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[[quoteright:350:[[LoisLane http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/I_just_shot_marvin_7475.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[-[[UsefulNotes/GunSafety This is why you're supposed to treat the gun as loaded]]. [[Franchise/GIJoe Now you know]], AndKnowingIsHalfTheBattle.-] ]]

->'''[[Creator/JohnTravolta Vincent]]:''' Oh man, [[TropeNamers I shot Marvin in the face.]]\\
'''[[Creator/SamuelLJackson Jules]]:''' Why the fuck'd you do that?!\\
'''Vincent:''' Well, I didn't mean to do it; it was an accident!
-->-- ''Film/PulpFiction''

[[CaptainObvious Guns are dangerous]]. That's why there are various rules for [[UsefulNotes/GunSafety safely handling]] them. When these rules are not followed, whether it be by [[ArtisticLicenseGunSafety experts]] or [[RecklessGunUsage untrained John Q Public]], there's a chance for an accidental 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.

This trope occurs when somebody didn't follow the UsefulNotes/GunSafety requirements or simply has a [[ShurFineGuns shoddy weapon]] that goes off, hurting, killing, or destroying a lot of property, and the gunshot is ''not'' played for comedy.

It gets better when the accidental shootings that result from this mishandling of weapons are ''[[IdiotPlot plot points]]'', as these kinds of accidents are precisely why the safety rules are in place.

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.

This trope is named after Vincent's line in ''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 examples for details.)

This is frequently the result of some combination of RecklessGunUsage, ArtisticLicenseGunSafety, and ReliablyUnreliableGuns. Compare JugglingLoadedGuns for when somebody getting shot by accident is due to RuleOfFunny.

