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| 5 | %% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your example in the proper place. Thanks! |
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| 11 | %% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=mx7efuzcxgkcrwflducn1o0z |
| 12 | %% Please do not change or remove without starting a new thread. |
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| 14 | %% Trope was declared Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease via crowner by the Real Life Maintenance thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/crowner.php?crowner_id=h8xsfaqk |
| 15 | [[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/SupermansGirlFriendLoisLane https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/i_just_shot_marvin.png]]]] |
| 16 | [[caption-width-right:350:This is why you always treat a gun as if it was loaded.]] |
| 17 | |
| 18 | ->'''Vincent:''' Oh man, I shot Marvin in the face.\ |
| 19 | '''Jules:''' Why the fuck did you do that?!\ |
| 20 | '''Vincent:''' Man, I didn't ''mean'' to do it! It was an accident! |
| 21 | -->-- ''Film/PulpFiction'' |
| 22 | |
| 23 | Guns are weapons. That's why there are various rules for [[UsefulNotes/GunSafety safely handling]] them. When these rules are not followed, whether it be by [[ArtisticLicenseGunSafety supposed experts]] or [[RecklessGunUsage untrained John Q. Dumbass]], there's a chance for an unwanted discharge. That's when somebody gets shot. Sometimes in the face. Being named Marvin is rare, however. Either way, it's not funny the same way that JugglingLoadedGuns is, because somebody just got shot. We mean, it ''can'' still be funny ([[BlackComedy hilarious, even!]]), but on the other hand, somebody did just get wounded or killed. |
| 24 | |
| 25 | This trope occurs when somebody didn't follow the UsefulNotes/GunSafety requirements or simply has a [[ReliablyUnreliableGuns shoddy weapon]] that goes off, hurting, killing or destroying a lot of property, and the gunshot is ''not'' played for comedy. |
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| 27 | It gets better when the accidental shootings that result from this mishandling of weapons are ''plot points'', as these kinds of accidents are precisely why the safety rules are in place. |
| 28 | |
| 29 | The precise rules on the safe operation of firearms vary from one organization to another, but the most common points can be read at our [[UsefulNotes/GunSafety Useful Notes on Gun Safety]] page. |
| 30 | |
| 31 | This trope is [[BeamMeUpScotty (almost)]][[note]]he doesn't say "just" in the scene[[/note]] named after Vincent's line in ''Film/PulpFiction'' after he exhibits staggering incompetence with basic firearms safety, resulting in things getting worse for him and Jules, and [[BoomHeadshot much worse]] for Marvin. See the entry in the Film folder for details. |
| 32 | |
| 33 | This is frequently the result of some combination of RecklessGunUsage, ArtisticLicenseGunSafety, and ReliablyUnreliableGuns, as well as a common tool for delivering AnAesop on gun safety. Compare JugglingLoadedGuns for when somebody getting shot by accident is due to RuleOfFunny. MakeItLookLikeAnAccident is a common subversion, where it only ''seems'' accidental at first glance. This trope frequently overlaps with MurderByMistake, AccidentalMurder or IDidntMeanToKillHim, depending on [[KillingIntent the level of hostility]] of the gun-toting moron in question. If the person who ends up dead is the gun holder, then this trope overlaps with AccidentalSuicide. |
| 34 | |
| 35 | When it may not have been accidental, it is UnfriendlyFire. When there is no effect, it is FriendlyFireproof. See also; SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome, which goes hand-in-hand with this trope as the realistic end result of [[ArtisticLicenseGunSafety gun safety failure]]. |
| 36 | |
| 37 | ---- |
| 38 | !!Examples: |
| 39 | |
| 40 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 41 | |
| 42 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 43 | * ''Literature/{{Baccano}}'' |
| 44 | ** When the [[FiringInTheAirALot celebratory gunshot]] the head of the Martillo family fires and it is immediately met with "Oh my God, somebody just killed Isaac!" from the floor above. Judging by a waitress's panicked reaction to finding people in that room, it was well-known among the staff that bullets occasionally come up through that floor. Thankfully, Isaac was actually fine. |
| 45 | ** In the novel, they were actually seated at the wrong table because some of the Martillo's had moved the liquor barrels normally blocking those tables off during meetings to downstairs for the first party and forgot to inform Lia. Issac was also shot through one of his over-sized shoes and had been distracted looking up at some holes in the ceiling, rather than how it happened in the manga (they were invited to the first party as compensation for the Martillo's screw-up). |
| 46 | * ''Manga/CallOfTheNight'': [[spoiler:After Anko's plan to destroy the night is foiled, [[KnowWhenToFoldEm she gives up and dejectedly walks away]]. Yamori realizes that something is off, however, and finds her in an empty classroom [[DrivenToSuicide about to shoot herself]]. [[InterruptedSuicide In the struggle to stop her]], Anko's gun accidentally discharges a bullet in Yamori's gut, [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone leaving Anko completely horrified]] as Nazuna enters the room to find [[OurHeroIsDead Yamori lying dead on the table]]. [[ViolentlyProtectiveGirlfriend Nazuna becomes enraged and tries attacking Anko]] while the latter [[NotWhatItLooksLike tries to explain]]... only for the two to stop as [[WhamShot Yamori gets back on his feet, seemingly having turned into a vampire]]. After they hurry Yamori to Kabura's hospital, the first thing Anko does once he wakes up is offer him a HeartfeltApology for shooting him.]] |
| 47 | * Toshio Utsumi of ''Manga/CatsEye'' is known in-universe for being a crack shot (better than the local gun nut, who is good enough to solve a hostage situation by making a [[KnifeOutline Bullet Outline]] around the criminal's head and then threatening to shoot him in the head) in spite of [[DoesntLikeGuns not liking guns]]. Eventually, it's explained that at the police academy he was the first of the class in gun training, but during one of the final lessons, he started fooling around and shot himself in the leg. |
| 48 | * The ''Manga/{{Doraemon}}'' short "Wolf's Den" have Nobita trying to find a pack of wolves in the hills after bragging to his friends he'll find one. Doraemon uses his gadget-of-the-week to turn Nobita temporarily into a wolf, and hands Nobita a TranquillizerDart gun telling him to "shoot when wolves are in sight". Nobita, being TheKlutz as usual, randomly asks "Is this really effective" while pointing the gun on Doraemon (fingers on triggers)... and accidentally knocks the robot cat unconscious. |
| 49 | * ''Anime/MobilePolicePatlaborTheEarlyDays'': {{Conversed}} in a GhostStory told in "The Tragedy of L", where a civilian bystander is said to now haunt the Labor training camp after being killed by an errant shot from a Patlabor's revolver cannon during an exercise; the pilot was said to have been DrivenToSuicide. [[spoiler:Gotoh made the whole thing up as part of a ScoobyDooHoax meant to [[ScareEmStraight get Ohta to shape up]].]] |
| 50 | * ''Manga/MusukoGaKawaikuteShikataganaiMazokuNoHahaoya'': In chapter 12, while going through some old things of hers, Lorem finds an object she can't immediately identify. She remembers it's an Anti-Demon Bomb, set to explode as soon as a demon such as herself touches it, just in time to throw it out the window where it detonates harmlessly. Just as she's wondering what in the hell she had been thinking keeping that around, Lorem turns around to see her infant son Gospel touching a ''second'' bomb she had. This one Lorem ''isn't'' able to throw out in time, so it doesn't detonate harmlessly, and Lorem is forced to seriously injure herself getting between the bomb and Gospel. Once she's healed, the incident serves as a wake-up call for Lorem, as she realizes her carelessness nearly got her baby killed. |
| 51 | * ''Anime/PrincessMononoke'': After Ashitaka knocks out both Lady Eboshi and San, Kiyo grabs a gun and threatens Ashitaka to shoot him for "hurting" Lady Eboshi. When Ashitaka begins leaving with San, Kiyo nervously continues to aim at him, until one villager startles her, causing her to light up the fuse on the gun, thus unintentionally shooting him. [[spoiler:But he still lives]]. |
| 52 | * ''Manga/PuellaMagiKazumiMagica'': As a child, Nico was playing with her friends with a pistol she didn't realize was loaded, and accidentally killed them when the gun went off. Her childhood trauma from this incident would later define her entire existence as a magical girl--not only does she have the ability to turn her fingers into bullets and fire them, FingerGun style, her wish was to [[spoiler:create a clone of herself without the memories of this incident]]. [[spoiler:This clone would turn evil due to CloneAngst and become the BigBad]]. |
| 53 | * In the second episode of ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'', Yoko gives Kamina a pistol. He's never held a gun before, so when the fight starts, he tries to use it as a ''hammer'', and almost shoots his balls off. |
| 54 | [[/folder]] |
| 55 | |
| 56 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 57 | * Stinky accidentally commits suicide by angrily placing the barrel to his head after an evening of drunken target practice in ''{{ComicBook/Hate|1990}}''. |
| 58 | * Happened in the backstory of ''ComicBook/TheMultiversity'', overlapping with PoorCommunicationKills: [[spoiler:when President Harley was a kid, he accidentally shot and killed his father, the superhero Yellowjacket. He had found one of Yellowjacket’s guns and was fooling around with it when Yellowjacket returned home through his window; Harley mistook him for a robber and reflexively pulled the trigger.]] |
| 59 | * ''ComicBook/PaperGirls'': the four girls get their hands on a gun and promptly shoot one of their own by accident. |
| 60 | * ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'': |
| 61 | ** In the beginning of issue 12, Swerve is seen with his face destroyed, and an eye hanging out, the issue eventually reveals that he mishandled an overly large experimental gun and ended up shooting himself in the face. |
| 62 | ** Before that, when an out-of-control Fortress Maximus took Whirl and Rung hostage, Swerve and Rewind were ordered to attempt to snipe him from outside the ship's hull. Due to how small both of them were, Swerve was forced to use Rewind as a step stool in order to see in the window. When he finally took the shot (after protesting that he was a poor shot), he missed the enormous Fortress Maximus entirely and instead shot the tiny Rung in the head, nearly killing him. |
| 63 | ** Misfire, who is [[ShadowArchetype basically the ex-Decepticon equivalent of Swerve]], has similar form, to the point where Misfire isn't even his original name (as he puts it, "I blame the trial"). There are a couple of incidents where he accidentally hits one of the other Scavengers in combat. |
| 64 | --->'''Misfire:''' They call me Misfire. Long story. Actually, you know what? It isn't. It's a very short story involving a machine gun, a misunderstanding, and a dozen dead Decepticons. |
| 65 | * In ''ComicBook/YTheLastMan'', an untrained woman is holding a hostage at gunpoint, whom she kills by mistake when her finger slips. |
| 66 | [[/folder]] |
| 67 | |
| 68 | [[folder:Comic Strips]] |
| 69 | * In one strip of ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'', cavemen were sitting around cleaning their clubs when one made the mistake of [[https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/64/9d/cf/649dcf714b2976b193688f0cb535e5f2.jpg looking straight at his.]] |
| 70 | * ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'': Charlie Brown accidentally [[http://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1952/01/10 shoots]] Shermey while showing off his new toy pistol. Subverted in that Charlie Brown ''actually yells "BANG!"'' |
| 71 | * In one ''ComicStrip/{{Tumbleweeds}}'' strip, Limpid Lizard shows up at the Medicine Man's teepee with an arrow in his gut, explaining [[EpicFail "I wuz kleenin' m' bow an' it went off."]] |
| 72 | [[/folder]] |
| 73 | |
| 74 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 75 | * In the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' fic ''Fanfic/TheAccidentalAnimagus'', one of Quirrell's classes is focused on understanding the threat of firearms. As part of his demonstration, he points a shotgun in the direction of his students. Harry, Hermione, and Justin Finch-Fletchley, who all have firearms training, are all openly alarmed, and Harry even [[LampshadeHanging shouts that Quirrell is breaking the basic safety rules of gun handling]]. (For the record, Quirrell ensured the gun was unloaded, but it is still important to treat the gun as if it ''is'' loaded.) |
| 76 | * Elevated to the level of RunningGag in ''Fanfic/FalloutEquestriaProjectHorizons''. Each and every one of [[TheHero Blackjack]]'s [[RagtagBunchOfMisfits companions]] shoots her at one point or another. In some cases, it's a case of mistaken identity or genuine hostility. In others, it's an utter failure at UsefulNotes/GunSafety. Talking with a tongue-triggered shotgun in your mouth is not a good idea. |
| 77 | * ''Fanfic/HarryPotterAndTheNightmaresOfFuturesPast'': one of the enchanted objects Mr. Weasley has in his office is a gun, which he thinks does not work and shows it to Harry by putting it to his head and pulling the trigger. The only reason he is still alive is that he wasn't depressing the trigger safety in the middle of the Glock's trigger. |
| 78 | * ''Fanfic/JimmysVisitWithDrFranklin'': Kevin and Ray tackled Jimmy which caused Richie to get shot. |
| 79 | * In chapter 35 of ''Fanfic/MassEffectHumanRevolution'', a gangster tries to draw his un-safed gun, only to have it go off in his pants. |
| 80 | * ''Fanfic/{{Misunderstandings}}'': Averted. Peter owns a gun, but since he is a competitive sharpshooter, he knows how to handle his gun safely. [[spoiler:It is played dramatically straight later on when a Swift Wind, believing Peter was about to shoot Twilight when he was, in fact, trying to disarm his gun, tackles Peter, causing the gun to discharge. Swift Wind is critically wounded, and Peter is now fearful of what will happen now that he has injured a pony.]] |
| 81 | * PlayedForLaughs in the ''Fanfic/MyImmortal'' parody ''Fanfic/XtremlyScray'': The Ebony {{Expy}} accidentally turns her wand into a gun and shoots Ginny "Pentagram Slipknot" Weasley. |
| 82 | * ''Fanfic/TheNegotiationsverse'': Towards the end of the Conversion War, the ponies tried to make guns, tanks, and bombs to fight the humans on their level after the humans created AntiMagic generators that canceled out their biggest advantage. The initial result? A number of soldiers wound up injured or dead while in training when they either shot themselves or others since they had no concept of gun safety. |
