Smart People Shoot

In action-centered media, The Smart Guy will usually specialize in long-range combat. This includes firearms, but also bows and arrows, crossbows, Energy Weapons, boomerangs and even spells and mind bullets.

An explanation for this is the neverending war between brains and brawn: if a character has mostly brains but has to join a fight, they need ranged weaponry to compensate for their lack of brawn.

There are other possible explanations that reinforce this connection: in a way, ranged weapons can be seen as a sign of higher intelligence, and giving them to a character will confirm that they're indeed smart. Keep in mind that tool use is almost always considered a sign of advanced cognitive abilities. Great apes, some of the most intelligent organisms on Earth, are capable of throwing sticks and stones. Modifying those sticks and stones to be more efficient projectile means you're way more intelligent. Using bows and arrows, guns, and lasers? You really must be a genius. Also, from the 17th century onwards firearms have progressively replaced melee weapons in armed conflicts, which in turn makes people who wield the latter seem less technologically or culturally advanced to our eyes.

Not only is making ranged weapons a sign of high intelligence but using them requires much more responsibility. Anybody can just swing a melee weapon, or their fists if they're strong enough. Meanwhile, with ranged weapons you have to pay attention to not miss a shot and waste ammo, not hurting your allies, not ruining your only weapon, or even hurt yourself; once again, if a character prefers ranged weapons and wins, they're very likely to prefer using their mind in a fight.

On the other hand, this trope can be used in an anti-intellectual way to portray smart people as Dirty Cowards using external devices to compensate for their own weaknesses and act much more powerful than they really are.

To qualify for this trope, characters must stand out in both their intelligence and their preference of ranged combat, compared to the other characters, instead of this becoming merely a list of smart people or a list of gunmen.

These are the requirements:

1. A character must stand out in terms of intelligence; while this can sometimes be a little hard to tell since intelligence is something of a nebulous concept (famously, it's an archipelago, not an island); they can be a scientist, a Mentor, a philosopher, an urchin, or a robot, but if they don't show any extensive knowledge outside of fighting, they don't qualify for this trope.
2. A character must stand out in their specialization in ranged combat; if they're the only character in the setting to use ranged weapons they can certainly be this trope, but if also other character use ranged weapons, they can stand out by being a better shot, shooting farther, using unusual projectiles, not needing to reload, have shooting as an intrinsic power and not needing a weapon, or just having more stopping power; if everybody shoots the same way regardless of intelligence, this trope isn't in effect.
3. Super-heavy ranged weapons like missile launchers, bazookas, rotary cannons, and BFGs can be counted for this trope, but they're rarer than the other examples, especially if they're portrayed as Powerful, but Inaccurate. This is because of their bigger size which requires more strength to use, which contradicts the concept of smart people using guns because they're weaker, as explained above, and are instead seen more in the hands of brutes. However, there's always the possibility of the wielder being a Genius Bruiser. The Short-Range Shotgun is also rarely used for this trope, because of their high stopping power combined with lower reach.
4. If a weapon can be used in both long and close range (like throwing knives, shurikens, or chakrams), they have to be thrown consistently more than swung in melee: if The Smart Guy throws his sword as a Desperation Attack, it doesn't count; but conversely, a character can count even if they occasionally Pistol Whip opponents.
5. Examples involving more than one character using the same ranged weapon, or less developed characters, are less likely to be this trope; if the Faceless Goons are manning a catapult, it's doubtful the creator wanted this to mean they're smart.
6. This trope can apply to non-automated vehicles or mechs as well, as long as they're specialized for ranged combat and the pilot is known to be smart; otherwise, stick to weapons and powers.

Sub-Trope of Badass Bookworm, The Gunslinger, and Weapon-Based Characterization, and Sister Trope to Cold Sniper and Aloof Archer, to which it can overlap, just like with Magic Is Mental, Squishy Wizard, and Mage Marksman, when the wise mage specializes in incinerating the battlefield. This trope and Women Are Wiser are used to explain Guys Smash, Girls Shoot. For literally using your mind to shoot, see Psi Blast.

Contrast Dumb Muscle and Strong and Skilled. A Non-Action Guy defies this trope by not fighting at all. Opposite Trope to Primitive Clubs (simple-minded melee weapons for simple-minded individuals).