----
!!Examples

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}'', when the [[FiringInTheAirALot celebratory gunshot]] the head of the Martillo family fires is immediately met with "Oh my God, somebody just killed Isaac!" from the floor above. Judging by a waitresses 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.
** Which could have been avoided altogether, since traditionally, you know, signal pistols are armed with blanks.
* In the second episode of ''Anime/GurrenLagann'', 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.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comics]]
* ''YTheLastMan'', an untrained woman is holding a hostage at gunpoint, whom she kills by mistake when her finger slips.
* ComicBook/TransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye: 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.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* ''Film/PulpFiction''. The TropeNamer. [[IdiotHero Vincent]], an "[[InformedAttribute experienced hitman]]," is talking with Marvin, a guy he and Jules picked up in the aftermath of their hit near the beginning of the movie, in the backseat of Jules' car. While speaking with Marvin, Vincent is not only casually [[ArtisticLicenseGunSafety waving his handgun in the air]], not only ''resting his finger on the trigger'', but '''lays his wrist on the back of the seat with the barrel pointed directly at Marvin's head'''[[note]] One wonders why Marvin didn't freak out when he can easily ''see'' all of this[[/note]]. So, when something happens (Vincent claims it was a bump, but Jules claims the car didn't hit no motherfuckin' bump, but it's also probable Vincent just twitched his finger), the gun goes off, the bullet shooting Marvin in the face and not only blowing his brains all over the rear window, but splattering gore all over the inside of the car, including both Vincent and Jules. Thus it is demonstrated to everyone in the audience just ''why'' you should always watch where you're pointing your weapon and, perhaps more importantly, keep your finger away from the trigger unless you intend to shoot wherever the gun points (oh, and let us ''not'' forget the safety catch). While the shooting does become a major plot point, Vincent's initially only-mildly perturbed reaction to his mistake is one of the funniest moments of the movie, making the TropeNamer a less strict version of this trope. See the scene in question [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBBni_-tMNs here]].
* ''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 [[LudicrousGibs what happened to]] [[ThatPoorCat the kitty]]. It was mostly shocking until Rocco's dumb-assed question: "Is it dead?!" ''Then'' it became [[RuleOfFunny hilarious.]]
* ''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.]]
* ''OutOfSight'', Jack is at the top of a staircase being held at gunpoint by one of the bad guys, who begins to approach him, still ready to shoot -- only to trip on the stairs and ''shoot himself in the head''. Ouch.
* ''TheProposition'', one of the policemen accidentally shoots his toes off.
* ''StoneCold'', where Lance Henriksen is playing the BigBad.
-->'''Chains Cooper:''' You know, it's moments like these I remember the last thing my father told me... "Careful son, that gun's loaded!"
* ''TheLeagueOfGentlemen's Apocalypse'', [[spoiler:Geoff Tipps accidentally [[AuthorExistenceFailure kills Mark Gatiss]] this way.]]
* ''Film/StarshipTroopers'', the film [[ArtisticLicenseGunSafety frequently and constantly fails gun safety]]. 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 recruit's helmet off, 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.
** Another scene, 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]].
* ''Film/{{Commando}}''. After Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger gets locked up in a police van, Rae Dawn Chong 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. Although 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.
* ''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.]]
* ''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.
* ''Film/SilentNightDeadlyNightPart2'' after witnessing Ricky kill a few people a police officer confronts him to arrest him while [[GunTwirling casually twirling his gun]], Ricky punches him causing him to shoot himself in the face.
* ''[[EightMile 8 Mile]]'', the movie. 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.
* ''BigJake'': when Michael's [[CoolGun 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.
* ''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.
* 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.
* ''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, [[LampshadedTrope 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.
* 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.
* At the end of ''Film/StrangersOnATrain'', the cops chasing the clearly unarmed Guy through a carnival break every police firearm procedure there is by firing at him as he runs through a crowd of children. One of the shots hits and apparently kills an innocent bystander, who happened to be operating a merry-go-round, causing it to careen out of control.
* In ''LoneStarStateOfMind'', the incredibly TooDumbToLive character Junior begs the others to loan him a gun. They refuse, of course. At the end, [[spoiler: as soon as he gets a gun, he accidentally shoots Earl in the back, then himself [[GroinAttack in the nuts]].]]
* 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.
* 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.]]
* 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. The bullet hits Rod straight in the center of the forehead, killing him instantly.
* In the ''StarWars'' Prequel Trilogy, certain battle droids end up accidentally shooting their companions in a comedic fashion.
* ''Bad Eggs'' 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!"
* In ''Film/{{Stargate}}'', Jack O'Neil(l)'s son accidentally shot and killed himself 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.
* Subverted in ''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.
* In "Little Laura and Big John", Big John's gang are celebrating a successful robbery in their getaway car, and somebody accidentally shoots Big John in the eye.
* In the climax of ''Film/{{La Haine}}'', [[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 {{Black Best Friend}} Hubert coming over with Vinz's gun. Cue {{Mexican Standoff}} between Hubert and the Cop.]]
* 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 on the stomach. This prompts Jack to knock out his opponent [[spoiler: which 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.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: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.]]
* ''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]].
* ''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 to as to point out his inexperience in handing firearms in the "Dramatis Personae" section at the very beginning.