| 83 | [[/folder]] |
| 84 | |
| 85 | [[folder:Film -- Animation]] |
| 86 | * Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/PeterPan'': Captain Hook orders Smee to shoot Peter Pan, but his constant flying about makes him a difficult target. With his eyes closed, Smee aims for Peter as he's ''flying in front of Hook'' and fires. He misses, but for a moment, it appears that Hook has fallen to his death. He turns out to be fine. |
| 87 | * Done multiple times by Jack Horner against his own minions in ''WesternAnimation/PussInBootsTheLastWish'' due to [[BadBoss his utter indifference to their well-being]], first with his crossbow loaded with baby unicorn horns that causes them to explode into confetti, than with a wizard staff used as a rifle during the final battle where he [[CrossesTheLineTwice blasts his last remaining minion to her death by accident and blaming her for it.]] |
| 88 | --->'''Jack Horner:''' Oh come on, you walked right into that one. |
| 89 | * ''WesternAnimation/RayaAndTheLastDragon'': In a tense stand-off, [[AntiVillain Namaari]] ends up accidentally shooting [[spoiler:Sisu]] in the chest with a crossbow when [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Raya, paranoid and nervous, attacks her first]] and causes her to [[DamnYouMuscleMemory reflexively pull the trigger]]. |
| 90 | * Trigger, the vulture palace guard from ''WesternAnimation/RobinHood1973'', owns a crossbow he calls [[ICallItVera Ol' Betsy]]. Whilst it ''does'' have a safety catch, it's either faulty or Trigger's just bad at telling when it's on. This, combined with his itchy trigger finger, results in [[PinballProjectile accidental discharges]] on [[RunningGag more than one occasion]], much to the irritation of the Sheriff. |
| 91 | --> '''Sheriff:''' What in tarnation you tryin' to do, you birdbrain?! |
| 92 | [[/folder]] |
| 93 | |
| 94 | [[folder:Film -- Live-Action]] |
| 95 | * ''Film/EightMile''. Eminem's friend shoots himself (in a very sensitive part) in the [[PantsPositiveSafety act of putting a gun in his waistband]] -- with surprisingly little reaction. |
| 96 | * ''Film/TheABCsOfDeath'': In "Q is for Quack", Adam and Simon kill themselves when Simon points his gun at Adam while trying to find the safety catch. The gun goes off shooting Adam, whose own gun discharges and shoots Simon. |
| 97 | * ''Film/BadEggs'' opens with two cops mistaking a magistrate's corpse for a criminal and riddling it with bullets. Alan Brough's character later averts the trope when he saves the same cops' lives by holding the bad guys at gunpoint. "I'm warning you, I'm a very bad shot!" |
| 98 | * A lesson to Joe Chill from ''Film/BatmanBegins'': if you're trying to rob someone at gunpoint and just want to get your hands on whatever it is you want from them (e.g. wallets and jewelry), never put your finger on the trigger. There's a good chance your gun will go off at the slightest movement. This does get played with during the same scene, as while a solid case can be made that Chill [[LeaveNoWitnesses shot Martha intentionally]], it's just as safe a bet he wouldn't have had to shoot her, period, in the first place had his trigger finger not twitched and caused the gun to go off once already, as Thomas was calmly handing over what he'd demanded. |
| 99 | * ''Film/BeCool'': Dabu exhibits a terrifyingly poor grasp of [[ArtisticLicenseGunSafety basic gun safety]] throughout the movie. He ''always'' keeps his finger on the trigger, resulting in accidental discharge on more than one occasion. One of those times, it ends up being fatal for a Russian mob lackey. Dabu is at least somewhat self-aware, {{Lampshading}} his poor gun handling by telling his boss that if he doesn't want this sort of thing to happen, he shouldn't give Dabu a gun in the first place. |
| 100 | * ''Film/BigJake'': when Michael's fancy new semi-automatic pistol goes off accidentally, causing everybody to quickly dive for cover. Unfortunately, Big Jake doesn't realize that the gun's magazine holds ''eight'' shots, not the standard six, so he leaves cover rather prematurely. |
| 101 | * ''Film/TheBoondockSaints'', after deciding to help the [=McManus=] brothers, Rocco slams his fists on the table to make his point, but his weapon, a {{Reliably Unreliable|Guns}} Beretta 92F that the brothers gave him, is lying on said table with the barrel pointed straight at his girlfriend's cat. Needless to say, the gun goes off, and you can pretty much guess what happened to the kitty. It was mostly shocking until Rocco's dumb-ass question: "Is it dead?!" ''Then'' it became hilarious. |
| 102 | * Subverted in ''Film/BottleRocket''. During the factory heist towards the end, Bob shoots randomly and Apple Jack hits the ground. Dignan yells at Bob, but it turns out Apple Jack is actually having a heart attack. |
| 103 | * ''Film/BringMeTheHeadOfTheMachineGunWoman'': When Santiago grabs Mecánico's gun, he comes out shooting blindly. Literally, as he has his eyes shut. He somehow manages to kill the hitman el Tronador, but he also kills the hapless mechanic who is standing behind him. |
| 104 | * ''Film/CocaineBear'': Ranger Liz shoots at the bear while [[spoiler:one of the Duchamps]] is standing not even a foot away from the line of fire. [[spoiler:The kid]] gets a bullet through his brain while the bear runs off, unharmed. |
| 105 | * ''Film/{{Commando}}''. After John Matrix gets locked up in a police van, Cindy tries to free him with a quad-barrelled missile launcher. Unfortunately, she points the wrong end at the target and blows up the shops behind her. Given that the launcher, the M-202 "Flash", fires rockets tipped with a compound similar to white phosphorus (and would have incinerated the van), someone was getting screwed no matter where it was pointing. |
| 106 | * ''Film/CominRoundTheMountain'': While explaining what he inherited from his grandfather, Wilbert finds his grandfather's revolver and immediately starts pulling the trigger while aiming at the floor. Al takes it from Wilbert, but (still pointed at the floor) pulls the trigger himself several times, firing the one round loaded, unbeknownst to either. The result is more annoyance by Wilbert and their companions than anything else. |
| 107 | * ''Film/DangerCloseTheBattleOfLongTan'': Before the main battle starts, Private Large learns that beer and firearms aren't a good mix by accidentally firing his loaded [=M16=] in the air, which wasn't kept on safe. Thankfully, he doesn't actually ''hit'' anything, but that doesn't stop Major Smith [[{{TranquilFury}} reading him the riot act]] and confiscating his [=M16=] when he tries to bluff his way out of trouble. |
| 108 | * In ''Film/TheDaVinciCode'', Silas is running from the police and shoots someone who approaches without thinking to check who it is. [[spoiler:He non-fatally wounds his superior, Bishop Aringarosa, and the distraction gets Silas killed since the police are able to corner him.]] |
| 109 | * In ''Film/DrMinx'', David shoots his best friend Brian while attempting to scare a confession out of him with a loaded pistol. |
| 110 | * Happens in ''Film/{{Elysium}}'' when the black underground operative in panic blindly opens fire at the approaching security droids despite Max and others being in the firing line, and [[spoiler:ends up fatally shooting Carlyle.]] |
| 111 | * In ''Film/FierceCreatures'', Vince is waving a gun around while he is trying to decide whether he should shoot his father or kill himself. Once he is disarmed, Bugsy picks up the gun, and as he is fiddling with the safety, he accidentally discharges it. [[spoiler:The bullet hits Rod straight in the center of the forehead, killing him instantly.]] |
| 112 | * ''Film/FourLions'': Omar tries to take out a spy plane with a missile launcher in the same way, accidentally [[spoiler:destroying the terrorist headquarters directly behind him and killing Osama bin Laden]]. |
| 113 | * In ''Film/GetOverIt'' Kelly begins waving a crossbow in front of Berke, believing it to be a prop. It goes off and he gets shot in the arm. |
| 114 | * In ''Film/GameNight'', Annie and Max think the criminal conspiracy they're wrapped in is all roleplaying, until Annie accidentally shoots Max in the arm with a stolen gun she thinks is fake, revealing the real danger they're facing. |
| 115 | * In ''Film/GeorgeOfTheJungle,'' the porters accidentally toss Lyle an actual gun instead of his gun-shaped lighter. The trope is averted as Lyle is distracted by hearing Ursula before he can light a cigar with the "lighter," but it's then played straight as he ends up shooting George in the face while trying to scare him off with the "fake gun." Fortunately for George, A) it's clearly a small-caliber derringer, B) George regularly vine-swings into trees so hard he must have SuperToughness or else he'd ''already'' be dead, and C) George has PlotArmor, as {{lampshaded}} by the LemonyNarrator. |
| 116 | * In ''Literature/TheGrapesOfWrath'', a crooked recruiter calls in a deputy to silence a protester. When the man runs the deputy fires, hitting a woman in the heart. |
| 117 | * In the climax of ''Film/LaHaine'', [[spoiler:one of the {{Corrupt Cop}}s from earlier in the film harasses Vinz by waving a gun around in his face, which accidentally goes off and kills him, resulting in his friend Hubert coming over with Vinz's gun. Cue MexicanStandoff between Hubert and the Cop]]. |
| 118 | * ''Film/HalloweenKills'' has a weaponized case of this, when Michael Myers [[ToyotaTripwire kicks a car door]] at an assailant with a gun and makes her shoot herself. |
| 119 | * ''Film/HarlemNights'', Quick is being pursued by a group of gangsters following his car. He suddenly hits the brakes, causing their car to hit his. The two guys in the backseat lurch forwards, and their tommy guns ''both'' go off, inadvertently killing the front-seat passenger. |
| 120 | * ''{{Film/Hick}}'': Eddie claims the gun is empty (without checking) and dry-fires until (whoops) he finds it isn't, shooting Glenda dead. |
| 121 | * In ''Film/HotFuzz'' when Dr. Hatcher has Angel and Danny at gunpoint the doctor tells Danny to drop his shotgun. Danny obliges, ''invoking'' this trope by throwing the still loaded firearm on the ground pointed at Hatcher's foot so that when it predictably goes off, it fills the Bad Doctor's foot with buckshot, putting him out of the fight. |
| 122 | * Subverted in, of all things, ''Film/HotShotsPartDeux''. Everyone handling a weapon does so properly... unless, of course, it's [[RuleOfFunny funnier if they weren't]]. |
| 123 | * In ''Film/InTime'', Will and Sylvia have [[spoiler:stopped a car, but the driver doesn't want to get out. Sylvia is just randomly pointing her gun at him, but it accidentally goes off. The driver is scared as shit, and proceeds to quickly get out]]. |
| 124 | * In ''Film/KissKissBangBang'', Harry accidentally kills a {{mook|s}} on his first shot while playing RussianRoulette because he thought there could only be a 6% chance the bullet could be in the chamber. |
| 125 | * ''Film/TheLadykillers2004'': When the dimwitted Lump suddenly develops a conscience, he turns the Professor's revolver against him after being ordered to kill Mrs. Munson. The first chamber is empty, but the second isn't, so when it doesn't work, a confused Lump tries to look down the barrel and shoots himself in the face. |
| 126 | * ''Film/TheLeagueOfGentlemensApocalypse'', [[spoiler:Geoff Tipps accidentally kills Mark Gatiss this way.]] |
| 127 | * An outlaw in ''The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean'' manages to shoot himself in the groin during a gunfight. |
| 128 | * In ''Film/LisaTheFoxfairy'', the police officer rushing to save Lisa's life (who locked herself in to commit suicide) shoots off the lock on her apartment door with his pistol, but keeps the pistol in his hand and his finger on the trigger while he runs towards her room. That was a bad idea because he trips, the gun discharges into the ceiling, he falls, the gun fires again hitting him in the left hand, while the chandelier hit by the first bullet falls on his head. |
| 129 | * In ''Film/LittleLauraAndBigJohn'', Big John's gang are celebrating a successful robbery in their getaway car, and somebody accidentally shoots Big John in the eye. |
| 130 | * In the Creator/StanleyKubrick adaptation of ''Film/{{Lolita}}'', Charlotte Haze shows Humbert her late husband's revolver, saying that it's not loaded. Humbert comments, "That's what they all say: I didn't know it was loaded." A short time later he has a close look at the gun and finds that it ''is'' loaded. He then reloads the weapon while contemplating using this trope to kill Charlotte and MakeItLookLikeAnAccident. |
| 131 | * In ''Film/LoneStarStateOfMind'', the incredibly TooDumbToLive character Junior begs the others to loan him a gun. They refuse, of course. In the end, [[spoiler:as soon as he gets a gun, he accidentally shoots Earl in the back, then himself [[GroinAttack in the nuts]].]] |
| 132 | * ''Film/MasterAndCommander'': "I just shot [[spoiler:Maturin]] in the guts." You would think that the Captain of the Marines would know better. And he was shooting at an albatross. He should make himself familiar with Myth/NauticalFolklore, that good man. |
| 133 | * ''Film/TheMexican'': Jerry meets Beck in Mexico, but before they can even begin their journey, Beck is killed by a falling bullet from locals shooting their guns in the air in celebration. |
| 134 | * ''Film/Millennium1989'': Two times, characters start fiddling with a stunner accidentally left behind by {{Time Travel}}lers and have it go off. |
| 135 | ** Bill temporarily paralyzes himself when he jams part of the stunner's casing into the wiring. |
| 136 | ** At the climax of the film, Louise tries to stop Dr. Mayer from fiddling with the stunner but isn't fast enough. The stunner kills him, causing a massive TemporalParadox. |
| 137 | * ''Film/{{Monos}}:'' A group of teenage guerrillas are given a cow, and are told to look after it, because if anything happens to the cow, then the peasants who "loaned" it will stop helping the cause and will start talking to the government. The teens then have a party, and one of them drunkenly blasts away into the fog, and kills the cow. |
| 138 | * Dramatic example in ''Film/{{Oblivion 2013}}''. During the fight between [[spoiler:Jack-49 and Jack-52]], they are struggling for a gun. The gun goes off, hitting Julia in the stomach. This prompts Jack to knock out his opponent [[spoiler:who is understandably shocked to have shot the woman he's seen in his dreams]] and [[HeroStoleMyBike steal his ship to get to the Tower]] and retrieve medical equipment to save her. |
| 139 | * In the climax of the first ''Film/OnceUponATimeInChina'' movie, the Shaho gang thugs, whom were fighters by trade, got their hands on a cache of firearms stolen from the Americans. Pondering on how to use pistols, which they're unfamiliar with, one of the thugs end up unintentionally blowing the cranium of another. |
| 140 | * ''Film/OutOfSight'': White Boy Bob is established early as a clumsy oaf. When climbing the stairs and holding Jack at gunpoint, he trips and accidentally shoots himself in the head. Jack is, of course, completely taken off guard by an enemy suddenly killing himself. |
