History Main / GunsDoNotWorkThatWay

* ''Film/ItTheTerrorFromBeyondSpace'': Who knew that the M1 was [[https://youtu.be/CsOM7mptOLM?t=40 so flexible?]]

* The [[https://youtu.be/OMj1Y2sMZ_Q infamous introductory]] {{cutscene}} for ''VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog'' starts off with what is most likely, the strangest submachine gun of all time. It starts of with shadow putting a mag in, twisting it a bit to lock it in place, giving the mag a tap for good measure and then ''pumping the foregrip''.

* BlownAcrossTheRoom: a chracter gets flung quite far across a room when shot.
* BottomlessMagazines
* BulletSparks
* CartridgesInFlight
* CoinTargetingTrickshot
* ComboRifle

* DisappearingBullets

* FingerInABarrel
* GangstaStyle: Holding a gun, typically a pistol, sidewise

* GunsFiringUnderwater
* {{Hitscan}}: In video games, ballistics are simplified to the projectile traveling in a straight line and instantly hitting the first thing to cross its path
* HollywoodBlanks
* HollywoodSilencer
* InstantDeathBullet
* LawOfInverseRecoil: Media tends to portray powerful guns as not having a lot of recoil, while less powerful guns have their recoil exaggerated
* MisidentifiedWeapons
* MissingBackblast: Shoulder fired missles/rockets don't include the blast that goes out the rear of the launcher, unlike in real life
* OneBulletClips
* OneHandedShotgunPump
* OnlyAFleshWound

* RecklessGunUsage: Characters who don't know GunSafety mess with guns.

* RevolverCylinderSpin: Spinning a revolver's barrel to show off.

* ScopeSnipe: Scoped weapons are ridiculously accurate.

* WeaponRunningTime: The time a projectile takes to hit its target stretches so things can happen.

* ''Tabletopgame/BattleTech'' inverts the real life mechanics of large calibers of projectiles being more accurate at range; instead, the smallest class of Autocannon, the 6 ton AC/2, has ''significantly'' more range than the 14 ton AC/20. Justified by the writers, as they didn't want [[HumongousMecha BattleMech]] combat to turn into a sniper duel with mutual one-hit-kills that the larger weapons would enable. It's also canon that the caliber of the projectile has no bearing on the autocannon's stats: the ''Rifleman'' possesses a pair of 30mm autocannons, the ''Shadow Hawk'' mounts a 55mm gun, and the ''Marauder'' has a 120mm cannon, but all three of them are statistically identical, the 8 ton AC/5 with the same range and the same damage output. In modern sourcebooks, calibers aren't even mentioned to prevent this sort of weirdness.

* ''Tabletopgame/BattleTech'' inverts the real life mechanics of large calibers of projectiles being more accurate at range; instead, the smallest class of Autocannon, the 6 ton AC/2, has ''significantly'' more range than the 14 ton AC/20. Justified by the writers, as they didn't want [[HumongousMecha BattleMech]] combat to turn into a sniper duel with mutual one-hit-kills that the larger weapons would enable.

* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilRevelations2'': If you fit the level 3 Capacity mod to a Magnum, it can somehow hold 14 shots. The same holds true with the double-barrel shotgun, which can be modded to carry more than two shells.

* ''Series/TheMentalist'': Patrick Jane once tricks a man thinks is on the verge of committing a mass shooting with a machine gun he illegally owns into going through with it, only for it to turn out that the CBI team had replaced all his ammunition with blanks beforehand. Automatic weapons usually need significant, obvious modification to be able to fire blanks: without a bullet sealing the barrel, a gas-operated action won't receive enough pressure to cycle.

* The '''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' introductory adventure "Dead Man Stomp" opens with the [=PCs=] sitting at a table in a speakeasy with a man who gets shot in the head, and the text directly calls for one player to sustain mild mental trauma as blood from the victim's gaping exit wound splatters over him or her. Why they don't sustain ''physical'' trauma from the bullet that caused the exit wound is not mentioned.

