History Main / GunsDoNotWorkThatWay

* ArtisticLicenseGunSafety: GunSafety is ignored for story reasons.

* In ''Film/{{Aftershock}}'', Mrs. Martínez shoots Pollo once in the chest with her Glock-looking pistol, and the slide stays cocked back as it would if the magazine had been emptied. The slide is then shown returned to the forward position in the next frame. Someone with even rudimentary gun knowledge could have caught and corrected this easily during filming.

* Played in various ways in ''Film/TheFifthElement''. Zorg demonstrated a "replay" feature on his custom machine gun that actually ''makes'' its subsequent shots home in on the target of the first hit, regardless of which direction the gun is actually aimed (much to the surprise, then applause of the prospective buyers). Police fire ricochets off of Korben's cab early on, and Zorg successfully wounds Leeloo through a ceiling ventilation duct.

* AKA47
* AllOrNothingReloads
* ArbitraryGunPower
* ArtisticLicenseGunSafety
* BangBangBANG
* BlastingItOutOfTheirHands

* PrettyLittleHeadshots
* RecklessGunUsage
* ReliablyUnreliableGuns
* RevolverCylinderSpin
* RightHandedLeftHandedGuns
* ScopeSnipe
* ShootOutTheLock
* ShortRangeLongRangeWeapon
* ShortRangeShotgun
* SniperPistol
* UniversalAmmunition

* YouAlwaysHearTheBullet

* ''Series/{{Blindspot}}'': The villain in the pilot rapidly fires multiple shots from a 3D printed plastic gun. While such designs ''can'' actually fire a bullet, they can only fire a single round due to the pressure and heat from the shot damaging and warping the plastic. This may be an example of AndSomeOtherStuff; the cops would probably like it if some moron ended up with a useless gun after one shot.

* An episode of ''Series/SWAT2017 in season 6 has a federal agent engage antagonists with with her assault rifle, which, thanks to a close-up quite visibly, [[https://www.imfdb.org/images/b/b8/SWAT17S6E03_04.jpg doesn't have a magazine in it]]. Something a federal agent should notice is missing.

-->-- Caption on '''[[http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Main_Page IMFDB,]]''' on the ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty: VideoGame/ModernWarfare 3'' [[http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Call_of_Duty:_Modern_Warfare_3#Colt_M16A4 page]]

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3'' has the Single Action Army revolver, which the player obtains late in the game (and can obtain for use in the NewGamePlus if a certain choice at the final gameplay segment after the FinalBoss fight.) In order to replicate Ocelot's ability to ricochet bullets to hit targets, Naked Snake shooting a hard surface will cause the bullet to bounce and travel in a different direction. Sometimes the bullet will bounce in ways that violate the laws of physics (such as shooting a wall straight on will make the bullet bounce way off to the side).
* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'': Slow-motion scenes of The Boss firing the Patriot show the bullets tumbling in flight tip over tail pretty much from the moment they exit the barrel. There is absolutely no reason the gun should do that to the bullets, and there would be no practical benefit to be gained from firing bullets that behave like that.

* [[http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Call_of_Duty:_Modern_Warfare_3#Colt_M16A4 The player character]] in ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare3'' reloads the M203 mounted under his [=M16A4=]. Note the fire selector set to "look I just broke the fire selector."

* In the movie ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit?'' this is parodied by Eddie Valiant pulling out a cartoon gun, with cartoon "bullets" that are alive, that he's able to talk to. After he shoots them, they go a distance then stop, trying to figure out which way to go. They make a [[{{Roboteching}} 90 degree turn]], ''the wrong way''. Valiant remarks, "Dum dums."

* ''Film/ThePatriot'': Flintlock firearms are loaded much faster than what is possible in real life. Case in point: after Tavington shoots Reverend Oliver with his pistol, he has his next round loaded and ready as soon as the reverend hits the ground. A real soldier from the era could have his gun loaded in 20-30 seconds, minimum. Doubles as an [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality acceptable suspension of disbelief]] in order to keep tension high during action scenes.