| 141 | * ''Film/ThePredator'': |
| 142 | ** Casey Brackett tries to shoot a Predator with a tranquilizer dart, but the tire of the bus she is standing on is popped, causing her to lose her balance and shoot herself in the foot. |
| 143 | ** Will Traeger attempts to use a captured Predator shoulder mounted plasma caster, but ends up shooting himself in the head with it. |
| 144 | * ''Film/PlanetTerror'' (half of the ''Film/{{Grindhouse}}'' double-feature), in which Dr. Dakota Block gives a gun to her child when she leaves him alone in a car. [[spoiler:He accidentally shoots himself within a few seconds of her leaving the car. And right after she warned him to be careful, no less.]] |
| 145 | * ''Film/TheProposition'', one of the policemen accidentally shoots his own toes off. |
| 146 | * ''Film/PulpFiction''. The {{Trope Namer|s}}. Vincent Vega has an animated conversation with Jules in the front seat with his gun still in his hand and his finger on the trigger. When he turns to speak to Marvin, the guy in the backseat, he rests his gun hand on the back of his seat, with the barrel pointed directly at Marvin and his finger still on the trigger. The gun goes off (whether because the car hit a bump or not) and [[LudicrousGibs graphically splatters Marvin's brains all over the rear window]]. |
| 147 | * In ''Film/RideAlong'', given Ben's negligence with guns it's surely no surprise when he starts waving his gun recklessly and accidentally shoots a suspect he and James are interrogating in the shoulder. |
| 148 | * In ''Film/SalvationBoulevard'', Pastor Dan Day is trying to make a point about the need for religion to enforce morality by stating the argument that, without religion, people would just kill each other willfully. To illustrate the point, he picks an antique gun up off of Professor Blaylock's coffee table and waves it around. It goes off when pointed at the professor. |
| 149 | * ''Film/SemiPro'': An OverlyLongGag has one character at a poker table pretend to threaten another with a revolver, only to reveal that it's not loaded. Everyone at the table laughs uproariously and takes turns pointing the revolver at each other and pulling the trigger while announcing, "It's not loaded!" After the revolver's trigger has been pulled well over six times, it suddenly goes off. They note without much concern that Cornelius was hit in his broken arm by the bullet, and Cornelius seems amused by it. |
| 150 | * ''Film/SilentNightDeadlyNightPart2'' after witnessing Ricky kill a few people, a police officer confronts him to arrest him, including putting the gun up in his face and [[DramaticGunCock cocking it]]. All Ricky needs to do is grab his wrist to get the officer to accidentally shoot himself. |
| 151 | * In ''Film/{{Snatch}}'', a dog jumps up on Avi and grabs [[MacGuffin the diamond]] out of his hand, then runs out of the room. Avi responds by firing his gun wildly, trying to hit the dog without being mindful of what (or who) is in the line of fire. One of the shots hits and kills [[spoiler:Bullet-Tooth Tony]] by mistake. |
| 152 | * The ending of ''Film/SpiderMan3'' reveals [[spoiler:that this is how Uncle Ben was murdered. Flint Marko, an out-of-luck father resorting to crime in support for his ill daughter, pulls Ben out of the car. Fortunately, Ben manages to talk him down, telling him to drop the gun and go home. However, before Marko has the chance to respond, he is startled by his partner, Dennis Carradine, slapping him on the shoulder and pushing him into accidentally pulling the trigger on his revolver, shooting Ben in the chest. Carradine seizes the opportunity to escape in Ben's car while Marko stays behind, [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone horrified at having accidentally shot a man who was trying to help him]].]] |
| 153 | * In ''Film/SpiderManHomecoming'' after the Shocker's predecessor Jackson Brice tries to blackmail the Vulture, he picks up a weapon and [[DisintegratorRay disintegrates Brice with it]]. He then turns to the Tinkerer and says that he thought it was the anti-gravity gun before shrugging it off and passing his gauntlet to Herman. |
| 154 | * The plot of ''Film/{{Spy}}'' kicks off when a Film/JamesBond-like spy (played by Creator/JudeLaw) accidentally shoots the only person the CIA is aware of who knows the location of a rogue nuke. He's holding the guy at gunpoint (with his finger on the trigger, naturally) and is in the middle of telling the guy to talk when he sneezes from all the pollen in the room. The gun goes off, resulting in a {{Pretty Little Headshot|s}}. |
| 155 | * In ''Film/{{Stargate}}'', Jack O'Neil(l)'s son accidentally shot and killed himself with Jack's service weapon prior to the film. Jack is nearly DrivenToSuicide at first, then goes on the mission through the stargate with [[DeathSeeker the expectation of not coming back]]. This is given a few {{Call Back}}s in ''Series/StargateSG1'', including in the pilot when Jack remarks that even though he isn't suicidal anymore, he'll never forgive himself. |
| 156 | * ''Film/StarshipTroopers'', the film [[ArtisticLicenseGunSafety frequently and constantly fails gun safety]]. |
| 157 | ** During the long-shot of the "Live Fire" exercise, [[http://www.imfdb.org/index.php?title=Starship_Troopers#The_Completely_Unsafe_Live_Firing_Exercise you can see]] that the range has no walls to the sides and other trainees are doing their thing right next to it. The recruits take the course in teams, with the next sent directly ''behind'' the previous! Then, the characters must face off against targets that shoot lasers at their training vests, which give the victim an electric shock. This causes one soldier to clamp down on the trigger and fire wildly in all directions, killing another. Rico is blamed for taking the victim's helmet off,[[note]]Never mind the fact that the helmet is open-faced and wouldn't have protected him anyway[[/note]] when the whole scene was a disaster waiting to happen. This was definitely intentional on the part of the director, who was satirizing military culture. |
| 158 | ** In a recruitment film, some soldiers were showing children how to shoot an assault rifle. The children start fighting over the weapon. The soldiers then [[InferredHolocaust give out the bullets]]. |
| 159 | * In the ''Franchise/StarWars'' Prequel Trilogy, certain battle droids end up accidentally shooting their companions in a comedic fashion. |
| 160 | ** A ''Star Wars'' sourcebook features [[https://i.imgur.com/E8ExGR2.png an amusing scene by John Van Fleet]] of a battle droid sheepishly holding a smoking blaster rifle while its nearby companion has had its head [[YourHeadAsplode reduced to a smouldering neck stump]]. In the background, the sheer display of buffoonish incompetence appears to have given a B1 commander droid a tension headache. |
| 161 | --> ''Another day, another suboptimal weapons discharge report." |
| 162 | * In ''Film/StateOfSiege'', when the main character, Philip Michael Santore, is kidnapped, one of the kidnappers accidentally shoots him in the chest. He survives, and they arrange to operate on him so they can keep him healthy for ransom purposes. |
| 163 | * ''Film/StoneCold'' (1991). The BigBad, outlaw biker leader Chains Cooper (played by Creator/LanceHenriksen) says, "You know, it's moments like these I remember the last thing my father told me: "Don't son, that gun's loaded!" |
| 164 | * ''Film/StreetFighter'' notably averts this in the scene when Sagat is making his weapons deal with Bison. Everybody is keeping their fingers off the triggers and appear to be pointing the weapons away from each other. |
| 165 | * In the prologue of ''Film/SuckerPunch'', Babydoll tries to threaten her abusive stepfather with a gun but misses and kills her sister. |
| 166 | * In ''Film/{{Taps}}'', during a scuffle between some of the cadets and local boys, General Bache tries to put an end to the fight. One of the local kids struggles with him and tries to grab his sidearm. The gun ends up going off and killing one of the other local boys. In shock, Bache states that this is the only time the gun has fired in years, and he's always checked to make sure it was empty (he forgot about the bullet in the barrel). Later on, when a tank rolls up to the military academy, one of the younger cadets panics and runs to surrender. He drops his rifle, which goes off. While the rifle doesn't hurt anyone, the National Guard open fire and kill another cadet. |
| 167 | * In ''Film/ThreeAmigos'', Ned, Lucky, and Dusty have to summon the invisible swordsman who would guide them to El Guapo's hideout. To summon him, they recite a chant and each shoot their gun straight up into the air after chanting. After Lucky and Ned do their parts of the chant and shoot straight up, Dusty does his chant, but shoots towards the side, accidentally shooting the invisible swordsman. |
| 168 | -->'''Lucky:''' Oh, great. You killed the invisible swordsman!\ |
| 169 | '''Dusty:''' How was I supposed to know where he was?\ |
| 170 | '''Lucky:''' You were supposed to fire ''up''. ''We'' both fired ''up''! ''(sighs)'' It's like living with a 6-year-old... |
| 171 | * ''Film/{{Tremors}}'' is a notable aversion to this trope: Burt Gummer, in particular, demonstrates an instinctive understanding of basic UsefulNotes/{{gun safety}} when, after he hands someone an unloaded revolver to stop his panicking long enough to get him to run, the kid hands him back the gun, loudly complaining about it being empty, and Burt ''immediately pops the cylinder to confirm''. This is exactly what you should do whenever you receive or pick up a firearm, even when you already know that it's empty and that, as in the film, it was absolutely impossible for any bullets to find their way into the gun. |
| 172 | ** Earl shows the same care in the first sequel. Burt picks up a rifle to give to Earl, checking that it's unloaded before handing it to him. Earl ''immediately'' does the exact same thing. |
| 173 | * In ''Film/TuckerAndDaleVsEvil'', one of the college kids ends up wildly aiming a gun at Tucker & Dale, when Dale provides the ill-timed advice of needing to turn the safety off. He ends up struggling with the gun and ends up blowing his own head off. |
| 174 | * ''Film/AVeryLongEngagement'': One of the soldiers accidentally shoots himself in the hand whilst trying to club a rat with the butt of his automatic... and gets sentenced to death for self-mutilation. |
| 175 | * ''Film/WildAtHeart'' Bobby Peru is escaping after a robbery, trips and falls, and blows his own head off with a shotgun. |
| 176 | * In ''Film/WorldWarZ'' the lead character gives a gun to the scientist he's escorting (sole hope for the human race no less), who presumably has no familiarity with guns, gives him a quick brief on the gun and then they get attacked by zombies. Predictably the scientist panics, tries to run, slips, and unceremoniously manages to shoot himself in the head. |
| 177 | [[/folder]] |
| 178 | |
| 179 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 180 | * In ''Literature/ChanceAndChoicesAdventures'', the Butterfield Gang are attacked by birds while trying to attack the Williams farm. They try to kill the birds assaulting them by shooting directly into the air. [[TooDumbToLive The result is one of them getting hit in the shoulder with a bullet, which then becomes infected and results in his death.]] |
| 181 | * ''Literature/ChickenSoupForTheSoul'': This happens to one boy in a story after his friend recklessly plays with his dad's gun, not realizing it was loaded. |
| 182 | * In ''Literature/{{Curtain}}'', one of [[spoiler:Poirot]]'s initial ideas for killing [[spoiler:Norton]] was pretending to play the trope straight and "forgetting" a gun was loaded. [[spoiler:With his current mental decline (as the observers think) and spotless reputation, people would have been taken in]]. |
| 183 | * Creator/KurtVonnegut's novel ''Literature/DeadeyeDick'' is about a man who, as a boy, fired a rifle in the air and accidentally killed a pregnant woman in her home on the other side of town. |
| 184 | * In the ''Literature/{{Drenai}}'' saga, [[spoiler:this is how Waylander eventually gets killed — with his own crossbow, no less]]. |
| 185 | * In the climax of ''Literature/{{Eileen}}'', [[spoiler: Rebecca kidnaps Mrs. Polk in order to extort a confession out of her and free the Polk by for prison, or something... She intimidates her into a confession, but then accidentally shoots her, completely ruining her plans and forcing her and Eileen to improvise a new plot.]] |
| 186 | * In Katherine Anne Porter short story "[[Literature/TheCollectedStoriesOfKatherineAnnePorter Hacienda]]", a Mexican boy is literally JugglingLoadedGuns (well, one gun). It goes off, and shoots his sister through the heart. The boy was acting in a film production, and the producers regard it as a minor annoyance in that they have to bribe a judge to get the boy out of prison. |
| 187 | * In Carson [=McCuller=]'s SouthernGothic novel ''The Heart is a Lonely Hunter,'' Mick's younger brother Bubber accidentally shoots a little girl in the head with a BB gun. |
| 188 | * ''Literature/HouseOfLeaves'': [[spoiler:Holloway accidentally shoots and kills his friends, thinking them to be the monster he believes to lurk in the house, and thus is DrivenToSuicide]]; this could be argued to be MurderByMistake, though.* In ''The Nagasaki Vector'', the pilot of a TimeMachine that accidentally traveled [[InterdimensionalTravelDevice sideways into an alternate history]] is a trained and experienced pistoleer and the proud owner of a rare match-grade handgun. That said, when he hands it to another character to show it off, he is berated for failing to clear it properly ''and'' for having his finger on the trigger. [[spoiler:It turns out that the agency he works for uses {{brainwashing}} to make their agents partake in very [[TooDumbToLive reckless behavior]] when at risk of revealing their secrets.]] |
| 189 | * ''[[Literature/CiaphasCain The Last Ditch]]'': "Jinxie" Penlan uses the butt of her lasrifle to unjam another weapon, in the assumption that the safety is on. It wasn't. But [[UnluckilyLucky being "Jinxie"]], the lasbolt takes out one of the attacking orks (who then crashes his flyer into a crowd of his buddies). |
| 190 | * In one ''Literature/MissMarple'' story, Sir Henry Clitheroe recalls a case when he had to investigate a man shooting another man with an ancient pistol that had been hanging on the wall. Sir Henry brought to justice the person who had loaded the gun and controlled the conversation, calling the shooter "entirely innocent", although it seems likely he was at least done for reckless misadventure. |
| 191 | * ''Literature/ThePlagueDogs'', wherein Snitter encounters one of the men from the hunting party alone who, upon seeing his bandaged head, feels sorry for the little dog and can't shoot him. He calls to Snitter, intending to PetTheDog. Snitter, overjoyed, rushes over and jumps up on the guy [[spoiler:only for his toe to catch on the trigger of the man's rifle which was aimed upwards, at its owner's face, accidentally blowing off the man's head]]. |