* ''Film/MadMaxFuryRoad'' has a subversion when Furiosa balances a sniper rifle on Max's shoulder and lets off a few rounds. As in, the firing mechanism for a large-bore rifle was ''next to Max's ear'' and he shows no lingering effects. Considering the attention to detail in the rest of the movie's firearm use, this stands out as unusual.

* ''Film/ThatsMyBoy'': Chad talks about [[GunsDoNotWorkThatWay "emptying the clip"]] (any real Soldier or Marine knows the difference between a clip and a magazine). [[spoiler:It's a hint that [[PhonyVeteran he's not actually a Marine]].]]

* ''Literature/BernardSamsonSeries'': In-universe example. After killing a KGB agent, Bernard Samson has to explain to his superior that no, he couldn't have just shot to wound, hitting someone with a gun is difficult enough without aiming for specific body parts.

* A [[http://shopping.discovery.com/product-56798.html?jzid=40587982-0-0 Discovery Channel documentary]] actually took Oswald's rifle as well as ammunition from the same factory lot that was found in the book depository, and duplicated six of the seven wounds. The seventh would have occurred as well had the bullet not expended extra energy striking and breaking two rib bones of Governor Connolly compared to only one in the original incident. Striking all debate about the surroundings of the assassination, the Discovery Channel's accomplishment in catching a single bullet on high-speed cameras striking seven separate targets and doing so within half an inch of the bulls-eye certainly qualifies for the trope.
* The Carcano Mod. 1891-series rifles like Oswald's gun (a 91/38) were actually infamous for this kind of thing, and the munitions produced for the Royal Italian Army tended to either be not penetrate things they should (if the quality was bad) or to pierce the target all the way and exit without actually taking it down (if the quality was good), and universally compensated their extreme accuracy with poor stopping power. For this and other reasons the Italians adopted the Mod. 1938, basically a Mod. 1891 chambered for the new 7.35×51mm Carcano round (with more stopping power than the 6.5×52mm Carcano round of the Mod. 1891) and other improvements suggested by the experience of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI... Except Italy entered UsefulNotes/WorldWarII before they could build up any significant stock of the new round, prompting its abandonment and the switch to the 91/38 (a Mod. 1938 chambered for the old round) for logistic reasons.

* ''Film/JudgeDredd''. [[AbnormalAmmo The Double Whammy round]], which is two rounds fired at once. How it works is anyone's guess. The Lawgiver in the film has a secondary barrel underneath the main barrel that can be seen extending as Dredd calls for the Double Whammy round. It still doesn't make sense as the gun would need two strikers or hammers to fire and shouldn't diverge in flight to hit two separate targets unless they were [[AbnormalAmmo Heat Seeker]] rounds, which Dredd canonically does carry.

* From ''Film/FullMetalJacket''. Pvt. Pyle shoots [=GySgt.=] Hartman with an M14 rifle (a full-sized, powerful battle rifle) which does nothing to the bathroom wall behind Hartman even though the bullet would have passed straight through him at that range. Pyle then sits on a toilet, puts the muzzle of the weapon in his mouth and pulls the trigger, spraying the wall behind him with blood. In real life, Pyle's head would have been virtually obliterated and the wall behind him pulverized, between the supersonic shock wave from the round's passing and the propellant gases. Quite a major malfunction, when one thinks about it.

* ''Film/CHiPs'': Officer Perez wouldn't [[ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy miss so many shots]] in the climactic gunfight if the flip-up rear sight of her AR-15 wasn't folded down.

* ConcealmentEqualsCover

* EveryBulletIsATracer

* GangstaStyle
* GunsAkimbo

* {{Hitscan}}

* LawOfInverseRecoil

* MissingBackblast

* {{Overheating}}

* BottomlessMagazine

* BottomlessMagazi

* BlownAcrossTheRoom
* BottomlessMagazines