** One of the major plot points involves the "bad bullets" version of this trope, where a man empties a high-caliber revolver at Jules and Vincent (at almost point blank range), but completely misses them. After killing him, Jules and Vincent examine the bullet holes in the wall, which the camera could not see until they stepped back, suggesting that the bullets should have passed through them. Although this incident ''is'' considered freakish and miraculous by the pair. As in, one of them actually thinks it was divine intervention. There's a continuity error in this scene as well - looking closely at the previous scene shows the bullet holes in the wall ''before'' the gunman starts shooting. [[note]]Thus suggesting an alternate explanation of the scene: The gun was loaded with blanks.[[/note]]

** Another continuity error is when they show the scene at the beginning, Jules fires all the bullets in his gun and the slide is locked back. When they show it again at the end, Jules is not out of bullets and shoots the last guy.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Boondocks}}'':In the episode "A Date With the Health Inspector," Gin Rummy wielded a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jxt3KOsGlI truly bizzare mishmash of an Assault Rifle.]] First, the barrel is weirdly segmented, like it has multiple attatchments screwed onto it one after the other, it has a sniper scope ''and'' a foresight, it lacks a stock, and, most bizzarely, it has a pump-action ''reload'', which is operated by a vertical foregrip attatched to the underside of the barrel!

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': Colonel "Iron Hand" Straken's model's shotgun has both box and tube magazines.

[[folder:Light Novel]]
* ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'': When [[spoiler: Death Gun]] prepares to shoot [[spoiler: Sinon]], he pulls back the slide and keeps his hand on it as it moves forward. Automatic pistols are designed around the tension of the spring, and this could cause it to jam. Though it did [[RuleOfCool add to the drama]].
[[/folder]]

!!Examples

* In ''Film/{{Aftershock}}'', Mrs. Martínez shoots Pollo once in the chest with her Glock-looking pistol, and the slide stays cocked back as it would if the clip had been emptied. The slide is then shown returned to the forward position in the next frame. Someone with even rudimentary gun knowledge could have caught and corrected this easily during filming.

* 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.]] In contrast, when [=NPCs=] reload the gun, they can be seen removing a magazine and putting in a new one... except that they load it into the gun's foregrip. This too is an oversight, as originally the [=MP7=] was going to be a Heckler & Koch [=MP5K=] instead, and the animations for reloading it were simply copied over.

* The shotgun's damage upgrade in ''VideoGame/Bioshock2'' entails cutting down the barrels, which the game insists makes it more powerful. It begs the question of why the developers think long-barreled shotguns are so commonly used in both sporting ''and'' military applications. Cutting the barrel down on a shotgun widens the spread a little (not as much as you'd think, though), but it also drastically reduces the muzzle velocity, making a SawedOffShotgun considerably ''less'' powerful compared to a longer-barreled version.

* ''Series/{{Angel}} "The Magic Bullet": The SlowMotion bullet fired out of Fred's gun is clearly a rifle bullet rather than the much shorter round that would be fired from a revolver.

* ''VideoGame/DeepRockGalactic'': A minor example with the Engineer's Warthog Auto 210 shotgun. It's a semi-automatic shotgun that uses a magazine, and is pumped after reloading it. Possibly [[HandWave hand waved]] by the fact that the game takes place in the future, meaning alternative firing mechanisms may have been invented by now.

* ''VideoGame/{{Starlancer}}'': Late in the game, there's a cinematic depicting Alliance infantry attacking the Coalition base on Titan. Said infantry are armed with ''flamethrowers'', complete with pilot light blazing below the barrel of the weapon. While there's a simple {{Doylist}} explanation for this -- [[RuleOfCool the weapons look awesome]] -- it's hard to come up with a {{Watsonian}} reason for why ''every'' infantryman is equipped this way, despite the opposition canonically having [[EnergyWeapon Frickin' Laser Beams]], KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter, and other armaments that don't have an ArbitraryMinimumRange.

* 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.]] In contrast, when NPCs reload the gun, they can be seen removing a magazine and putting in a new one... except that they load it into the gun's foregrip. This too is an oversight, as originally the [=MP7=] was going to be a Heckler & Koch [=MP5K=] instead, and the animations for reloading it were simply copied over.

* ''Film/ThatsMyBoy'': Chad talks about [[GunsDoNotWorkThatWay "emptying the clip"]] (any real Soldier or Marine knows the difference between a clip and a magazine).

* Creator.ChickenPika: In "Michael's Jamacian Rampage", when Mike decides that [[DisproportionateRetribution gunning down a drug dealer who scammed him by selling him rabbit shit instead of weed is a good course of action]], he takes an AK-47, chambers a round, disengages the safety, and goes to town on the dealer. One problem; Kalashnikov rifles can't chamber a round while the safety is engaged, as the fire selector obstructs the charging handle when it's on safe.