| 192 | * ''Literature/SchroedingersBall'' begins with the main character having just shot ''himself'' in the face, fatally, while cleaning his grandmother's gun. However, he's hardly an expert. In fact, the book goes so far as to point out his inexperience in handling firearms in the "Dramatis Personae" section at the very beginning. |
| 193 | * Specifically averted in ''Literature/StarshipTroopers'' as opposed to the film of the (blurb on the back cover of the) book. The incident that causes Rico to be is flogged is that he fails to take adequate precautions with a ''simulated'' nuke during a training exercise (he flips the visor of ''his own'' helmet up to check visually on the dummy nuke's positioning). Only direct testimony from his drill sergeant that he may be salvageable prevents him from being dismissed from the service. |
| 194 | * In the ''Literature/StonesOfPower'' series, Jon Shannow's silent raid on a Hellborn camp suddenly goes awfully noisy when one of his allies (who, to be fair, had never handled a gun before) tries to cock a stolen pistol while simultaneously squeezing the trigger. |
| 195 | * ''Swallowing Stones'' by Joyce [=McDonald=] is a young adult novel about a teenager who fires a gun in the air and accidentally kills a man a mile away. |
| 196 | * Used in [[Creator/JohnDicksonCarr Carter Dixon]]'s Literature/SirHenryMerrivale LockedRoomMystery ''The Ten Teacups'', [[spoiler:in which the victim is wrongly assumed to have been shot at close range because he had a powder burn from when the killer "accidentally" shot him with a blank cartridge the previous day]]. |
| 197 | * This causes everything to start falling apart in ''Literature/ThingsFallApart''. During a gun salute at the funeral, Okonkwo's ancient and shoddy gun explodes and hits a young man in the heart. Though it was an accident, the laws of the Igbo stated that it had to be punished and Okonkwo and his family is temporarily exiled. |
| 198 | * ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'': |
| 199 | ** In ''Literature/{{Memory}}'', Miles demonstrates why uncontrolled seizure disorders and charged plasma rifles do not go well together by accidentally kneecapping the hostage he was attempting to rescue. |
| 200 | * ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000: Literature/SpaceWolf'' has one of Ragnar's fellow SpaceMarine initiates literally [[YourHeadAsplode blow his own head off]] after being less-than-careful while cleaning his bolt pistol. Another one blew himself up with his own grenade. |
| 201 | ** During a fake general fleet inspection in ''Literature/TheWarriorsApprentice'', he makes a deliberate demonstration on gun safety by asking a mercenary whether his guns are stored charged or uncharged, then firing the "uncharged" weapon right past the man's ear. |
| 202 | ** Also in ''The Warrior's Apprentice'', Miles blames the death of [[spoiler:his bodyguard Bothari]] on this, to protect the real killer, [[spoiler:the mother of Bothari's daughter]]. The deception can be achieved without technically lying because the victim ''was'' cleaning weapons at the time. |
| 203 | * In ''Wrath of a Demon King'', a novel of ''Literature/TheRiftwarCycle'', the Knight-Martial of Krondor is killed by one of his own men when he mishandles a loaded crossbow. |
| 204 | [[/folder]] |
| 205 | |
| 206 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 207 | * In ''Series/The100'', season 3 episode 7, [[spoiler:with Lexa being shot accidentally by her advisor Titus as she walked through a door. He'd hoped to kill Clarke instead.]] |
| 208 | * ''Series/OneThousandWaysToDie'', there are two guys who have been friends since they were in elementary. They do everything together and are generally chummy towards each other, and even decide to live together as roommates in college. Unfortunately, in adulthood one of the two friends gained an addiction to cigarettes and constantly bothers the other for money so he can buy more, or if he has some spares to share them with him. Becoming tired of having to supply cigarettes for his friend, the annoyed friend loads some cigarettes into his muzzle-loader, aims them directly into his roommate's face, and says, "Hey buddy want some cigarettes?" Who, being drunk at the time, didn't seem afraid of having a shotgun pointed at him and nods his head in approval at the idea of cigarettes. The cigarettes fly out of the firearm at supersonic speed and penetrate the guy's skull. He simply wanted to hurt his friend, he didn't think cigarettes would penetrate flesh as bullets do. This just goes to show you that you never point a gun at something or someone you are not intending to kill or destroy and that anything flying out of that said gun is going to be potentially lethal. |
| 209 | ** For the record, the ''Series/MythBusters'' tested this one and found that cigarette butts, when smoked and fired point blank, will penetrate to the heart. At 7 feet they simply cause inconsequential flesh wounds. |
| 210 | ** Another episode featured a magician attempting a bullet-catching trick; when tapping the barrel of the gun with his wand, part of the wand's tip fell off and into the barrel, which was then propelled by the blank cartridge with lethal force through a major artery in his neck. |
| 211 | ** Yet another episode has an overprotective father chase off his girlfriend's boyfriend with a gun loaded with blanks. To demonstrate no one had any reason to really be afraid, the father put the gun to his temple and pulled the trigger. Unfortunately for him, the hot compressed air from a blank can be just as deadly as a bullet when you're pressing the barrel to your own skull. |
| 212 | * ''Series/Adam12'' has an episode where a man surrenders an old shotgun his dad bequeathed him but that he doesn’t want. When Officer Brinkman tries to unload it,it jams and he discharges it. No one gets shot, but the entire station fears they’re under sniper attack. Sgt.[=MacDonald=], the supervisor, isn’t amused when Brinkman tries to demonstrate and the thing discharges again. He says Brinkman should have remembered a safer way to get the rounds out. |
| 213 | * ''Series/BandOfBrothers'', episode "The Breaking Point". After hunting for a Luger as a souvenir, Cpl. Donald Hoobler finally finds one--only to accidentally fatally shoot himself in the leg with it. This is TruthInTelevision as the real Hoobler suffered the same fate, though it was apparently a Belgian pistol in .32 ACP. |
| 214 | ** The Luger does have a notoriously tricky safety, at least according to the book. |
| 215 | * A VerySpecialEpisode of ''Series/BeverlyHills90210'' (the original one) uses this [[spoiler:to kill off Scott Scanlon (played by Douglas Emerson), one of the regulars in the first season of the series]], in front of David Silver (Bryan Austin Green's character). |
| 216 | * ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'': Leonard shoots himself in the foot when he takes Penny out to the gun range for a date and she kisses him while he has a gun in his hand. |
| 217 | * {{Invoked|Trope}} in the ''Series/BlueBloods'' episode "This Way Out" when some gangbangers trick a mentally retarded kid from their housing project into pointing a loaded gun at the mayor and pulling the trigger. They told him it was a toy, but toys don't leave the mayor a paraplegic. |
| 218 | * ''Series/BodyOfProof'': The killer in one episode accidentally shoots and kills his own daughter. He confronted both his daughter and her fiance in order to intimidate the man into leaving her alone. When the daughter attempts to reach for the gun, it goes off. |
| 219 | * In ''Series/TheBookOfBobaFett'', Din Djarin uses his newly acquired Darksaber during a melee and slices open his own leg (fortunately it's OnlyAFleshWound). Even though Din is a badass with a blaster, a lightsaber is a weapon that requires training to use skillfully, especially if you're not Force-sensitive. |
| 220 | * ''Series/TheBrittasEmpire'': When Gordon is shot at three times by Julie's police bodyguard, one of the bullets ricochets and shoots Colin in the head, causing him to lapse into unconsciousness. However, it doesn't damage his brain more than it already is, and he's back as cheerful as ever in the next episode. |
| 221 | ** Gavin also gets accidentally shot in the shoulder and pinned to a door by a bumbling Colin with a harpoon gun in an earlier episode. |
| 222 | * Season 6 of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' has Warren try to kill Buffy with a gun. After shooting her, he starts waving his gun around carelessly and accidentally [[spoiler:shoots Tara, who was standing near a window on the second floor]]. Buffy doesn't die, but [[spoiler:Tara is not so lucky, and Warren is even more unlucky when [[BewareTheNiceOnes Willow, her girlfriend, catches up to him]]]]. |
| 223 | * In ''Series/{{Cheers}}'', a jealous man comes into the bar threatening Sam with a revolver. After the man is talked out of the shooting and the gun is taken from him, Sam puts it in his back pocket for storage. Afterward, he goes to sit down and shoots himself in the butt. None of the regulars had given any hints of having any firearms training. |
| 224 | * ''Series/{{Chuck}}'' has an inept criminal take the Buy More hostage, and at one point he confronts Casey and Sarah. Chuck manages to talk him down and convince him to put the safety of the gun back on, which the criminal admits he doesn't know how to do (never mind that the gun is a ''revolver''). Chuck and the criminal then both start messing around with the gun trying to turn the safety on and accidentally shoot Casey in the foot. [[spoiler:Turns into FridgeBrilliance when the criminal turns out to actually be a Fulcrum agent, and probably shot Casey deliberately.]] In the third season episode "Chuck vs. the American Hero", Chuck demonstrates the problem with his relying on the Intersect's gun-handling subroutine: said subroutine was designed for users who, unlike Chuck, are already familiar enough with gun safety to avoid pointing their gun at people they're not currently killing. |
| 225 | * In one episode of ''Series/TheCloser'', a guy at a gas station fires a warning shot to scare off a couple of gang bangers trying to steal his car, and ends up killing an innocent teenager a couple of blocks over. Since the kid died during the [[FelonyMurder commission of a crime]], the gang bangers take the fall for it and the guy who shot him gets off scot-free, but he is appropriately horrified when he finds out that he actually killed someone. |
| 226 | * ''Series/{{Community}}'': In the BadEnd of "[[Recap/CommunityS3E04RemedialChaosTheory Remedial Chaos Theory]]", Annie drops her purse, causing the pistol inside it to go off and shoot Pierce in the leg, resulting in a series of DisasterDominoes that end in the apartment on fire. Pierce dies, the guilt drives Annie insane, Jeff loses an arm, Troy loses his voicebox, Shirley turns to drinking, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Britta dyes a streak of her hair blue]]. |
| 227 | * In the trailer for Creator/{{Netflix}}'s ''Series/CowboyBebop2021'', Spike, Jet and Faye are shooting at their (off-screen) bounty when Faye recoils in horror and turns to Spike and Jet, telling them "Hey, nutbuckets! There's no payout if you shoot him in the face!" The trailer ends with Spike and Jet arguing with each other, blaiming the other for shooting the poor guy in the face. |
| 228 | * ''Series/{{CSI}}'' has several examples. |
| 229 | ** In one case Nick Stokes investigates how a woman got shot with no evidence of a shooter anywhere near. The answer is that there was an idiot who had a gun and made a shooting range in his backyard, which is in the suburbs and within city limits, a big-time city ordinance no-no. A stray bullet went into the air and struck the woman on the decline. When they arrest him, he protests it was an accident and Stokes contemptuously responds, "Well, that's why it's illegal to shoot guns within city limits, genius!" |
| 230 | ** In another episode, a hunter fails to follow one of the most important rules of shooting things — always positively identify your target. So, when a drunken guy stumbles out of a UsefulNotes/{{Furry|Fandom}} convention wearing a raccoon suit and wanders out into the desert, the hunter takes him down, thinking the victim was a coyote. The episode is vague on whether or not he'll get prosecuted for it, although it leans towards "no" since it was pretty dark at the time. |
| 231 | ** Averted in the episode "Better Off Dead", when Greg is sharply scolded by Bobby Dawson, the lab's ballistic expert, for failing to properly clear a gun gathered in evidence. There was a bullet left in the chamber because Greg had mistakenly assumed that all the guns recovered from a broken gunshop counter were unloaded, as required by law. Both Greg and Sara look obviously rattled at this clear breach of gun handling protocol, and no-one in the lab relaxes until Bobby Dawson verifies for himself that the gun is, in fact, now properly unloaded. |
| 232 | ** Yet another example when a suspect in the murder of an FBI agent accidentally shoots himself in the head in the middle of a crowded arena while trying to show everyone that the gun he had taken from Brass wasn't even loaded. He thought it wasn't loaded because the FBI agent he had killed was really just a crazy guy pretending to be an agent running around with an empty gun, plus he was delirious and on a drip at the time for ''ripping an entire necrotic bicep out of his arm''. |
| 233 | ** And in ''yet another'' example and possibly the most extreme example of this Trope in the series, the CSI Las Vegas Team investigates the case of a young man who was shot fatally with one bullet in a shed that was riddled with ''hundreds'' of bullets, thinking at first that it must have been some weird gangland hit. Turns out, it was the inevitable result of a bunch of idiot teenagers playing games with a loaded, automatic MAC-10 by having someone standing on a second story balcony spin the gun down on a metal pole and the others would try to dodge the shots. |
| 234 | ** A robber managed to kill a man with a blank round when he put the gun to the victim's head and pulled the trigger. The blast propelled a button on the victim's hat into his brain. |
| 235 | * ''Series/{{CSI Miami}}'': |
| 236 | ** A variation with Tim Speedle’s death. Part of gun safety is also keeping the weapon cleaned and working properly. Speed ignored Horatio’s warnings to clean his gun and was shot by the villain when his wouldn’t go off during a shootout. |
| 237 | ** Also how Ryan Wolfe ended up with a nail to the eye in one episode; the shooter was the fiancé of the [[VictimOfTheWeek episode victim's]] ex husband and had overheard the victim plotting with one of his building contractors to murder them. She armed herself with a loaded nail gun and hid in the closet, which Wolfe had the misfortune of opening, and fired thinking it was the contractor coming to get her. |
| 238 | * ''Series/{{CSINY}}'': |
| 239 | ** A man accidentally killed another with a blank round. According to the evidence, the suspect fired the gun at point-blank range (singeing the victim's clothes) and it was the discharge, despite the lack of a projectile, that tore a hole in the other man's torso. |