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Bleach: Uryu Ishida is a calm, analytical, and composed Quincy who, on top of being more intellectually refined than most of his peers and better skilled in crafts, uses a bow to contrast the Hot-Blooded, sword-wielding hero Ichigo Kurosaki.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Hierophant Green from Stardust Crusaders is the first long-range Stand in the series, lacking power but having versatile abilities and ranged attacks. Its Stand User, Noriyaki Kakyoin, is an exceedingly smart high-school student, being in fact the only one who could figure out that DIO's Stand, The World, had the power to stop time, and found a way to tell this precious information to his friends before dying.
• In the 2016 manga adaptation of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Renado is a shaman who is skilled in the medical arts, proving himself capable of treating Hylians and non-Hylians alike. While most characters depend on swords or magic, he proves himself to be an expert archer during the Bulblin attack on Kakariko Village.
• Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS: Teana Lanster is a magical sharpshooter and the tactician of the Forwards team. These two skill sets complement each other in her battlefield control technique, as she continuously analyzes the situation and her opponents' actions and uses pinpoint sniper shots to distract or to outright take them down. This is particularly demonstrated in the Final Battle of the season, where she single-handedly apprehends three Numbers by predicting their attack pattern and firing off three shots in such a way that would knock them all out within half a second of each other, denying them a chance to regroup.
• One Piece: Usopp is the weakest but also the craftiest member of the Straw Hat crew, being a Consummate Liar and a Gadgeteer Genius, and he fights with a slingshot and lots of creativity.
• Yuki Yuna is a Hero: While Mimori is confined to a wheelchair, she still contributes to battles with her knowledge and sniping skills.

Fan Works

• Dungeon Keeper Ami: Ami's a scientist, and her magical attacks are all projectiles, so she vastly prefers to attack at range, but she has trained up her melee competencies just in case.

Live-Action TV

• Kamen Rider
  • Kamen Rider Drive: while Rentaro Shinnosuke/Kamen Rider Drive is already the Great Detective of primary Riders, when he's at his most focused and logical he gets access to Type Technic, a Weak, but Skilled form which appropiately enough is Drive's form most associated with his Door Juu pistol.
  • Kamen Rider Geats: Ace Ukiyo/Kamen Rider Geats is the cool, clever, and fox-themed protagonist of Geats, and experienced Desire Grand Prix winner and Guile Hero. He's unique among primary Riders in that his main Transformation Trinket is themed after a revolver, and receives a firearm as his initial weapon, opposing most primary Riders who start out with swords.
• This is usually the case for the smart guys in Super Sentai, and Power Rangers by extension.
  • Engine Sentai Go-onger: Renn Kosaka is the smartest and most cool-headed member of the Go-Onger and the only one who could speak Hiramechimedes' name the first time. As Go-On Blue, his personal weapon is a Hand Cannon, unlike most of the other Go-Ongers who use melee weapons. His Power Rangers RPM, Flynn McAllistair, also qualifies, being the team's mechanic and adept shooter.
  • Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger: Ian Yorkland/Kyoryu Black is very intelligent, being a smooth talker and having a passion for archeology. He's the best user of the Gaburivolver when untransformed, and when transformed he's the only one of the Kyoryuger to have a ranged personal weapon (a crossbow) instead of a melee one.
  • Ressha Sentai To Q Ger: Haru "Tokatti" Tokashiki/ToQ II is the nerdiest of the ToQGers, being Book Smart, nervous, but also crafty, managing to turn a Monster of the Week's power against them. He's the most associated with the Home Trigger, keyword being mostly: the ToQGer's gimmick is the ability to switch colors, and the associated weapons, which means the other ToQGers can also wield the Home Trigger.

Tabletop Games

• GURPS: In the Third Edition, if a character possessed a high IQ attribute, they gained a +1 bonus to Gun skill. So, while gun use was generally governed by Dexterity, having a high Intelligence build made for a better marksman than a Dexterity-only build.
• Hc Svnt Dracones: shooting checks use a Mind stat (Mind:Acuity in 1st edition, Mind:Exert in 2e), meaning that smart people are literally better at shooting.
• The 'Magus' class in Pathfinder's Second Edition is a martial class that specializes in Full-Contact Magic by way of weapon attacks. By nature of tabletop stat customization, there's nothing preventing you from making a Book Dumb Magus, but since their spellcasting ability is intelligence, those are the exception rather than the rule. The 'Starlight Span' subclass really emphasizes the ranged aspect by allowing the weapon attacks in question to be ranged attacks from bows or guns, and a further feat emphasizes the intellect of the Starlight Span Magus by allowing them to originate Herd-Hitting Attack spell effects from the location of their projectile impacts rather than themself — meaning it is encouraged for a Starlight Span Magus to think outside the box and occasionally shoot way off the obvious target at some random patch of ground. They didn't miss, they were giving their spell a favourable angle.

