History Main / GunsDoNotWorkThatWay

* ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'': In "Dog Dale Afternoon", when Dale claims to have killed Rusty Shackleford, a police officer makes a pumping motion on the forestock of his weapon like a pump-action shotgun. Granted, there are actually shotguns, including pump-action models, with detachable magazines like his gun has - but the weapon in question is otherwise a straight animated copy of the M14, which is an automatic CoolGuns/{{battle rifle|s}}, not a manually-operated shotgun.

* ''Film/{{Ronin}}'':

** In ''Tripwire'', Reacher gets his hands on a [[RareGuns Steyr GB]], then later screws on a suppressor stolen from a gun runner on the end of the barrel; The Steyr GB has a ported barrel to allow its gas delayed-blowback system to function; a ported barrel would interfere with the effectiveness of a suppressor, since the device is meant to hold the explosive gases and slow them down in order to reduce the noise of the pistol. Then again, [[https://www.pinterest.com/pin/552253973029782439/?nic_v2=1a6VWkcN2 a German gun company attempted to put a suppressor on a licensed copy of the GB]], though its effectiveness is unknown.

* The Mk. 13 Mod 0 appears in ''VideoGame/SaintsRow2''. Strangely, it's attached to the AR-50 Special (the standard version, the AR-50 XMAC, is an [[RareGuns/AssaultRifles XM8]]). Worse, the Boss loads the grenades from the muzzle, as if the launcher was a GP-25.

[[folder:Machinima]]
* ''Machinima/FreemansMind'': The series is generally [[GeniusBonus well done]], but it's clear that both Freeman and Ross Scott don't know anything about firearms.
** While fighting the Black-Ops assassins, Freeman says that he thinks their armour could protect them from his 9mm submachine gun, but not his buckshot-spewing shotgun. It should be the other way around; the 9mm round, especially the standard-issue NATO type, has relatively high penetration (at least compared to other common stubby pistol rounds in use in the '90s like .45 ACP or .38 Special), to the point of being able to breach lower-end (class II-A/II) soft body armour with multiple closely-spaced hits. Buckshot, on the other hand, consists of low velocity spherical pellets that are almost completely ineffective against even the most basic types of body armour.
** When he first picks up the pistol, Freeman calls it a Glock, and notes that the safety is off. Glocks don't have manual safeties that can be freely toggled on and off, they have built-in safeties, including a "safe action" piece on the trigger to prevent the gun from going off without a user having their finger on the trigger and properly pulling it.
** In Episode 12 of ''Freeman's Mind 2'', Freeman attempts to shoot a Hunter-Chopper with his magnum revolver, guessing that the heavier-calibre weapon would succeed where his [=MP7=] failed. Two problems with that. One, any armoured helicopter is going to at bare minimum be proofed against 7.62x39mm ball and 5.56x45mm ball (some of the most common rounds in the world) which, as rifle rounds, have far greater penetration than nearly any pistol round (bar novelty guns and certain tungsten sub-calibre penetrators), to the point that a weakened subsonic 5.56x45mm round can still zip through [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZxMkV0XeoQ multiple class III-A]] vests like so much paper when just one of them can stop a .44 magnum round cold. Two, the [=MP7=]'s 4.6x30mm rounds, while not as penetrative as high powered rifle rounds, still have better penetration than most pistol rounds (including .44 Magnum) due to their 700-800 m/s muzzle velocity and steel cores. Though, because the Hunter-Chopper is likely constructed of a similar material to other Combine technologies and structures, any form of small-arms fire likely won't even make a dent, to begin with.
* ''Machinima/TheBadAssassin'': TJ says that the only reason he tried to hold up the Russians with an empty pistol in episode 1 is because the gun jammed which he think happened because he forgot to put bullets in the magazine.
[[/folder]]

* The Heckler & Koch [=MP7=] in ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' features an amusing oversight where during its reload animation, Freeman never actually loads new ammunition into the gun; instead, he just [[UnorthodoxReload slaps the bottom of the gun and a new clip magically loads itself inside.]]

* Parodied in one of the promotional videos for ''VideoGame/{{Portal 2}}'', specifically the one advertising turrets. "Plus, [[CartridgesInFlight we fire the whole bullet. That's 65% more bullet per bullet.]]" A close-up schematic shows the turrets actually ''flinging'' cartridges forward using springs! The ones in the game do seem to actually fire them, at least going by the muzzle flashes.

* ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyInfiniteWarfare'' has a particularly egregious example in the futuristic energy weapons that fire bolts of energy yet eject spent cartridge casings after each shot. Kinetic weapons plausibly do eject spent cartridge casings after firing, but directed-energy weapons are not supposed to utilize kinetic cartridges and eject their casings the way kinetic weapons would, as they're supposed to utilize battery packs as their ammo and, due to not utilizing any ballistic cartridges, should lack a casing ejection port (and thus have no spent casings for ejection after firing). This is made all the more egregious with the standard WWII-era M1 Garand featured in the game, which is depicted as firing bolts of energy instead of the traditional bullets it usually spews out. Another unusual weapon falling into this trope is the Karma-45, a futuristic pastiche of the KRISS Vector in previous ''Call of Duty'' games that is modified to hold two magazines at once and has double firing barrels. This is taken further with the suppressors, which can be mounted in any weapon that is not a grenade or rocket launcher. Suppressors cannot effectively be mounted onto a directed-energy weapon IRL as the directed energy can destroy the suppressor and possibly the firing barrel, and there is no way to reduce, let alone silence, the firing report of a directed-energy weapon.

* ''WebVideo/ForgottenWeapons'': [[https://youtu.be/E6LrYNZOBHk This video]] seeks to dispel several gun myths that even Wiki/ThisVeryWiki propagates.

* ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyInfiniteWarfare'' has a particularly egregious example in the futuristic energy weapons that fire bolts of energy yet eject spent cartridge casings after each shot. Kinetic weapons plausibly do eject spent cartridge casings after firing, but directed-energy weapons are not supposed to utilize kinetic cartridges and eject their casings the way kinetic weapons would, as they're supposed to utilize battery packs as their ammo and, due to not utilizing any ballistic cartridges, should not be ejecting casings after firing. This is made all the more egregious with the standard WWII-era M1 Garand featured in the game, which is depicted as firing bolts of energy instead of the traditional bullets it usually spews out. Another unusual weapon falling into this trope is the Karma-45, a futuristic pastiche of the KRISS Vector in previous ''Call of Duty'' games that is modified to hold two magazines at once and has double firing barrels. This is taken further with the suppressors, which can be mounted in any weapon that is not a grenade or rocket launcher. Suppressors cannot effectively be mounted onto a directed-energy weapon IRL as the directed energy can destroy the suppressor and possibly the firing barrel, and there is no way to reduce, let alone silence, the firing report of a directed-energy weapon.

* ''Film/{{Thunderball}}'': When Bond drops his gun off the roof, it fires. It would be very rare for that to happen.
* ''Film/TomorrowNeverDies'': When Carver orders Stamper to SinkTheLifeBoats, he reminds him to use the same type of ammunition carried by Chinese fighter planes. Since the 1950s or so, fighter planes have primarily carried autocannons firing 20mm (or larger) explosive shells, which would be all but impossible to load and fire from any gun small enough for a single person to carry.

* ''Anime/FinalFantasyUnlimited'': The [[MageMarksman Magun]], wielded by Kaze, essentially acts as a medium for conjuring Summons through the Soil Charge Triad.

* In ''Series/{{Monk}}'', in one episode Monk and Stottlemyer discover a single 7.62mm*39 shell casing and immediately deduce that the shooter was using an AK-pattern rifle, that the ammunition is military-grade, and Stottlemeyer orders an investigation into a Russian connection as their first lead. Too bad the 7.62mm*39 cartridge is actually extremely common, used in many popular and legal rifles in America (even in California with their tough gun laws, it's a popular hunting cartridge), and you can buy that type of ammunition at any Wal-Mart.

** Donnelly capturing Reese and Carter...even though he's carrying a Glock 19, which doesn't have a safety catch or external hammer.

** While fighting the Black-Ops assassins, Freeman says that he thinks their armour could protect them from his 9mm submachine gun, but not his buckshot-spewing shotgun. It should be the other way around; the 9mm round, especially the standard-issue NATO type, has relatively high penetration (at least compared to other common stubby pistol rounds in use in the 90s like .45 ACP or .38 Special), to the point of being able to breach lower-end (class II-A/II) soft body armour with multiple closely-spaced hits. Buckshot, on the other hand, consists of low velocity spherical pellets that are almost completely ineffective against even the most basic types of body armour.
** When he first picks up the pistol, Freeman calls it a Glock, and notes that the safety is off. Glocks don't have safeties. Well, technically they do, but it's not something you can switch on or off. They just have a built in "safe action" piece on the trigger to prevent the gun from going off too easily.
** In Episode 12, Freeman attempts to shoot a Hunter-Chopper with his magnum revolver, guessing that the heavier-calibre weapon would succeed where his [=MP7=] failed. Two problems with that. One, any armoured helicopter is going to bare minimum be proof against 7.62x39mm ball and 5.56x45mm ball (some of the most common rounds in the world) which, as rifle rounds, have far greater penetration than nearly any pistol round (bar novelty guns and certain tungsten sub-calibre penetrators), to the point that a weakened subsonic 5.56x45mm round can still zip through [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZxMkV0XeoQ multiple class III-A]] vests like so much paper when just one of them can stop a .44 magnum round cold. Two, the [=MP7=]'s 4.6x30mm rounds, while not as penetrative as high powered rifle rounds, still have better penetration than most pistol rounds (including .44 magnum) due to their 700-800 m/s muzzle velocity and steel cores. Though, because the Hunter-Chopper is likely constructed of a similar material to other Combine technologies and structures, any form of small-arms fire likely won't even make a dent, to begin with.