* ''TheTenTeacups'', in which the victim is [[spoiler: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]].
* ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'' novel ''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.
** During a fake general fleet inspection ''Warrior's Apprentice'', 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.
* In the RiftWar novel ''Wrath of a Demon King'', the Knight-Martial of Krondor is killed by one of his own men when he mishandles a loaded crossbow.
* Specifically averted in Literature/StarshipTroopers as opposed to the film of the book. The protagonist is literally flogged when he fails to take adequate precautions with a ''simulated'' nuke during a training exercise. Only direct testimony from his drill sergeant that he may be salvageable prevents him from being dismissed from the service.
* This causes everything to start falling apart in ''Things Fall Apart''. During a gun salute at 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.
* The SpaceWolf novel ''Ragnar's Claw'' 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.
* In ''The Nagasaki Vector'', the pilot of a TimeMachine that accidentally travelled [[InterdimensionalTravelDevice sideways into an alternate history]] is a trained and experienced pistoleer, and the proud owner of a [[RareGuns 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.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/RumpoleOfTheBailey'': In the episode "Rumpole and the Sporting Life", a defendant claims that she killed a man by accident when she tripped while holding a shotgun. The episode even includes a nursery rhyme that promotes proper gun-handling.
* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' has an odd ship-to-ship version of this trope in ''Message In A Bottle'' 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.
--> '''EMH Mark 1''': You hit the wrong ship!
--> '''EMH Mark 2''': It wasn't my fault!
--> '''EMH Mark 1''': Well then who's fault was it, the torpedo's? You're supposed to tell it what to do!
* ''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.
* ''Series/{{Monk}}''.
** 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. 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.
** "Mr. Monk and the Panic Room:" 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.
* ''Series/{{CSI}}'' has several examples.
** 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!"
** 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 [[FurryFandom Furry]] 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.
** 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.
** ''CSINewYork'' had a man accidentally kill 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.
** 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'.
** And in ''yet another'' example and possibly [[UpToEleven 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 ''[[TheresNoKillLikeOverkill 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 [[TooDumbToLive playing games]] with a [[MoreDakka loaded, automatic MAC-10]] by having someone standing on a second story balcony spin the gun down on a rope and the others would try to dodge the shots.
* ''Series/{{Firefly}}'''s 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.
** 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.
** Similarly, season 6 of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' has one of the bad guys 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]].
* ''Series/TeenWolf'': Stiles fiddles with Allison's crossbow and narrowly averts shooting Scott's thanks to his SuperReflexes as a werewolf.
* ''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]].]]
* ''KnowingMeKnowingYouWithAlanPartridge'': Alan Partridge once accidentally shot an obnoxious food critic in the heart with an antique dueling musket on live television. It is this (coupled with his later punching of a [[TheBBC BBC]] programming executive in the face with a turkey) that ended his TV career.
* 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.
* ''TheWire''. Any time Roland Pryzbylewski has a gun in his hand, Badness Ensues. He first shows up as a transfer from another unit after he shot his own squad car, and in ''the same episode'' proceeds to shoot a hole in the office wall. He later manages to pistol whip a boy, blinding him in one eye, and three seasons later, ''finally'' quits the force [[spoiler:after he shoots an undercover cop.]] 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 under pressure from one side to solve the case quickly and from the other to bury it. [[spoiler: It turns out, a pair of drunken knuckleheads two blocks away were shooting at beer bottles and hit the guy by accident.]]
-->[[spoiler:'''Det Norris:''' So these idiots are shooting forties two blocks down, and now this Carcetti fuck gets to be mayor? What a town.]]
** In season three, Omar's boyfriend Dante [[spoiler:inadvertantly 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.
* ''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.
** The Luger does have a notoriously tricky safety, at least according to the book. It makes for a dramatic moment and it helps reinforce that WarIsHell and that AnyoneCanDie.
* ''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.
* In ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'', two involving TimeTravel and the not-gun-shaped Phaser. In "The City on the Edge of Forever", a 1930s bum gets hold of one and vaporizes himself playing with it. In "Tomorrow Is Yesterday", Kirk is captured by Air Police in 1969, and cringes (with [[CrowningMomentOfFunny 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.
* ''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.
* ''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]]?
* ''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, reached for his gun instead of his inhaler while half-asleep, and killed himself. Aside from apparently having a gun-shaped inhaler, it seems that the cop forgot to unload his gun when he came home.
* ''BeverlyHills90210'' A VerySpecialEpisode of the original uses this [[spoiler: [[DroppedABridgeOnHim to kill off one of the regulars]],]] in front of Bryan Austin Green.
* ''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 (a old witch traded bodies with her) while holding the gun, and ends up shooting his wife.
* ''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 like 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.
** 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.
** 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.
* 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.
** 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. They ended up switching to the P90 which, due to ejecting rounds downwards, avoided that problem entirely.
* ''HighwayToHeaven'' episode ''The Torch'': includes a group of Neo Nazis. Among them is Rolf (played by Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Zach on ''SavedByTheBell''). While handling an Uzi in the Neo Nazi lair, Rolf fires the weapon, hitting his father and another Neo Nazi, killing his father.