| 240 | ** Jo Danville's would-be killer indirectly invokes this during "Means to an End" after he removes the magazine from her gun. She points out [[PreMortemOneLiner people ALWAYS forget about that one round still in the chamber]] right before she shoots him. |
| 241 | ** Sadly, this comes into play again in season 9's "Unspoken" when a little boy and girl begin playing with a gun they see a fleeing suspect toss into a dumpster. The boy, thinking of safety, removes the magazine, but also forgets about the one in the chamber and accidentally shoots his friend. |
| 242 | ** In a backstory of one killer, as a young boy, he was playing with his recently-deceased father's guns one day when his little sister came up behind him and startled him. When he swing around to face her, the gun went off, killing her. |
| 243 | ** Two teenagers killed a man with a shotgun, then travelled several buildings over to dispose of the weapon. There was one round still in the barrel, and when the gun bounced off a stone gargoyle on the way down, it fired, hitting and killing a random woman on the street. |
| 244 | * ''Series/TheDistrict'': One of the side plots in one episode has a woman getting shot with no one nearby. [[spoiler:Turns out some punk got a hold of a [=WW2=] gun and test-fired it by [[RecklessGunUsage shooting down the apparently-empty street]].]] |
| 245 | * ''Series/DoctorWho'': |
| 246 | ** At the end of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E3FrontierInSpace Frontier in Space]]", the Master accidentally shoots the Doctor thanks to an unfortunate Ogron stampede and looks rather shocked about it, leading into the events of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E4PlanetOfTheDaleks Planet of the Daleks]]". |
| 247 | ** The plot of the story "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E5PlanetOfFire Planet of Fire]]" revolves around the Master having been shrunk to a few inches tall and trying to find a way to return to normal size. Although he's too embarrassed to explain what happened in detail, it's strongly implied that he accidentally shot himself with his Tissue Compression Eliminator (a usually-lethal ShrinkRay). |
| 248 | * One guest on an episode of the Creator/NationalGeographicChannel show ''[[CrazySurvivalist Doomsday Preppers]]'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qth1k962_9A accidentally blew off a part of his own thumb]]. He later claimed that it was due to a gun malfunction that happened when he [[RecklessGunUsage put his thumb in front of the barrel]]. [[SarcasmMode A malfunction, sure.]] |
| 249 | * ''Series/{{Engrenages}}'': Forms the basis for an entire plot point in the third season, where during a visit to a drug dealer with an informant, Gilou, when faced with trouble, takes out his gun and fires it up at the ceiling. [[spoiler:It hits someone. [[GroinAttack In the crotch.]]]] |
| 250 | * ''Series/FamilyMatters'': {{Discussed|Trope}} when Carl is working as a security guard on the set of some [=TV=] show when the main actor (playing a cop) scratches his head with his (prop) gun. This makes Carl laugh and explain that no cop in their right mind would do that because the gun might go off. |
| 251 | * ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' |
| 252 | ** The characters routinely break all of the basic rules constantly, yet no one gets accidentally shot -- except for Kaylee during the pilot when she startles Dobson. Of course, that wasn't an accident except insofar as he didn't intend to shoot Kaylee specifically. It was a failure to positively ID the target before he fired--he shot with intent to kill, he just wasn't aware what or who he was shooting until he'd pulled the trigger. |
| 253 | ** The only other accidental shooting is in "Safe" when Book gets caught in a crossfire between Serenity's crew, the guys they're selling the cattle to, and the lawmen coming to arrest them. Again, this is only an accident in the sense that they didn't mean to shoot Book specifically. |
| 254 | ** Mal had an appropriate reaction when River somehow managed to get her hands on a handgun that was loaded and chambered. The episode left it open as to who actually owned the gun or where she got it from. |
| 255 | * This is TheReveal in an episode of ''Series/{{Flashpoint}}''. A decade earlier, Parker was the only cop in the vicinity when the mother of a little girl was shot during a raid, so the girl's boyfriend believes that Parker must have been the one who shot her, and kidnaps Parker to force him to confess; his belief is not helped by Parker's secretiveness about the matter. At the climax, Ed reveals the real secret that Parker was trying to keep: it was the girl who accidentally shot her mother, and Parker kept the secret because he didn't want her to have to live with that. |
| 256 | * Henry's apparently accidental ([[spoiler:and ultimately fatal]]) shooting of DCI Morton when the latter wakes him up while he's camped out on the glacier in ''Series/{{Fortitude}}'' fits the trope. |
| 257 | * An atypical example in ''Series/TheGoodWife''. The bailiff in a courtroom where Will Gardner is defending a murder suspect inadvertently leaves his sidearm holster unstrapped. Will's client has a nervous breakdown, grabs the gun out of the holster, and opens fire, shooting the witness (who is suspected of being the real murderer) dead, winging D.A. Finn Polmar in the arm, and mortally wounding Will when he tries to get the gun away from his client. |
| 258 | * On ''Series/{{Grimm}}'' three teenage boys were drinking and smoking pot when one of them started showing off his father's heirloom katana. This is dangerous already given their inebriated state but then one of the other boys decides to show off his late father's police revolver. The gun was apparently stored loaded and when the third boy grabs it, it discharges and the first boy is fatally shot in the stomach. |
| 259 | * ''Series/HighwayToHeaven'' episode "The Torch" includes a group of Neo-Nazis. Among them is Rolf (played by Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Zach on ''Series/SavedByTheBell''). While handling an [[{{Irony}} Uzi]] in the Neo-Nazi lair, Rolf fires the weapon, hitting his father and another Neo-Nazi, killing his father. |
| 260 | * Played with on ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' when Robin takes Marshall to the shooting range. She inadvertently points her gun at him while telling him not to tell her boyfriend (a pacifist) about her being a gun nut. While she seems nonchalant, the look on Marshall's face shows how terrified he is. |
| 261 | * In ''Series/HowToSellDrugsOnlineFast'', Buba accidentally shoots himself in the head while waving around a plastic gun, because he assumes it is a harmless toy. |
| 262 | * ''Series/InspectorGeorgeGently'': In "Son of a Gun", the commissionaire at the bank grabs the dropped Sten gun and opens fire at the getaway car, emptying the gun on full auto. Gently blows his top at him, pointing out that there was a phone box, a bus stop and a pub in the direction he was firing and has him charged with illegally discharging a firearm in a public place. It is later discovered that one of his shots had fatally wounded the getaway driver. |
| 263 | * ''Series/InspectorRex'': In the episode "Snapshot", a young boy interested in becoming a photographer comes with his girlfriend to a damaged building. The case is that they bring a pistol to the scene, which they wrongly believe to be unusable. When the young boy is indicating her how to shoot, he accidentally shoots a tramp. The tramp was a former boxer who wasted his money and the pistol was from a criminal band. [[spoiler:The girl's father turns out to be a member of that criminal band]]. |
| 264 | * ''Series/TheITCrowd'': In an episode of the British comedy series, Reynolm Industries president Douglas finds his grandfather's service revolver, left by his late father, in his work desk drawer. He points it at his mouth and pulls the trigger to see if it's loaded and finds it isn't. He later loads it and accidentally shoots himself in the leg while at work and goes through an important business meeting while pretending nothing's wrong before fainting due to blood loss. |
| 265 | * ''Series/KnowingMeKnowingYouWithAlanPartridge'': Alan Partridge once accidentally shot an obnoxious food critic in the heart with an antique dueling pistol on live television. It is this (coupled with his later punching of a [[Creator/TheBBC BBC]] programming executive in the face with a partridge) that ended his TV career. |
| 266 | * ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' has Olivia telling a story about a fellow cop with asthma staying up for two days straight on a stakeout. After the stakeout ended, he went home and crashed. Later, he woke up because of an asthma attack, [[DamnYouMuscleMemory reached for his gun]] instead of his inhaler while half-asleep, and [[AteHisGun killed himself]]. |
| 267 | ** In the episode "Penetration" FBI Agent Dana Lewis is holding her rapist at gunpoint, with Benson and Stabler close behind her. Deciding to scare him, she shoots at a pipe behind him...and the bullet ricochets off and hits Stabler in the shoulder. It isn't a serious injury, but it does serve to act as a wake-up call at what bad gun safety she was displaying, and she later admits that she acted terribly and takes full responsibility. That being said, Stabler being injured whenever she's around is something of a RunningGag so his reaction is mostly one of resigned irritation, and it manages to be rather funny. |
| 268 | * ''Series/MacGyver1985'': In a {{flashback}} during the "Blood Brothers" episode, [=MacGyver=] accidentally shoots and kills his childhood friend Jesse. This is why he DoesNotLikeGuns. |
| 269 | * On ''Series/MadMen'' Ken Cosgrove is shot in the face while hunting with some Chevrolet executives. While he probably should not have been standing where he was, the executive was target-focused on a bird and did not pay attention to where he was aiming his gun. Fortunately, it was only bird shot and Ken survived with some cosmetic damage to the left side of his face. However, to add insult to injury the executives failed to appreciate the seriousness of the situation and decided to stop for lunch on the way to the hospital. Poor Ken already suffered through a broken foot due to a car accident caused by the same bunch of reckless executives and decides not to TemptFate and resigns from the Chevrolet account. |
| 270 | * ''Series/MidsomerMurders'': Exploited in "[[Recap/MidsomerMurdersS20E6 Send in the Clowns]]", which opens with Les Morrison trying to prank Terry Bellini during a performance with a prop gun, only for Bellini to be fatally shot through the heart. Everything appears to point to Morrison having grabbed a loaded gun without realizing it. However, a forensic report reveals that the bullet was indeed blank -- the round that killed Bellini was from a rifle, which was shot simultaneously with Morrison's handgun and at a similar angle [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident to give the illusion that he had a live gun]]. |
| 271 | * ''Series/ModernFamily'': Mitchell is pointing a skeet-shooting rifle at everyone in sight within seconds of getting it in his hands, and they all freak out, with his father advising him to try another activity. |
| 272 | * ''Series/{{Monk}}'': |
| 273 | ** In "Mr. Monk on Wheels," after fighting to grab [[spoiler:Sarah Longson's]] pistol, Natalie turns around, said pistol in hand. She tells Monk, who had already been shot in the leg earlier in the episode and is trying climb down some stairs to assist Natalie, that she was okay... and accidentally shoots Monk in his uninjured leg (much to his surprising joy, as it means that [[SkewedPriorities his wounds are symmetrical]]). Somewhat justified, as depending on your interpretation, either Natalie has not taken any basic firearms training, or, as it was mentioned in the episode "Mr. Monk and the Three Julies", she just hasn't actually fired a gun in at least ten years. |
| 274 | ** In "Mr. Monk and the Panic Room," a man is found shot dead in his panic room. Also in the panic room is the man's pet monkey, Darwin, with a pistol in its hand. Captain Stottlemeyer is dubious that the monkey could even use a gun, let alone shoot his owner four times, so he tries an experiment -- he asks Randy for an unloaded gun, who hands him a pistol that he claims to have unloaded, and Stottlemeyer gives it to the monkey. [[ArtisticLicenseGunSafety Neither Disher nor Stottlemeyer verified that the gun was unloaded.]] Stottlemeyer then tries to agitate the monkey enough so that it fires the gun, while Randy, Monk, and Sharona leave the two in an interrogation room. Only after the fact does Randy realizes that he accidentally gave Stottlemeyer a loaded gun, and try to warn him, but Darwin then fires the gun and shatters the one-way mirror. Stottlemeyer then declares the case closed. |
| 275 | * ''Series/MurderSheWrote'': In "Night Fears", the murder happens when [[spoiler:an ex-cop fires at a mugging in progress. The bullet passes through the mugger and kills the victim. The ex-cop then tries to cover it up by staging an OrgyOfEvidence]]. |
| 276 | * ''Series/MyNameIsEarl'': Chubby has a squirt gun full of vodka he uses to top off patrons drinks at his strip club, and an identical looking real gun. He didn't learn from his mistake when he shot a drink with the wrong gun on screen. You can all guess how he died off screen. |
| 277 | * ''Series/NewTricks'': One of the 'murders' in "The Rock" turns out to have been an accident caused by a boy stealing a gun from his father and using it to play soldier. |
| 278 | * Played with in an episode of ''Series/TheOfficeUS''. Dwight becomes acting manager and brings a gun to work. When it goes off, the bullet goes straight into the carpet but Andy's eardrums burst and he's taken to the emergency room. |
| 279 | * ''Series/OrphanBlack'': The inexperienced gun-user [[spoiler:Donnie]] accidentally shoots [[spoiler:Dr. Leekie]] in the head when he bangs his car steering wheel for emphasis with the hand he's holding a pistol in. |
| 280 | * ''Series/{{Oz}}''. One of the inmates was sent to prison after brandishing a gun at school which went off, killing a girl on the floor above. |
| 281 | * DefiedTrope in ''Series/ThePacific'' where Sgt. Haney, upon seeing a [[NewMeat shavetail Lieutenant]] flaying around his loaded Colt .45 while holding the trigger, immediately disarms the inexperienced officer and tells him to observe proper firearms handling. |
| 282 | * ''Series/PaperGirls'': Mac is waving a loaded gun around dangerously when she accidentally fires it, hitting Erin in the stomach. |
| 283 | * An episode of ''Series/QuincyME'' that deconstructs ArtisticLicenseGunSafety ends with a GoryDiscretionShot when a five-year-old shoots his sister, thinking that the revolver his father just got back from the police is a "space gun". His dad may as well be the poster boy for [[ArtisticLicenseGunSafety Failing Gun Safety Forever]]: he left said pistol fully loaded ''on the floor of his closet''. |