Guns and/or ammo, as depicted by [[ArtisticLicense fiction]]. Being among the most commonly employed weapons nowadays, they feature prominently in fiction - and often behave in ways that RealLife firearms/ammunition doesn't behave. This can be either due to authors not knowing how they actually behave, or because the story would not work with realistic behaviour.

* 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''. It's like the DramaticGunCock trope pushed UpToEleven.

* The death of Tara in ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. As shocking and tragic as it is, there's still a certain amount of FridgeLogic as far as how Warren was able to accidentally shoot her in back, from the side. Unless it was a REALLY improbable ricochet.
* The Series/{{Columbo}} episode "[[Recap/ColumboS03E04 Double Exposure]]" has the episode's murderer use a calibration converter on a .45 gun from his own office in order to shoot a .22 bullet at his victim. The "calibration converter" would not work at all (and is mis-named). ''Caliber'' conversion kits ''do'' exist for many guns, but they require disassembly of the weapon, because the whole barrel gets replaced, and often other parts.[[note]]The .45 automatic shown, for example, requires a new slide and a different recoil spring.[[/note]] It's not as simple as dropping a tube down the muzzle of a gun like the killer does in this episode, it would just fly out when the gun was fired. Of course, [[ComicallyMissingThePoint that in itself would probably]] [[ImprobableWeaponUsage still]] [[ArtisticLicenseGunSafety kill someone.]]

* ''Series/{{Daredevil2015}}'': Right in the opening teaser of the pilot episode, Turk loads his bullet with the slide conveniently letting Matt know where he is and that he has a gun. But two minutes later he does it again even after having fired bullets and not putting in a new magazine.

* The Series.{{Columbo}} episode "[[Recap/ColumboS03E04 Double Exposure]]" has the episode's murderer use a calibration converter on a .45 gun from his own office in order to shoot a .22 bullet at his victim. The "calibration converter" would not work at all (and is mis-named). ''Caliber'' conversion kits ''do'' exist for many guns, but they require disassembly of the weapon, because the whole barrel gets replaced, and often other parts.[[note]]The .45 automatic shown, for example, requires a new slide and a different recoil spring.[[/note]] It's not as simple as dropping a tube down the muzzle of a gun like the killer does in this episode, it would just fly out when the gun was fired. Of course, [[ComicallyMissingThePoint that in itself would probably]] [[ImprobableWeaponUsage still]] [[ArtisticLicenseGunSafety kill someone.]]

* ''Series/StargateSG1'': In "[[Recap/StargateSG1S5E8TheTomb The Tomb]]", Jack O'Neill and a Russian SG team officer working with SG-1 compare weapons, during which Jack incorrectly describes the standard rounds for the FN P90 as Teflon-coated. FN Herstal only makes its proprietary 5.7x28mm round in copper-jacketed. And contrary to CommonKnowledge that probably brought this on (SG teams fight a lot of heavily armored opponents), [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teflon-coated_bullet Teflon coatings]] were meant as a solution to increased barrel wear from firing harder bullets, and actually ''reduce'' penetration of typical Earth body armor. (Though they ''do'' work better against harder targets, like the metal armor typically used by Jaffa and Ori soldiers in the show, so that part is AccidentallyAccurate.)

* ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'': In real life, bullets cannot knock someone down. They are designed to pierce their way through flesh, not send the target flying across the room. Yet bullets are repeatedly shown to knock Terminators to the ground.

* From ''Film/FullMetalJacket''. Pvt. Pyle shoots GySgt. Hartman with an M-14 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/ItTheTerrorFromBeyondSpace'': Who knew that the M1 was flexible? [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyN88M81HAU&list=PLZbXA4lyCtqoRWpifZcyIFm7Yf_GJlGpv&index=6 Go to about the forty second mark.]]