* ''Series/MacGyver'': In a {{flashback}} during the "Blood Brothers" episode, [=MacGyver=] accidentally shoots and kills Jesse, a childhood friend.
* ''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.
* ''FamilyMatters'': [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]] 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.
* 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.
* ''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.]]]]
* ''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.
* ''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. [[spoiler: He DIES.]]
* ''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.
* An episode of ''Series/{{Quincy}}'' 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, safety off (if it even had one), ''on the floor of his closet''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
* "I Hung My Head" by [[Music/ThePolice Sting]] (later covered by Music/JohnnyCash) features a young man pointing a rifle at someone to practice aiming. It doesn't end well.
* The music video for "Eighteen and Life" by Music/SkidRow features an example of this.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* ''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!"''
* In one ''{{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."]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theatre]]
* ''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.
* ''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 hand bag, 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.
-->'''Sarah Jane:''' [[CrowningMomentOfFunny Shit, I shot it!]]
* ''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.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''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.)
* ''VideoGame/{{Hitman}}: Blood Money'' 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, or take the place of the executioner actor. 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]].
** Bonus points here as closed-in environment of an opera house would be too dangerous for the prop gun's blanks in the first place.
** And double bonus points for being darkly ironic -- the scene being rehearsed is the final act of ''{{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]]]].
* ''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?"
* ''[[TotalWar Empire: Total War]]'' features the use of a Gentlemen agent which can steal technology or duel other gentlemen of rival factions. If ordered to duel another gentlemen 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.]]
* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'': [[GTARadio one of the radio segments]], [[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 go off and kill Dexter.
* This also happens in ''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.
* In a flashback of the first ''VisualNovel/AceAttorney'' game, [[spoiler:a young Miles Edgeworth ends up throwing a loaded gun to break up a fight between his father and a bailiff, making him think he'd accidentally shot his father and killed him. He did shoot someone, just not his father.]]
* Played for laughs when ''[[VideoGame/LEGOAdaptationGame LEGO Star Wars]]'' spoofs the scene in ''Film/ANewHope'' where Obi-Wan gives Luke his father's [[LaserBlade lightsaber]]. 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=].
* In [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46xCjIehjJc&feature=related one]] cutscene of RatchetAndClankACrackInTime, 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.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Animation]]
* ''WebAnimation/GirlchanInParadise'': "It's out of bullets, anyway!" "Then that means I can do this!" (''[[TooDumbToLive BANG]]'')
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* ''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.
* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'': Babies should not be allowed [[ItMakesSenseInContext to dual-wield flintlock pistols.]]
* ''IrregularWebcomic'': [[http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/1994.html Alternate version]] of [[StarWars Han shooting Greedo]].
* ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'': Thankfully averted in [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com:8080/2006-05-02 this one.]]
--> '''Elf:''' Will ''someone'' raise the house lights so San Asimov's finest can see [[StudioAudience what they're using]] for a ''backstop''?
* ''Achewood'': [[http://achewood.com/index.php?date=09162002 "PS I got shot by Ray again"]]
* ''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.]]
* ''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 [[BerserkButton berserk buttons]], and she shoots the hammer of his revolver while it's in midair, causing it to fire through his head.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* ''TheOnion'': [[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.
* ''Collegehumor'': In "[[http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1942115/ Very-Mary Kate:Gun]]", Mary-Kate Olsen does this after holding her bodyguard at gun point. [[spoiler:She drops the gun and kills her cat Comet.]]
* ''SurvivalOfTheFittest'': Due to the amount 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.
* ''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.
* ''Literature/SkippysList'' has examples:
--> 6. Not allowed to play “Pulp Fiction” with a suction-cup dart pistol and any officer.
* Avoided in [[HowItShouldHaveEnded 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?
--> "Woo! I'm alive! Haha! Marvin lives! Yeah!"
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''FamilyGuy'': In the fifth-season episode "Barely Legal," Meg asks out a popular jock named Jimmy to the school dance. He excuses himself, after which two gunshots are heard; he quickly returns to the door, in tears, and suggests that he just accidentally shot his little brother and that he has to go to the tyke's funeral on the night of the dance.
* ''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 never handled a gun before]], but Elisa, a NYPD detective, falls under this trope 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.
** 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 startled 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. [[SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped It really hammered home how incredibly dangerous guns can be.]]
* ''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.
* ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'', episode "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, [[TooDumbToLive he]] ''[[TooDumbToLive again]]'' [[TooDumbToLive runs out onto the range in excitement, holding the targets Bobby shot up for all the other men on the range to see.]]