| 284 | * ''Series/TheRighteousGemstones'': This is how [[spoiler: Scotty]] meets his end; after being knocked unconscious following his car accident with [[spoiler: Baby Billy and Tiffany]], he suddenly wakes up, causing [[spoiler: Tiffany]], who has been haphazardly waving his gun around to accidentally pull the trigger and blow his brains out. |
| 285 | * ''Series/RumpoleOfTheBailey'': In the episode "Rumpole and the Sporting Life", a defendant claims that she killed her husband by accident when she tripped while holding a shotgun. The episode even includes a nursery rhyme that promotes proper gun-handling. [[spoiler:It turns out that he was already dead, and she knew it; she thought her lover had killed him, but in fact, the lover was far away in London. The actual culprit was their neighbour, who accidentally killed the victim when a shot intended for a pigeon went astray.]] |
| 286 | * ''Series/SanfordAndSon'': When Fred is in St. Louis, Grady chases off some of Lemont's friends with a rifle. When Lemont talks to him about it the next day, Grady says he didn't load it and holds up a cartridge, then starts pointing it at the ceiling and says "you sure can scare people with an empty rifle", pulling the trigger in the process and shooting the ceiling, which startles Grady enough to let go of the rifle and flail his arms around. |
| 287 | * ''Series/SecretAgentSelectionWW2'', a trainee removes the magazine from his Browning pistol, pulls the slide to check for any remaining rounds, and then spins the gun on his finger in order to hand it to the instructor handle-side out. The instructor was not impressed. |
| 288 | * ''Series/SevengerFight'' has an episode where the titular HumongousMecha brings a giant-sized M16 Machine Gun to go {{kaiju}} hunting, only to have the machine gun stolen by [[Series/{{Ultraseven}} a stray Eleking]]. However, the gun's safety is still locked, and Eleking, trying unsuccessfully to shoot it, ends up disabling the safety while pointing the gun's tip in it's face. |
| 289 | * Narrowly subverted in the ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' episode "Common Ground", when during their escape Todd is at one point toying with his loaded gun while having it pointed right at the back of Sheppard's head. |
| 290 | ** Out-of-story, one of the reasons SG-1 switched their standard-issue weapon from the [=MP5=] to the P90 was due to a scene which called for multiple people firing their weapons while standing side-by-side, which would have ejected hot brass into various faces during filming. Since the P90 ejects its cases downwards, it avoided that problem entirely. |
| 291 | * In ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'', two involving TimeTravel and the not-gun-shaped Type 1 Phaser, which looks an awful lot like a cigarette lighter. In "The City on the Edge of Forever", a 1930s bum gets hold of one and vaporizes himself while playing with it. In "Tomorrow Is Yesterday", Kirk is captured by Air Police in 1969, and cringes (with priceless facial expressions) as they fiddle with his weapon, toss it around, and several times almost press the trigger, conflicted between justifiable fear and the need to not let them know who he is or what they have. |
| 292 | * In the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "Rules of Engagement", Worf is engaged in battle with a Klingon bird-of-prey that keeps firing and then cloaking to reposition itself. He fires where he expects the bird-of-prey to reemerge but instead hits a Klingon passenger transport that decloaks instead, which Sisko describes as a failure to properly ID his target before firing. [[spoiler:{{Subverted}}: The transport was actually empty and the Klingons were [[BatmanGambit deliberately trying to get Worf to hit it]] so they could [[FrameUp frame him for war crimes]]. [[PlotHole Left unexplained]] is how the Klingons expected people to believe both [[FridgeLogic a civilian ship being equipped with a cloaking device]] and that its hypothetical crew [[SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale was stupid enough to be within an astronomical unit of the battle in the first place]].]] |
| 293 | ** Also in ''Deep Space 9'', in [[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E10TheMagnificentFerengi "The Magnificent Ferengi"]], Gaila accidentally kills Keevan, the titular band's Vorta hostage, whilst trying to shoot his partner Quark after learning that Quark had been planning to cheat him out of an equal share of the reward promised. |
| 294 | * ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': |
| 295 | ** "Message In A Bottle" has an odd ship-to-ship version of this trope when the EMH Mark 2 fires off a torpedo without locking a target, which hits a Federation ship. They shot U.S.S. Marvin in the face. He was ''trying'' to launch torpedoes, but at the Romulan ship instead. |
| 296 | ---> '''EMH Mark 1:''' You hit the wrong ship!\ |
| 297 | '''EMH Mark 2:''' It wasn't my fault!\ |
| 298 | '''EMH Mark 1:''' Well then whose fault was it, the torpedo's? You're supposed to tell it what to do! |
| 299 | ** "Retrospect" has a non-lethal version in which Seven accuses an arms dealer of incapacitating her to steal some of her nanites. The dealer claims the weapon discharge was completely accidental as he was [[ArtisticLicenseGunSafety innocently pointing the gun at her]] and nothing untoward happened while she was unconscious. The truth is never conclusively determined. |
| 300 | * ''Series/TalesFromTheCrypt'' episode "Judy, You're Not Yourself Today". A husband points his rifle at a random solicitor and pulls the trigger while pointing it at his wife to prove to his wife the gun was unloaded. In the end, he ends up trying to physically subdue his wife's body snatcher (an old witch traded bodies with her) while holding the gun and ends up shooting his wife. |
| 301 | * ''Series/TeenWolf'': Stiles fiddles with Allison's crossbow and narrowly averts shooting Scott's thanks to his SuperReflexes as a werewolf. |
| 302 | * ''Series/That70sShow'': In "Black Dog", during an argument about Jackie's affections, Kelso accidentally shoots a BB gun and hits Hyde in his left eye. Feeling guilty, Kelso spends the next week trying to help Hyde, before it's revealed that [[spoiler:Hyde ''wasn't'' actually shot and was simply going along with it [[ItAmusedMe for his own amusement]]]]. |
| 303 | * In the documentary series ''Series/TigerKing'', Joe Exotic's late husband Travis appears to accidentally shoot himself in the head while playing around with one of his guns, but given how mentally low he appeared to be before then (to the point of saying he felt like he was in a prison), the possibility of it being an ''intentional'' [[DrivenToSuicide suicide]] is just as viable. |
| 304 | * ''Series/TouchedByAnAngel'' has someone breaking just about all the rules -- carelessly waving a loaded [=WW2=]-era pistol around, pointing it straight at a friend, and then removing the magazine without clearing the chamber. After all that, how unlucky is it for said gun to [[WhatASenselessWasteOfHumanLife get knocked off a desk, unintentionally fire, and shoot someone right in the heart]]? |
| 305 | * ''Series/TheWire'': |
| 306 | ** The Baltimore Police Department should never have trusted Roland Pryzbylewski near guns. He first shows up as a transfer from another unit after he shot up his OWN squad car, and in ''the same episode'' proceeds to shoot a hole in the office wall. He later manages to pistol whip [[spoiler:a 14-year old boy]], permanently blinding him in one eye, and then three seasons later, his career ends when he accidentally [[spoiler:shoots and kills an undercover cop]], causing him to [[spoiler:quit the police force and become a teacher]]. The reason the earlier incidents never got him kicked off the force was likely because of [[{{Nepotism}} his father-in-law being Major Valchek.]] |
| 307 | ** Season 2 Episode 9 "Stray Rounds" is named after this trope, as a turf dispute between Bodie's crew and another crew turns into a shootout that results in exactly one casualty, [[spoiler:a nine-year-old boy in his bedroom up the block]]. |
| 308 | ** This trope becomes a major plot point in Season 4. Kima is assigned to a murder of a State's witness in an alley. There's quite a bit of backroom scheming because it's a mayoral election year, so she's under pressure from one side to solve the case quickly and from the other to bury it. [[spoiler:It turns out, this murder that was a driving talking point that allowed Tommy Carcetti to beat the incumbent Mayor Royce in the mayoral primaries, was nothing more a pair of drunken idiots two blocks away were shooting at beer bottles and hit the guy by accident.]] |
| 309 | -->'''Ed Norris:''' So these idiots are shooting .40s two blocks down, and now this Carcetti fuck gets to be mayor? What a town. |
| 310 | ** In season three, Omar's boyfriend Dante [[spoiler:inadvertently shoots crewmate Tosha in the head]] while fleeing for cover during a raid, because he was shooting blindly without making sure he knew where he was aiming. |
| 311 | [[/folder]] |
| 312 | |
| 313 | [[folder:Music]] |
| 314 | * "I Didn't Know The Gun Was Loaded" by Music/TheAndrewsSisters is about a woman with a chronic habit of shooting people and using the titular excuse when she gets in trouble for it — and she gets away with it multiple times! |
| 315 | * Frank Gallop's ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2A9f9nK7bM The Ballad of Irving]]'' has the eponymous character meeting his end this way. |
| 316 | -->''Well, finally Irving got three slugs in the belly\ |
| 317 | It was right outside the Frontier Deli\ |
| 318 | He was sitting there [[GunTwirling twirling his gun around]]\ |
| 319 | [[EpicFail And butterfingers Irving gunned himself down!]]'' |
| 320 | * The music video for "Eighteen and Life" by Music/SkidRow features an example of this. |
| 321 | * [[https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/sting/ihungmyhead.html "I Hung My Head"]] by Music/{{Sting}} (later covered by Music/JohnnyCash) features a young man pointing a rifle at someone to practice aiming. It doesn't end well. |
| 322 | [[/folder]] |
| 323 | |
| 324 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 325 | * Firearms in ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}} Roleplaying Game'' misfire on a CriticalFailure, causing the gun to break. Any character foolish enough to fire a broken gun risks having the expensive firearm blow up in their face, potentially killing themselves and anyone nearby in the blast. The misfire rate also increases by more than five times if loaded by a nonproficient wielder. Overall, gun safety in ''Pathfinder'' is serious business and functions as the primary means to deter non-specialists from using guns in a sword and sorcery world. |
| 326 | * ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': |
| 327 | ** Any weapon with the "Gets Hot!" special rule, which basically means that the weapon has a chance of critically overheating and injuring (or killing) the wielder. Plasma weapons are the most notorious offenders. |
| 328 | ** ''TabletopGame/SpaceHulk'', along with early versions of 40K, also featured [[GatlingGood assault cannons]] that would, very rarely, explode and kill their wielder from overuse. |
| 329 | [[/folder]] |
| 330 | |
| 331 | [[folder:Theater]] |
| 332 | * ''Theatre/{{Assassins}}'': Sarah Jane Moore is written to be played with no regard for the proper operation or storage of her .38 revolver. She accidentally discharges it no less than five times during the course of the show, once while it's still in her handbag, narrowly missing Squeaky Fromme, once into the air when she's supposed to be clicking the hammer of an unloaded weapon in "The Gun Song", once when startled with her finger prematurely on the trigger, damaging Charles Guiteau's hearing in the process, and twice during two separate scene-change blackouts, with the lights coming up on her scene the second time to reveal she's just accidentally shot her own dog. |
| 333 | -->'''Sarah Jane:''' Shit, I shot it! |
| 334 | * At the end ([[ForegoneConclusion and beginning]]) of ''Theatre/BloodBrothers'', Mickey threatens Edward with a gun he doesn't know is loaded, and accidentally shoots him. |
| 335 | * ''Theatre/LaForzaDelDestino'': In Act 1 of Giuseppe Verdi's opera, Don Alvaro is eloping with Leonora. Her father, the Marquis of Calatrava, interrupts the lovers in mid-elope and threatens the young man with a sword. Don Alvaro decides not to resist and throws away his pistol... which goes off and kills the Marquis, who dies cursing them. Oops. |
| 336 | * ''Theatre/DerFreischuetz'', and the rock opera version ''The Black Rider'' (which was written by RobertWilson, Music/TomWaits, and Creator/WilliamSBurroughs), combine this trope with literal DiabolusExMachina, and the heroine gets shot on her wedding day. In Weber's version, the bullet gets deflected by the consecrated roses in her bridal wreath, though, and she's okay. |
| 337 | [[/folder]] |
| 338 | |
| 339 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 340 | * In the ''Franchise/StarWars'' version of ''VideoGame/BattleChess'', C-3PO does this to Boba Fett if the Rebel Knight captures the Imperial Bishop. Threepio grabs Fett's gun, [[HypocriticalHumor lectures him on how dangerous these weapons are,]] and throws it to the ground--the gun goes off, blasting Fett through the chest. PlayedForLaughs, as all of Threepio's capture animations are. |
| 341 | * In lower levels of ''VideoGame/{{Berzerk}}'', the robots [[DeadlyDodging can easily be manipulated into shooting each other]], and sometimes don't even need the player's help. |
| 342 | * A humorous version occurs early on in ''VideoGame/Borderlands2.'' A man asks weapon-dealer Marcus for a refund because he claims a pistol doesn't work. Marcus tests the claim by pointing the gun at the customer and firing it, shooting him in the knee. Because it's Marcus though ("No Refunds!"), it's obvious that this was deliberate. |
| 343 | * Happens in the beginning chapter of ''VideoGame/DetroitBecomeHuman'' if Connor draws a pistol and tries to talk Daniel into releasing his hostage. Attempting to intimidate him twice in a row results in him panicking and shooting Connor in the head. [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]], given that he was already threatening to kill Connor, but he's still visibly and audibly regretful after firing. [[spoiler: [[DrivenToSuicide Enough so that he jumps off the roof]] with [[MurderSuicide the little girl he was holding hostage]], thus making this the worst ending to the chapter.]] |
| 344 | * ''VideoGame/EmpireTotalWar'' features the use of a Gentlemen agent which can steal technology or duel other gentlemen of rival factions. If ordered to duel another gentleman, a cinematic scene plays which shows many different outcomes. One of these outcomes has the two duelists march a few paces turn but not fire. Hilariously, one of them looks down the barrel of the gun then the gun promptly discharges in his face. [[CaptainObvious He loses the duel by the way.]] |
| 345 | * ''VideoGame/EternalDarkness'' somewhat invokes this trope during Maxamillion's chapter. If his SanityMeter is very low he may do something unwise with his flintlock pistols, such as holding one under his arm while loading the other. The results are misfires leading to several gory death scenes. (Though, as normal for that game, all is not really as it seems.) |
