utilized a scope with an offset mount, attaching to the left side of the receiver but leaving the scope itself centered on top of the rifle.
** Scope mounts for AK-type weapons and many other Soviet/Russian weapons without integrated rails generally work on this sort of principle too, attaching to the left side of the receiver but being mounted in such a way that the scope itself is still centered above the rifle. In this case, at least, the purpose is to keep the regular ironsights clear so the shooter can use them to aim if the scope is damaged or a target is in too close for a magnified optic to be of use.

* There are some guns that by extension, avert this trope due to their design.
** Ease of changing parts: The Steyr AUG for example, requires a quick change of the bolt and moving the ejection port cover to the other side; the weapon is issued with a spare bolt with the extractor and ejector on the opposite side for this purpose. In a reversal, however, the "AUG NATO" version, which is compatible with STANAG magazines, and the Irish variant (with exception of specifically ordered leftie versions) can only be used right-handed.
** Direction neutral design: The P90 feeds from the top and ejects rounds downward behind the firing arm. The F2000 ejects rounds ''forward'' into a tube along the side of the rifle before they go out to the right near the front, making the problem moot (although this leaves no room for an ambidextrous charging handle like the P90). The Ithaca model 37 shotgun has a unique combined loading and ejection port, which ejects spent shells downwards. The Browning M2 can be set up to load ammo belts from either side, since it's designed to be used in several different mountings, including side by side and quad-mount (like Charlie's sled from ''Film/WaterWorld''), which require flexible feeding and ejecting mechanisms.

* The Stoner 63 zig-zagged this trope, depending on its configuration. Eugene Stoner (who also designed the AR-15) envisioned a "system weapon," or in modern parlance, a modular weapon. The Stoner 63 rifle could be reconfigured into a carbine, squad automatic weapon, or light machine gun by swapping and or rearranging a few parts. The rifle fed from a detachable box magazine under the receiver and ejected to the right. The carbine was simply the rifle with a shorter barrel group and folding stock. For the SAW configuration, you installed a heavy barrel group with integral bipod and flipped the receiver side-down, feeding the magazine from the top and ejecting to the left. The LMG setup took the SAW configuration and replaced the mag well with a belt-feed mechanism that fed from the right and ejected to the left. All of these conversions could be performed in the field without tools in a matter of minutes. The Stoner 63 was field-tested in Vietnam to great reviews, but was not adopted because the M16 was cheaper and already in mass production. The Navy [=SEALs=] especially liked it as an LMG and held on to them long enough to use them in Grenada.

* AK series weapons have an ejection port on the right side that is far enough away from the shooter so that you can shoot it lefty. Whilst all the controls are on the right, they are all simple enough to operate them with either the support hand or firing hand with ease from either side, no matter the handedness of the operator (actual Soviet doctrine called for using the right hand for everything, from reloading to cocking and taking off the safety).

* [[TruthInTelevision Truth In Video Games]] for at least a couple of shooters. The [[SemperFi USMC]], for instance, has noticed that snipers using bolt-action rifles with the "wrong" bolt for their handedness (i.e. right-handed shooter using a lefty bolt) can cycle and refire the weapon faster than a sniper using the "correct" bolt for their handedness. The biggest reason for this is that the shooter can use their support hand to work the bolt rather than their firing hand. This gives a big benefit - the shooter doesn't have to break their grip with their firing hand, meaning they don't have to waste time ensuring their rifle is still on-target after a shot (especially since with any kind of precision supported shooting, such as with a bipod or sandbag, you don't need to support the weapon with your off hand). This has actually become a part of modern tactical shooting, from using the left hand to charge an M4, to reversible or ambidextrous charging handles on rifles like the SCAR and the above-mentioned G36.

* This comes up on occasion in ''WebVideo/ForgottenWeapons'', given that Ian [=McCollum=] is TheSouthpaw, so his chances to shoot some of the guns he discusses usually very quickly display how unfriendly they are for anything but right-handed operation. Interestingly, he actually fired one gun where his left-hand preference came in handy - due to the odd design of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3fd4goVs-4 the USFA ZiP .22]], he would have been burning his trigger finger with hot brass if he fired it from the right (and if the gun [[ReliablyUnreliableGuns were consistently able to fire and cycle properly]]).