** In another, 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.
* ''{{Duckman}}'' implies that this is how the titular character's father died at his son's hands:
--->'''Duckman:''' Did I ever tell you my dad's last words to me?\\
'''Cornfed Pig:''' Mmhmm. 'Careful son, I don't think the safety's on.'\\
'''Duckman:''' BEFORE THAT!
%% Homer Simpson is an example of JugglingLoadedGuns, as are all comedic uses.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zw-jTCNZSmY This video]]. Ironically enough, it was during a gun safety presentation, and came right after he claimed to be the "only one in the room professional enough" to handle that gun, [[TooDumbToLive while he clearly had his finger on the trigger of a gun that does not have a manual safety.]] It wasn't a fatal accident, however; the man only shot himself in the foot, and it's also commonly believed that it had been a blank cartridge.
* Shockingly found in the US Marine Corps despite thorough training on weapons handling. The highly discouraged "Trust" game that some Marines started playing in Iraq involves pointing a weapon at the head of a fellow Marine and asking "Do you trust me?". [[http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32804431/ns/us_news-military/t/marines-take-deadly-risks-trust-game/ One Marine]] was sadly killed by this reckless behavior that goes against their training. The guy that killed him got eight years.
** A similar event occurred when two Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan were playing quick draw with loaded sidearms. One ended up dead and the other got convicted on manslaughter charges.
* Incidents of this nature have figured in at least one [[DarwinAwards Darwin Award]].
* Happens often in Libya, as former rebels coming home with their guns aren't careful enough. The random, full-auto firing in the air of cities doesn't help: Hospitals have hundreds of patients because of celebratory gunfire. What goes up must come down, after all.
* Actor Jon-Erik Hexum killed himself by demonstrating a gun filled with blanks by shooting himself in the head, unaware that at such close range, a blank round is just as deadly as a real bullet.
* According to Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith in their 2011 biography ''Van Gogh: The Life'', VincentVanGogh's gunshot death was likely not a suicide as generally accepted, but an accidental homicide by two teenaged acquaintances of Van Gogh who had a malfunctioning gun.
* BrandonLee, son of BruceLee, died during the filming of ''Film/TheCrow'' because a fake cartridge came apart in a revolver and was not found before loading in blanks.
* Lawyer (and former Congressman) [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clement_Vallandigham#Death Clement Vallandigham]] was preparing to defend a client accused of murder by arguing that the deceased had, in fact, accidentally shot himself with his own gun. While conferring with the rest of the defense team, he demonstrated his theory by reenacting the actions of the deceased... with a gun he ''thought'' was unloaded. The reenactment was more realistic than intended; Vallandigham fatally shot himself. The client was acquitted.
* Video taken during a wedding celebration in Chechnya. Drunken guest brings an automatic pistol, fools with it to show that it is not dangerous, and another guest ends up taking a bullet to the head. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYs8vBMIhj4 See it here.]]
* His Excellency Don Felipe, the 13-year-old (at the time) grandson of King Juan Carlos I of UsefulNotes/{{Spain}} and fifth in line to the Spanish throne, accidentally shot himself [[AgonyOfTheFeet in the foot]] in April 2012, to the amusement of the Spanish and world press.
* Former US VP Dick Cheney's infamous hunting accident where he shot someone else in the face.
* The notorious incident where famous Hungarian singer Jimmy Zámbó accidentally shot himself in the head while drunk and fooling around with his gun during a New Year's celebration. He even removed the magazine to show it was safe - forgetting that it was ''semi-automatic'' and already had a bullet chambered.
** A widespread (and quite amusing) urban legend says he was trying to kill the neighbor's rooster due to its crowing being annoying, explaining how the bullet got into the chamber in the first place.
* Plaxico Burress, then a wide receiver with the New York Giants, accidentally shot himself in the leg while showing a gun he did not have a permit to carry to a teammate at a New York City nightclub. The incident earned him a short prison sentence and a lot of embarrassment, given that part of his job involves manual deftness.
* Terry Kath, the original guitarist for the band Chicago, shot himself fatally in front of friends and family when a gun he was playing around with [[AteHisGun went off in his head]] [[FamousLastWords right after he said]] "Don't worry, guys, it isn't even loaded. See?"
* William S. Burroughs, American novelist, played the "William Tell" game while drinking at a party in Mexico in 1951. He missed the glass on his wife's head, but didn't miss her forehead.
* One of the only-''moderately''-insane JFK assassination theories claims that Oswald missed Kennedy, but one of the President's own bodyguards accidentally discharged his weapon from the car behind the convertible when its driver, startled by the rifle shots, braked too suddenly. Any subsequent cover-up efforts were to conceal this fatal incompetence, rather than an intentional plot against Kennedy's life.
* Paul Rieckoff, a former National Guardsman who served in the Iraq War, recounts in his memoir ''Chasing Ghosts'' how an Iraqi man who worked on the base was struck in the torso on his way to work by a stray bullet from celebratory gunfire. Fortunately the man lived.
* Differences in training and doctrine, combined with old-fashioned InterserviceRivalry, can be cause for quite a bit of mutual annoyance whenever US Army and US Air Force personnel are deployed together while carrying handguns. Army personnel are trained to holster their sidearm with the safety on, while the Air Force trains their personnel to holster the weapon with the safety ''off''. Cue many nosey soldiers annoying the Air Force personnel by constantly pointing out that their weapon happens to be holstered in exactly the way they are required and trained to holster it.
** The reasoning for the Air Force is that, in a proper holster (one that covers and protects the trigger of the handgun), the M9 Beretta (the US military's standard sidearm), will not go off as long as the trigger is not pulled, due to various modern safety features. They also train their personnel to keep the finger off the trigger until they have finished drawing. The idea is that, if an airman needs to draw his weapon in self defense, he cannot afford to waste time [[NotWithTheSafetyOnYouWont fumbling with the safety]].
[[/folder]]

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