| 346 | * ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}'' features a cruel variant -- one of the ways to assassinate [[spoiler:Orville Wright]] is to give one of his kids a loaded gun and tell them, "Why don't you wave this in your daddy's face and pull the trigger?". |
| 347 | ** On a less [[BlackComedy darkly-humorous]] and more frustrating note, your [[ArtificialStupidity companions]] are less than sure about concepts such as friendly fire. Many a player still has nightmares that start with the sight of your super mutant companion [[ThisIsGonnaSuck switching to his Minigun]]... [[NonActionGuy Myron]] is particularly bad in this regard: his appallingly poor combat skills mean that he's honestly more likely to shoot you or another party member than whatever enemy he's aiming at should you actually allow him to carry a gun. |
| 348 | * When VATS targeting an enemy in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' and ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', it is not uncommon to accidentally inflict a Sneak Attack CriticalHit on a companion or other NPC, possibly killing them or turning them hostile. Even when attacking normally this can happen too, as your companions' attempts to avoid shooting you in the back often lead them to plant themselves right in your line of fire. The companions in ''New Vegas'' will even tell you to watch where you're pointing that thing if you aim down the barrel at them. |
| 349 | ** ''New Vegas'' has the "[[http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Spray_and_Pray Spray and Pray]]" perk at level 22, which cuts damage from your friendly fire by 75% to your companions. While it's useful to have with the "[[http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Meltdown Meltdown]]" perk, Meltdown itself isn't all that useful and companions have a bad habit of getting in the way regardless. The game even takes note of this with the description: "Do companions annoy you by constantly running into the path of your lasers and missiles? Take the Spray and Pray perk to significantly reduce all damage you do to your companions." |
| 350 | * ''VideoGame/FearAndHungerTermina'': [[spoiler:If both Karin and August are still alive by Day 3, then the former will confront the latter about him keeping tabs on everyone else whilst pointing a loaded gun at him. Pick the wrong dialogue option, and she will impulsively shoot him dead]]. |
| 351 | * A case of RecklessGunUsage getting someone killed is a major plot point in ''VideoGame/GhostTrick''. Namely, [[spoiler: the BigBad]] takes a shot at [[spoiler:his own body while possessing Lynne]] while another main character, [[spoiler:his beloved cat Sissel]], was right next to his target. CollateralDamage ensues. |
| 352 | * ''VideoGame/GodEater'': Squadmate Kanon Daiba has a Blast Gun, radial bullets, and no concept of trigger discipline. Fortunately friendly fire will only knock a PlayerCharacter off their feet, but since Kanon's AI [[GameplayAndStoryIntegration skips any friendly fire checks]] it happens a '''lot'''. She's even notorious for this InUniverse: other characters grouse when they're put in a team with her, and in the sequel Licca initially refuses to install Kanon's [[MoreDakka Oracle Reserve]] upgrade. |
| 353 | ** Every AI teammate and player voice set has a voice line for friendly fire incidents, often lampshading their lack of restraint. For most characters it's just a sheepish apology, some yell at you for getting in the way, and post-CharacterDevelopment Alisa is ''horrified'' with herself for shooting her LivingEmotionalCrutch. |
| 354 | * ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'': During the first episode of [[Radio/GTARadio Entertaining America]], [[TheAhnold Jack Howitzer]] threatens to kill host Billy Dexter unless he touches Jack's genitals (ItMakesSenseInContext... sorta) and then says he was just fooling around and that his gun was unloaded, only for it to immediately go off and kill Dexter. |
| 355 | * ''VideoGame/HitmanBloodMoney'' features this as an assassination method. One of the hits takes place in an opera house with a target being the lead actor. During rehearsals, the actor is "executed" with a prop pistol — 47 can either replace it with a real one, take the place of the executioner actor, or shoot the target at the same time the actor fires the prop. In a bit of black comedy, [[AllPartOfTheShow the play will continue for a little while]] before anyone realizes that the actor has ''really'' been shot. |
| 356 | ** Bonus points here as the closed-in environment of an opera house would be too dangerous for the prop gun's blanks in the first place. |
| 357 | ** And double bonus points for being darkly ironic -- the scene being rehearsed is the final act of ''Theatre/{{Tosca}}'', which has [[spoiler:Mario Cavaradossi gunned down by a firing squad who was issued guns with live ammunition instead of the blank firing ones that Scarpia promised Tosca in his namesake [[ScarpiaUltimatum ultimatum]]]]. |
| 358 | * Played for laughs when ''VideoGame/LegoStarWars'' spoofs the scene in ''Film/ANewHope'' where Obi-Wan gives Luke his father's {{l|aserBlade}}ightsaber. You know how in the movie, the blade comes within a couple of feet of skewering Obi-Wan? In the game, Obi-Wan dives out of the way and Luke beheads [=C-3PO=]. [[BloodlessCarnage Well, it's just LEGO, of course]]. |
| 359 | * Episode 2 of ''VideoGame/LifeIsStrange'' has Chloe and Max shooting a gun at bottles in a junkyard. After two bottles Chloe starts going for crazy trick shots off metal objects and will hit herself with a ricochet if you tell her to shoot a car's bumper. Thankfully, rewind is there to save the day. |
| 360 | ** The [[VideoGame/LifeIsStrange2 sequel]] begins with an example of this when [[spoiler:a trigger-happy cop fatally shoots Esteban Diaz.]] |
| 361 | * This also happens in ''VideoGame/MafiaII'', when Joe is in the bar and Vito has to come pick him up. The bartender goes to lock up the bar and Joe's gun hits the table, discharging and killing the bartender, getting a "What. The. FUCK." moment from Vito. |
| 362 | * ''VideoGame/NotForBroadcast'': When [[spoiler:Jeremy]] holds the Channel One studio at gunpoint on Day 296, refusing to play the Disrupt videotape at his request results in a scene where he accidentally shoots one of the camera operators during a heated rant. |
| 363 | * In ''VideoGame/TheOregonTrail II'', you can accidentally shoot ''yourself'' while hunting. |
| 364 | * In a flashback of ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'', [[spoiler:a young Miles Edgeworth, while stuck in a elevator that had lost power with his father and a court baliff, picked up the closest object to him (he couldn't tell what it was in the dark) and threw it an an effort to break up the fistfight that had broken out between his father and the stir-crazy baliff. Said object was the baliff's pistol, which had fallen out of its holster in the fight. The pistol fired when it hit the ground, and soon Miles fell unconscious from the lack of oxygen in the elevator. When he woke up, his father was dead from a gunshot, leading him to think he had accidentally killed his father. What actually happened was the bullet went through the window on the elevator door and hit Manfred von Karma, who was already in a sour mood from receiving his first ever court penalty thanks to Edgeworth's father and certainly didn't feel any better after getting shot. He pried open the elevator door, saw a gun on the floor and three people unconscious, one of which being the man he hated, so he picked up the gun and shot him]]. |
| 365 | ** Horace Knightley of ''[[VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigationsMilesEdgeworth Investigations 2]]'' is a master of GunTwirling. His "damage" animation when caught in a lie has him screw up his twirling and accidentally fire a round, which misses his own face by millimetres. |
| 366 | * A variation in ''VideoGame/PillarsOfEternity''. One sidequest deals with a young boy who dreams of joining the local knightly order and asks you to get a high-level dagger for him. You can do so, and later hear a story from a town crier about a local boy [[NiceJobBreakingItHero who lost several fingers after playing with a knife that some jackass gave him]]. Can be a DefiedTrope if the player character has sufficient skill in Survival, in which case you get the option to warn him that it is a weapon, not a toy, and also teach him how to care for it properly. |
| 367 | * On a meta level, the triggers on the Platform/PlayStation3's controller lack any sort of plastic lip underneath like its contemporaries have, meaning that when you set it down, about half the controller's weight is being put directly on them. This becomes especially problematic in ''VideoGame/DemonsSouls'', where not only is there no true pause feature, the triggers (used to attack) are inexplicably still functional while in a menu. It's possible to kill an important NPC by just setting the controller down to take a break. This came up multiple times during the ''WebVideo/TwoBestFriendsPlay'' stream of the game, and they specifically bring up this trope when Woolie manages to accidentally take a swing during an idle moment. |
| 368 | * In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46xCjIehjJc&feature=related one]] cutscene of ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankFutureACrackInTime'', Nefarious is rehearsing a play (with his character holding a gun) with a minion when Lawrence comes in with a status report. After the report, Lawrence suggests Nefarious turn the gun's safety on "...So as not to kill any more troops." Nefarious snarls, "It's not even ''loaded'', you moron! Look!" One pull of the trigger later Nefarious has to call in another minion to replace the one that died. |
| 369 | * ''VideoGame/Receiver2'', a realistic gun simulator FPS has this trope as a main mechanic. Needless to say, gun safety discipline (either by engaging the safety or simply slow holstering the gun) is essential. |
| 370 | * An incident like this happens in [[spoiler:the {{Backstory}}]] of ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilRevelations2''. [[spoiler:Barry Burton didn't properly unload one of his guns which was then found by his daughters Moira and Polly. Moira accidentally shot Polly (non-fatally) and the incident is the reason why the two have a massive rift just before the game starts as well as Moira's DoesntLikeGuns attitude.]] Considering [[GunNut who was involved in the incident]] you have to wonder [[WhatWereYouThinking what was going through his mind]]. |
| 371 | * In ''Videogame/{{Rimworld}}'', colonists assigned to hunt animals will ''never'' stop to check that there's no one else backstopping or in between them and their target, meaning that they will gleefully open up on an entire friendly trade caravan with a minigun if the squirrel they're hunting happens to run through the middle of the group. They're also happily open fire on an enemy who is fighting one of your colonists in close quarters if said colonist is between them, although this is a bit more justified if they're battling an incoming raid or desperately trying to slow down a manhunting pack. |
| 372 | * In the first episode of ''[[VideoGame/TheWalkingDeadSeasonThree The Walking Dead: A New Frontier]]'', Clementine confronts a guy who sold her faulty bullets. She fires the gun in his face once to prove her point that the bullets don't work, only for her to fire a second time and kill him. |
| 373 | [[/folder]] |
| 374 | |
| 375 | [[folder:Web Animation]] |
| 376 | * ''WebAnimation/DrHavocsDiary'': This show is practically married to gun humor. |
| 377 | ** Dr. Havoc accidentally injures himself with von Duct's trick gun [[spoiler:(and, eventually, with the pen gun in his shirt pocket)]] in Episode 2. |
| 378 | ** Episode 2 has an army soldier pick up and examine a lamp... which is, in fact, a gun. Guess what happens next. |
| 379 | ** Ally kills someone (and injures Brock) this way in Episode 5 due to having no experience with firearms whatsoever. |
| 380 | ** A Minion shoots themself this way in Episode 14. By ''[[AteHisGun chewing on a gun]].'' |
| 381 | * ''WebAnimation/GirlchanInParadise'': "It's out of bullets, anyway!" "Then that means I can do this!" (''[[TooDumbToLive BANG]]'') |
| 382 | * An infrequent hazard in ''WebAnimation/RedVsBlue'' since the Blue Team (particularly Church) regularly uses the sniper rifle's scope to watch even their own soldiers. The weapon is accidentally fired on friendlies on at least two occasions: |
| 383 | ** Later on, Tucker, [[RunningGag having finally gotten the sniper rifle]], has trouble working the scope while he's using it to watch Tex. In the process of using it to scope out her butt, he accidentally pulls the trigger and shoots her in the ass. Compared to other shootings in the series, [[AmusingInjuries this turns out to be superficial]] [[spoiler:especially since it turns out Tex is an AI controlling a robot body]]. |
| 384 | ** Then there's a case where the trope is even pointed out: back in season 5, Tucker's conversation with the revived Captain Flowers ended as the latter was suddenly shot. 11 seasons later, a time-travelling Tucker is spying on this with a sniper rifle, Sister points out he shouldn't be keeping the finger in the trigger, Tucker decides to demonstrate the safety was on... [[StableTimeLoop and shoots Flowers in the head.]] |
| 385 | ** And of course, on a case helped by the weapon [[ArtificialIntelligence operating itself]], the very first accidental team-kill, with a ''tank.'' Namely, Caboose, despite having no proper training, decides to drive Sheila the tank in an attempt to help Church and Tucker get the flag back from Donut. While he's driving amok, the cannon ends up locking onto Church, and... "You shot Church, you team-killing fucktard!" |
| 386 | * ''WebAnimation/HowItShouldHaveEnded'': Avoided in "How ''Pulp Fiction'' Should Have Ended" [[spoiler:when Vincent and Jules are killed by the man who failed to shoot them in the original movie]]. Marvin's response? |
| 387 | -->'''Marvin:''' Woo! I'm alive! Haha! Marvin lives! Yeah! |
| 388 | [[/folder]] |
| 389 | |
| 390 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 391 | * ''Webcomic/{{Achewood}}'': [[http://achewood.com/index.php?date=09162002 "PS I got shot by Ray again"]] |
| 392 | |
| 393 | * ''Webcomic/TheDreadful'': Combined with ImprobableAimingSkills when some idiot literally juggles his guns while talking down to [[TheGunslinger Kit]]. She even [[LampshadeHanging warns him]] it's a bad idea, but then he pushes one of her {{Berserk Button}}s, and she shoots the hammer of his revolver while it's in midair, causing it to fire through his head. |
| 394 | * ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'': Babies should not be allowed [[ItMakesSenseInContext to dual-wield flintlock pistols]]. |
| 395 | ** We later find out Jade would have shot ''herself'' in the face if not for Bec teleporting the bullets away. |