*** The Beretta M forces Bond to surrender is the M1934 in .380 ACP. In the books, Bond carried a 418 in .25 ACP, which got caught on his holster when he attached a suppressor, allowing his enemy to stab him with a poisoned blade (here, it's stated to have jammed). It's replaced by a Walther PP, in the same caliber, but is stated to be the shorter PPK in 7.65mm, which would in fact be inferior to the M1934. When he shoots Professor Dent, he is inexplicably using an FN 1910 in the calibre, with a (fake) suppressor mounted (the film's armourer could not find a suppressor that would fit the PP). He also simply twists and yanks the suppressor, whereas the threads are too fine for such an action.
** ''Film/LiveAndLetDie'':
*** Bond takes Rose's Smith & Wesson Model 19, then claims the serial numbers were filed off, yet he glances at the right side; the serial number on S&W revolvers is always on the butt plate. Later, when she finds another Model 19 on Quarrel Jr.'s boat, Quarrel tells her the safety was on, despite revolvers generally not having safeties.
*** Rose Carver holds Bond and Quarrel Jr. at gun point, only for Bond to point out that Quarrel Jr. is a friend and Quarrel to point out she has the safety on... despite the revolver not having a safety.

* ''Film/{{Jumanji}}'': Fitting with the rest of the game, Van Pelt's elephant gun seems less like an actual firearm, and more like an amalgamation of terrifying gun tropes; it's ''[[{{BFG}} massive]]'', somehow both clip-fed ''and'' lever-action (the better for a DramaticGunCock), and features a large crosshair-shaped ironsight that sits so far off the gun you'd have to aim at an angle to line it up with the barrel.

* ''Film/LethalWeapon3'': Thin plastic porta-potties stops armor piercing bullets while normal bullets go right through metal sheds. Then later the same kind of armor piercing bullets fired from the same gun blows enourmous holes in a bulldozer scoop.

* ''Film/TheNegotiator'': Sabian seemed to be going for a "[[Film/{{Scream}} stay to the side and don't go too deep]]" approach, but guns are not knives). Sabian points out that if Frost had shot him, it would have been worse.

** ''The Killing Floor'' and ''The Enemy'' depict the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ithaca_Mag-10 Ithaca Roadblocker]] as a pump-action shotgun instead of a semi-automatic one and has it in the hands of both a [[PsychoForHire cleaner]] and an AWOL soldier; those guns were designed for law enforcement and while it's possible that a civilian could get his hands on one, [[ImproperlyPlacedFirearms its very unlikely that one would be in the armed forces]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Nocturne}}'': The shotgun Stranger uses is a double-barreled boxlock, which he handles and fires like a pump-action.

* ''Film/DrNo'': A pair of scenes are taken almost verbatim from [[Literature/DrNo the novel]], but with the guns replaced by ones that make no sense for the scenes in question.
** The alleged 6-shot Smith & Wesson Dent uses (which correctly should have been a revolver) is actually a suppressed 7+1 Colt 1911 automatic, the slide of which locks back after the sixth shot anyway, and then returns to battery on its own after it initially leaves Dent's hands. Additionally, Smith and Wesson didn't manufacture a 1911 at the time anyway. Especially strange because the production crew ''did'' have Smith and Wesson revolvers on hand.
** The Beretta M forces Bond to surrender is the M1934 in .380 ACP. In the books, Bond carried a 418 in .25 ACP, which got caught on his holster when he attached a suppressor, allowing his enemy to stab him with a poisoned blade (here, it's stated to have jammed). It's replaced by a Walther PP, in the same caliber, but is stated to be the shorter PPK in 7.65mm, which would in fact be inferior to the M1934. When he shoots Professor Dent, he is inexplicably using an FN 1910 in the calibre, with a (fake) suppressor mounted (the film's armourer could not find a suppressor that would fit the PP). He also simply twists and yanks the suppressor, whereas the threads are too fine for such an action.

* ''Film/LiveAndLetDie'':
** Bond takes Rose's Smith & Wesson Model 19, then claims the serial numbers were filed off, yet he glances at the right side; the serial number on S&W revolvers is always on the butt plate. Later, when she finds another Model 19 on Quarrel Jr.'s boat, Quarrel tells her the safety was on, despite revolvers generally not having safeties.
** Rose Carver holds Bond and Quarrel Jr. at gun point, only for Bond to point out that Quarrel Jr. is a friend and Quarrel to point out she has the safety on... [[GunsDoNotWorkThatWay despite the revolver not having a safety.]]

* ''Film/{{Skyfall}}'': The assassin assembles a bolt action rifle... which fires several times without manipulating the bolt during his hand-to-hand combat with Bond.

* ''Series/{{Reno911}}'': Happens in pretty much all the bulletproof vest testing skits, from cartoon physics to Junior describing a gun as a ".357 Magnum, 50 caliber".

* ''Series/{{Supergirl2015}}'': While the armed robber in the pizza joint is waving his shotgun around, you hear the ''clack-clack'' [[DramaticGunCock sound of a pump-action shotgun being cycled]]... except he's clearly carrying a double-barreled break-action shotgun.