Guns Akimbo - Television Tropes & Idioms

"Double the pleasure, double the pain!"
- Detective Nick Kang True Crime Streets Of LA

"Give a man a gun, he's Superman. Give him two, and he's God!"
- Superintendent Pang from John Woo's Hard Boiled, regarding Cowboy Cop Tequila.

One gun just not badass enough? Try two!

As far back as the westerns of the '50s, The Gunslinger has often strapped on two pistols. Double-fisted firing of handguns just plain looks cool. Especially when the shooter nails two different targets with one noisy, confusing volley. Slow-mo leaping and dodging with Bullet Time effects not required, but helpful. If the weapons of choice are fully automatic machine pistols, like Ingram SMGs or Micro-Uzis, bonus points.

This trope is a standard feature of The Western. Usually the two-gun fighter is just that much better than his opponents, that he can draw two guns in the time it takes them to draw one. In The Old West and The Cavalier Years, carrying two pistols was a practical result of long reload times on muzzle-loaders (although they were never used for suppressive fire like in the trope). As a matter of fact, real people in these times often wore entire bandoliers of a couple dozen Throw Away Guns strapped to their body. After cartridge revolvers and speed-loaders came around, one gun could do all the work.

In police oriented shows, procedurals and action shows alike, this trope is largely a villain trait. The two-gun fighter is usually a destructive psycho with no regard for collateral damage, particularly "Two Uzi Guy". Police characters generally use a proper technique, and fire one handgun with both hands. Also, it's very hard to hit anything with two guns. Most times, they don't.

In Anime, as in much of Asian action cinema, especially Heroic Bloodshed movies, this trope is one of the primary elements of the art of Gun Fu, and the two-gun fighter in these media is often very skilled, able to pick off multiple targets with pinpoint accuracy and able to use his guns as melee weapons as well as other crazy things one would not normally be able to do with a gun. Sometimes the character has two special guns, with individual names and special properties, hearkening back to the samurai stories about named swords with special enchantments.

There are several ways to use Guns Akimbo:

Concentrated fire on single targets with both guns, where the shooter pulls one trigger and then the other in rapid fire succession. This is commonly called "Woo Style" for its use by characters in John Woo movies. Most commonly used with pistols.
Both triggers are pulled at the same time on a single target, instead of one trigger at a time like the above. Most often used with submachine guns due to their autofire capability providing double the hurt, but pistols can also be used this way as well.
Both guns are used separately on different targets. The shooter either alternates fire between each one as the situation warrants, or uses them both simultaneously on separate targets. The first variant is most often used when a character has two different guns in hand or as a more "realistic" alternative to either of the first two options. The other generally requires Improbable Aiming Skills and/or training in Gun Kata. A variation of the second has the shooter awaiting a coordinated attack and aiming at the different spots he expects the two attackers to enter the room.
The user fires the gun in his right hand (for the sake of examples, let's just choose the right hand first) and ONLY the one in his right hand until it runs out of ammo. Then the user starts firing the gun in his left hand. This is probably the most "practical" way to wield akimbo guns.

God help you if you need to reload, but the wide availability of Bottomless Magazines and the habit of a lot of two-gun fighters to throw away their guns when they run out of bullets usually means it's not a problem.

In real life, guns akimbo is impractical and unrealistic. It is difficult, if not impossible, for a human being to keep track to two separate objects at once, especially if they are shooting back and especially if they are moving. The only advantage this trope would serve in real life is to provide the shooter with an extra weapon to supplant his first one when it expends its ammunition.

Some police do carry two or more of the same weapon for the purpose of swapping once the first runs out of ammo. This is called the New York reload. During the 18th and 19th centuries, it was also not uncommon for military personnel to carry two weapons for this purpose, as firearms at that time were more practical to swap than to reload. However, they were never fired simultaneously and this practice is now very rare.

Of course, who cares? It's fun.

Compare Dual Wielding, Sword And Gun, and One Handed Is Cool. A popular way of achieving More Dakka. See also Gun Kata.