| 396 | * ''Webcomic/IrregularWebcomic'': [[http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/1994.html Alternate version]] of [[Franchise/StarWars Han shooting Greedo]]. |
| 397 | * In a strip for ''Webcomic/{{Savestate}}'', Kade was putting stronger springs on a Nerf gun. It doesn't fire, he looks down its barrel, [[http://www.savestatecomic.com/2016/11/remote-sniper/ and gets shot in the nose]] by a powered-up Nerf bolt. |
| 398 | -->'''Nicole:''' That's kind of cool. Can I borrow it?\ |
| 399 | '''Kade:''' ALL I CAN SMELL IS BLOOD!\ |
| 400 | '''Nicole:''' Thanks. |
| 401 | * ''Webcomic/ProblemSleuth'': While holding a gun, Problem Sleuth gets distracted by a business card and shoots through his door and kills an [[http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=4&p=000246 unfortunate bystander.]] |
| 402 | * ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'': Thankfully averted in [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2006-05-02 this one.]] |
| 403 | --> '''Elf:''' Will ''someone'' raise the house lights so San Asimov's finest can see [[StudioAudience what they're using]] for a ''backstop''? |
| 404 | * In the ''VideoGame/{{Spelunky}}'' fan comic ''Spelunkying: The Colossal Cave'', this is the fate of the second shopkeeper, Ahkmed, due to poor gun handling on the part of the protagonist (probably not helped by his own questionable judgment in allowing a new customer to handle a weapon that's already loaded, though at least that's true to the source material). Destroying his shop in attempt to disguise the cause of death doesn't help matters, and this gets the protagonists in some trouble with the other shopkeepers later in the comic. |
| 405 | * ''Webcomic/TalesOFZenith'': 5, the manager of the homeless shelter disarms a woman who pulled a rifle, and sets it on the counter, noting that she should have known better, the Remington 20 has a well-known habit of accidental discharge. At this point it goes off, shooting the front-desk clerk in the gut. One of the inmates yells out, "You just shot Marvin in the face!" 5 breaks the fourth wall by pointing out that they're not parodying ''Pulp Fiction'' in this cartoon in the strip, and besides, he shot him in the stomach. |
| 406 | * {{Parodied}} by [[http://tsoalr.com/?p=1332 a guest comic]] in ''Webcomic/TurnSignalsOnALandRaider''. One of the Space Marine is trying to get cobwebs off his hand after apparently being up on a shelf for too long, so he tries shooting it off with his bolt pistol and accidentally blasts his sergeant. (He's probably fine; worse has happened to the protagonists and, being figures in a miniatures game, they walked it off.) |
| 407 | [[/folder]] |
| 408 | |
| 409 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 410 | * Creator/The1491s: The title character of "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqxiVLrGNCw Deer Hunter]]" is barely finished telling the others "safety first" when his rifle goes off and shoots (what they had thought was) a deer. Upon further examination, the shooting victim was a wood spirit wearing pelts and antlers. |
| 411 | * Achievement Hunter's ''[[LetsPlay/AchievementHunterGrandTheftAutoSeries Let's Play Grand Theft Auto V]]'': |
| 412 | ** Happened in the first Heist episode. After their robbery attempt goes belly-up, Jack accidentally gets out of his vehicle and gets caught in the crossfire of Michael's escape. When Geoff wants to know what the hell's going on, Michael pussyfoots around the entire thing with Ray giving him hell for it. |
| 413 | ** Happens again during Ryan's Heist where Ryan and Geoff both start shooting an armored truck open but Geoff strafes right and Ryan strafes left, causing Geoff to end up in Ryan's line of fire. However, due to the close range and GTA V mechanics, this caused Ryan to brutally beat Geoff to death with his shotgun. |
| 414 | ** An it also happened during their [[LetsPlay/AchievementHunterMinecraftSeries Minecraft adventures]]. They had a mod that added missiles, among other things. Ryan accidentally fired it three times, all of which killed Jack. |
| 415 | * At the end of his review of ''WesternAnimation/TheEmojiMovie'', WebVideo/AniMat orders [[ItMakesSenseInContext the movie to be executed by jumping off a cliff]]. The movie hesitates to jump, causing [=AniMat=] to complain about how these types of executions "delay the inevitable " and how "they take forever" when the gun in his hand accidentally goes off and shoots the movie. [[TakeThat No one complains, though]]. |
| 416 | * ''Website/CollegeHumor'': In [[http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1942115/ "Very-Mary Kate:Gun,"]] Mary-Kate Olsen does this after holding her bodyguard at gunpoint. [[spoiler:She drops the gun and kills her cat Comet.]] |
| 417 | * ''WebVideo/CriticalRole'': After a grueling fight against a succubus-incubus duo, Nott gets the final blow on the incubus with an explosive crossbow bolt... which also kills Caduceus, who was laying right at the incubus's feet and already had two failed death saves under his belt. Jester manages to bring him back with Revivify, but Nott is absolutely ''horrified'' at what her recklessness caused. |
| 418 | * ''Loads'' of examples available at ''The Website/DarwinAwards'', ranging from the blatantly-idiotic (trying to bash in your girlfriend's car windshield with the butt of a loaded shotgun) to the downright bizarre (a napping shepherd shot by his own sheep, which stepped on the rifle he'd left loaded and tilted toward himself). |
| 419 | * The ''Podcast/FilmReroll'' version of ''Film/IronMan3'' goes careening OffTheRails when a CriticalFailure results in War Machine accidentally ''[[BoomHeadshot headshotting]] the President of the United States''. Made even worse by the fact that the President was wearing the Iron Patriot armor at the time, meaning a headshot was literally the only thing that could've killed him. |
| 420 | * ''Website/GaiaOnline'''s 2010 Christmas event revolves around preventing Santa from making TooDumbToLive type decisions regarding basic safety. One of the scenarios revolves around this, where he is shown with a gun, looking into the barrel to clean it. The player has to remove the bullets from the gun, give Santa proper gloves (instead of the oven mitts he had before), [[LampshadeHanging make him read a book on gun safety]], and give him a proper tool to clean it with. |
| 421 | * The CreepyPasta ''I Want to Go Home'' involves three kids dicking around with a BB gun one of them got for his birthday. Inevitably, one of them gets fatally shot in the eye (point-blank). The other two throw his body in an AbandonedMineShaft, and he begins [[GhostStory haunting]] the kid who shot him. |
| 422 | * ''Website/TheOnion'': In [[http://www.theonion.com/articles/8yearold-accidentally-exercises-second-amendment-r,725/ this]] article, an 8-year-old boy who accidentally shoots himself in the thigh wins praise from {{Strawman Political}}s for having exercised his constitutional rights. |
| 423 | * ''Literature/SkippysList'' has examples: |
| 424 | --> 6. Not allowed to play “Pulp Fiction” with a suction-cup dart pistol and any officer. |
| 425 | * ''Roleplay/SurvivalOfTheFittest'': Due to the number of firearms in the game, this happens fairly often. One example was in v3, where Braunca Braunstein accidentally shoots herself in the face while looking at her gun and [[TooDumbToLive pointing the barrel at herself]]. Carol Burke of version 4 also does something similar to this, as she accidentally shoots Rizzo Vitoria in the leg with a shotgun, leaving Reiko Ishida to MercyKill him. |
| 426 | [[/folder]] |
| 427 | |
| 428 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 429 | * In one ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog'' episode, Sonic is made the sheriff of a cowboy town. While trying some sharpshooting, he proves to be an incredibly poor shot, causing all sorts of comic (But non-fatal) destruction with his bad aim. [[EpicFail He couldn't even shoot the broad side of a barn at point-blank range.]] Coincidentally, the Sonic Sez segment was all about gun safety, and how under no circumstances should you fool around with a real gun, even if you think it's unloaded. |
| 430 | * ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead'', episode "At the Movies". After the boys cause some destruction in the theater's parking lot, a police officer comes to arrest them. His gun gets caught in the holster, and while pulling it out he accidentally shoots himself in the foot, blowing off all his toes on that foot. |
| 431 | * ''Westernanimation/{{Duckman}}'' implies that this is how the titular character's father died at his son's hands: |
| 432 | -->'''Duckman:''' Did I ever tell you my dad's last words to me?\ |
| 433 | '''Cornfed Pig:''' Mmhmm. 'Careful son, I don't think the safety's on.'\ |
| 434 | '''Duckman:''' BEFORE THAT! |
| 435 | * ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': In "Barely Legal," the excuse a classmate (Jimmy, implied to be a popular jock) of Meg's gives when he clearly doesn't want to go to the prom with her. After answering the door and Meg asks the question, Jimmy leaves ... and then two shots ring out. Jimmy returns quickly in tears, claiming that his brother had just accidentally been shot and killed and the funeral is the night of the dance. |
| 436 | * The ''WesternAnimation/FatAlbertAndTheCosbyKids'' episode "The Gunslinger" has Shawn try to impress Albert and the gang by showing off his father's gun. Rudy pulls out a bullet he had found, and Shawn attempts to load it into the gun, but it doesn't fit properly (to his credit, he rejects Donald's suggestion to [[TooDumbToLive hammer the bullet in with a brick]]). Shawn finally manages to squeeze the bullet into the gun, and pulls the trigger.[[note]]thus violating two principles of gun safety generally overlooked in this sort of story: "don't use ammunition other than what your gun was designed for" and "don't use ammunition in poor condition or from an unknown source"[[/note]] The gun explodes, badly injuring his hand--though Shawn's lucky to be alive. |
| 437 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': The headless clone of Agnew is killed in the episode "T: The Terrestrial" as a result of being accidentally shot with a disintegrating laser gun by Lrr's son Jrrr during one of Lrrr's invasions of Earth, which Lrrr forces his son to participate in. Even though this was clearly an accident, Richard Nixon's Head clamps an embargo on Omicron Persei 8 as a result, but it is very poorly enforced as a result of it being led by Zapp Brannigan. |
| 438 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}''. Elisa is at one point seriously injured when Broadway accidentally shoots her while playing with her gun. [[RecklessGunUsage Broadway is a 1,000-year-old gargoyle who had came from a time before firearms]], but Elisa, an NYPD detective, shares the blame by leaving her sidearm, holster ''and'' gun belt unattended ''in another room'' from where she was (she admits later that she should have known better). Notably, she's much more careful for the rest of the series. |
| 439 | ** This event is a major part of both characters' development -- after this incident, Broadway is a gun-phobic who destroys any gun he comes across on the nightly patrols (this does necessitate dragging them from the fingers of an assortment of startled criminals), and Elisa is always careful to lock up her gun, and presumably unload it when not on duty. Elisa spent the next few episodes on crutches while she was recovering from the gunshot, where most shows would have had her back to normal by the next episode. This is a key reason Broadway has no issues with a firearm in her hands: he knows he can trust her to ''not'' abuse hers. It really hammered home how incredibly dangerous guns can be. |
| 440 | * ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'': |
| 441 | ** "How to Fire a Rifle Without Really Trying": Bobby's NRA safety instructor explains that he used to run right out onto the rifle range whenever he hit the target, resulting in the loss of his thumb and eye. Later, when the instructor witnesses Bobby's innate shooting skill, he ''again'' runs out onto the range in excitement, holding the targets Bobby shot up for all the other men on the range to see. It's likely he became an instructor due to being a walking example of what not to do on a range/a demonstration of what can happen. |
| 442 | ** "Soldier of Misfortune": Dale, who by all rights should know better being the president of the local gun club, accidentally discharges his weapon. ''Should'' being the keyword. There's the small problem that Dale is a crazy idiot. Rather than be expelled from the club, he becomes a laughing stock and loses a snap-election for president. |
| 443 | --->'''Mad Dog:''' Well well. An accidental discharge. Or was there a South American dictator hiding the cash register? |
| 444 | * ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'': ''WesternAnimation/PorkysDuckHunt'': Porky, while modeling his hunting gear for his dog, accidentally drops his shotgun on the floor, causing it to fire into the ceiling. There is then a knock at the door and Porky is punched in the face by his upstairs neighbour, who walks, revealing a hole in his pants. When Porky comes home after the hunt, he throws his shotgun on the floor, causing it to fire again. The upstairs neighbour knocks at the door again and punches Porky in the face again, then walks away with a second hole in his pants. |
| 445 | * In ''WesternAnimation/MenInBlackTheSeries'' episode "The Neuralyzer Syndrome", a variation happens when Jay accidentally [[LaserGuidedAmnesia neuralyzes]] Kay, leaving him with his teenage memories. |
| 446 | * In ''Anime/TheMysteriousCitiesOfGold'', Tao shows Esteban and Zia the things that he stole from Mendoza while he was sleeping, a flintlock is among them. Once Esteban sees it he shows the appropriate amount of wariness and tells Tao to put it down because it's loaded. Tao says: "Loaded? What does that mean?"; on cue, he accidentally fires it. |
| 447 | * ''WesternAnimation/ParadisePD'': When he was five years old, [[IdiotHero Kevin Crawford]] found his father Randall's service pistol lying unattended in his uniform and began playing with it. He came into his parent's bedroom while they were having sex and pretended to "bust" them, only to accidentally pull the trigger and [[GroinAttack shoot Randall in the balls]]. |
| 448 | %% Homer Simpson is an example of JugglingLoadedGuns, as are all comedic uses. |
| 449 | * In ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', [[TheyKilledKennyAgain Kenny has died this way]] at least a few times, particularly in "[[Recap/SouthParkS11E14TheList The List]]", where a gun goes off far away, missing its intended target, and then sails through Kenny's window while he and his family are eating dinner and hits him in the head. |
| 450 | * In ''WesternAnimation/StaticShock'', a boy [[AxesAtSchool brings a gun to school]] and threatens his bully with it. The bully's friends tackle him, which result in the gun going off and a bullet hitting Richie in the leg. |
| 451 | [[/folder]] |
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