Video Games

• EarthBound (1994): Jeff, a Child Prodigy and the Team Normal of the party, has a toy Pop Gun as his starting weapon, which later progresses to a series of highly-powerful lasers.
• Elden Ring: Most sorceries have their damage governed by the Intelligence stat and a pair of particular ones— Loretta's Greatbow and Loretta's Mastery— summon a bow made of magical energy that shoots giant arrows with homing capabilities.
• Mega Man Battle Network 5: For the Team Protoman version, Searchman.EXE is your go-to "smart Navi" for your Liberation Mission team, and he wields a sniper rifle as an Arm Cannon. His main job is to "search" panels in a line for the items contained within, and disarm traps should he find any. In battle, he primarily excels at long-range combat; his Charged Attack is to perform quick snipe shots at the closest target no matter the range or positioning, but he can get overwhelmed if some of his enemies get too close.
• Persona 4: After joining the party, Naoto Shirogane, the teenage "Detective Prince" responsible for cracking several cases that police couldn't, uses a revolver for non-Persona attacks, and is the only party member who uses a ranged weapon.
• Psychonauts: While all of the Psychonauts are very intelligent people, Sasha Nein is the one most associated with technology and reason. He's the one handling the Brain Tumbler which allows Raz to travel between the different minds he's entered in, and he specializes in the Psi Blast skill, which he also teaches to Raz.
• Science Girls!: Melee is always available as a fallback, but the combat skills for use against the aliens all have the titular Science Club girls keep their distance and invoke their basically-magic skills or shoot slingshots.
• Xenoblade Chronicles 3: The two smartest and most strategic characters in the game, as their Tactical Points show, are Taion and Isurd, whose classes are both long-ranged attackers, with Taion's class using Mondo, so basically origami figures coming to life, and Isurd's one attacking with energy-based disc shooters. As an ouroboros, Taion can choose classes, but his statline still suggests using him in a long-ranged class.
• A Very Long Rope to the Top of the Sky: Spirit (SPI for short) is the statistic that governs magic damage, and is boosted by items like the Concentration Band which "focuses your mental energy", and the Saecelium Circlet whose Flavor Text says: "Time slows around this, giving the wearer more time to think".

Visual Novels

• Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: All but one of the murders that Phoenix defends his client for in the first game is carried out via blunt force trauma or stabbing. The sole shooting occurs in Case 1-4 at the hands of Manfred von Karma, a brilliant prosecutor who took on Miles Edgeworth as his protege long before he tried to frame Edgeworth for murder.

Web Animation

• Helluva Boss: Moxxie Knolastname is the brains of the "Immediate Murder Professionals" organization, an extremely intelligent imp and a Gun Nut. He's the only member to consistently use guns (his wife Millie is the brawn and uses a battleaxe, his boss Blitzo who also fairly smart and most often uses flintlocks, and his Sitcom Arch-Nemesis Loona fights like an animal).

Web Video

• Dimension 20: In the "Fantasy High" campaign, Riz Gukgak, an Inquisitive Rogue, uses a primitive form of firearm called an arquebus and styles himself as a private detective. It's Zig-Zagged due to Murph's abysmal luck with rolls often hindering Riz's investigative efforts.

Western Animation

• Blue Eye Samurai: The smuggler Abijah Fowler is a master strategist and mechanist who smuggles contraband for the Shogun. While not bad in melee in a pinch, it's his use of a flintlock rifle that makes him dangerous to unprepared opponents.
• Winx Club: The Specialists are a team of warriors who employ Magitek weapons, and they all possess sword-like Phantoblades. However, Timmy (the strategist and technician of his team) rarely uses his Phantoblade, and instead opts for blasters, crossbows, and energy bows.

Real Life

• Great apes are both very smart and able to throw rocks or sticks with incredible force. But while throwing things is the easy part, aiming takes a lot of coordination that has only really been mastered by humanity, the brainiest of the great apes - and we, in fact, seem specialized for throwing, thanks to our posture, our eyesight, and our shoulder joints.
• Archerfishes are named so thanks for their famous spitting skills, with which they can snipe insects hanging from branches after just one hit, especially notable since they manage to angle their shot to compensate for the diffraction in water. Researchers think that it's not even a fully instinctual behavior, and individual seem to learn from other archerfishes; not bad for a fish.
• Ballistics is the science that studies projectiles and how they travel, and is what allowed the Moon landing in 1969.

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