[[AC:Film]]
* [[http://www.good-fun.info/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Pirates-of-the-Caribbean-On-Stranger-Tides-Wallpaper-10.jpg This]] promotional poster shows [[Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean Captain Jack Sparrow]] dual-wielding a pair of flintlock pistols, one left-handed and one right-handed. Similar to cartridge ejection, the side the mechanism is on ejects a plume of smoke and sparks. Bearing that in mind, closer inspection shows he is holding them in the ''wrong hands'' - i.e. the left-handed gun in his right hand and vice versa.
* In ''Film/SavingPrivateRyan'', the left-handed sniper Jackson uses a right-handed [=M1903A4=] rifle -- appropriate for the period, as left-handed weapons in 1944 were only made by custom gunsmiths, and government procurement didn't (and still doesn't) bother with such things. While most left-handed shooters (including those who are actually right-handed and shoot lefty due to eye dominance) would still cycle the bolt with their right hand (after moving their left thumb out of the way), Jackson awkwardly flips his weapon sideways to cycle the bolt with his left. Apparently Creator/BarryPepper is just ''that much'' of a lefty, despite him using his sidearm right-handed at other points in the movie.
* In ''Film/RomancingTheStone'', the right-handed Jack Colton uses a left-handed Remington 870 Wingmaster shotgun for some reason.
* ''Franchise/StarWars'':
** In ''Film/TheForceAwakens'', one of the changes from the old E-11 blaster rifle to the newer F-11D used by the First Order is that the power pack (magazine) is moved to the right-hand side. In-universe, this is actually an aversion of the trope, since it allows right-handed users (which, like in reality, the majority of people in ''Star Wars'' are) to holster the weapon on their right to be easily accessed by their firing hand, and it being a blaster rifle means there's no issue of ejecting cartridges. The only issue would be the necessity of removing the firing hand from the grip to reload in a manner that doesn't involve [[GangstaStyle holding the blaster awkwardly]], but power packs last so long that [[BottomlessMagazines they may as well be infinite]], so that issue is unlikely to ever even come up.
** This was brought up earlier in the 2008 ''[[Literature/RepublicCommandoSeries Order 66]]'' novel. Clone commando Corr complains about the left-side placement of the power pack on the [[SwissArmyWeapon DC-17m]], noting that it can't be holstered on the right and wondering which bright light thought that was a good idea; Niner assumes some sort of ArmchairMilitary type who's never had to actually carry and fire one.

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
* One of the real-world reasons ''Series/StargateSG1'' switched its main weapon from the [=MP5=] to the P90 was because the latter weapon ejects spent cartridges straight down behind the shooter's arm, versus the former ejecting cartridges violently out to the right, making it safer to have the actors standing side-by-side while firing when one episode called for such a scene.
* One episode of ''Series/{{Spooks}}'' has Tom, while undercover with a British infantry unit, stop a private from firing his [=SA80=] assault rifle left-handed because the bolt would have flown back and possibly broken the private's orbital bone. This leads the colonel Tom's investigating to go into an angry rant about the rifle's shortcomings and the government inefficiency that led to its development.
** The [=SA80/L85=] cannot be operated left-handed, therefore ''everybody'' in the British Army shoots right-handed, no matter what[[note]]in certain close quarters situations, the British Army advocates holding the grip in the left hand but keeping the stock on the right shoulder[[/note]]. This is a common complaint against this rifle, even if the [=L85A2=] model fixed most of the many reliability problems.

[[AC:TabletopGames]]
* This happens a lot when people customise their miniatures for games such as ''[[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer40000}} Warhammer 40,000]]'' and do not pay attention. Sometimes the hand wielding the weapon is also wrong. Others do it intentionally for the Orks, because Orks genuinely don't care about such petty details like gun safety.

* ''[[VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon F.E.A.R. 2]]'' has one particular odd standout of this trope among an otherwise-complete aversion to it with the SHO Series-3 shotgun: among the many embellishments added to its real-world base to make the in-game model are the bolt and case deflector of a [=C7/M16A2=] - on the left-hand side, the opposite of where they would be on the rifle they came from. Why this is the case is unknown, since the gun still properly ejects shells to the right like the previous game's VK-12.