What do you think is the worst guntrope in media?

Status
Not open for further replies.
The trope that absolutely sends me over the edge is the "Witch Gun" or "Evil Gun" theme that I remember being popular in the 1960's but still persists. It is the theme of a gun circulating from person to person and as every person acquires this particular gun they proceed to do all kinds of evil and stupid deeds with it that they would not have done otherwise. I've seen this in shows from Dragnet, Barney Miller, to NCIS. Absolutely makes me gnash my teeth and spew venom!
 
All guns are registered to somebody.

A recovered bullet or fragment can be traced back to a gun. And every single time.

Guns are magical and one shot instantly stops and drops every person every time, especially if a handgun was used.

Only criminals and LEOs have guns.

If you disobey the above rule, you will either have your gun taken by a criminal or become a criminal yourself through misuse of the gun.



These and similar are by far the worse. What they are conditioning the ignorant masses to believe ends up, very quickly, leading to a loss of Rights and Liberties as well as good people being charged with crimes/going to prison, all because the media portrays and alternate reality and so many people don't have the real life experience or knowledge to know better.
 
My wife gets really when I comment about gun related stuff in the TV shows she watches.

-Incorrect sound effect (including the shotgun/handgun slide sound or revolver hammer cocking every time someone raises a gun on screen)
-Magical, endless magazines
-Mythical aiming prowess of every main character

The little hilarious errors are less egregious than the political erroneous/brainwashing statements about unregistered firearms/ammo and the mis-characterization of suppressors more quietly than a rabbit fart, or traceable ammunition. Those things and the portrayal that everyone with a gun falls into one of three categories: good guy (cop, military, etc.), bad guy, or angry/drunk redneck really bother me.
 
A big one for me is the sight picture depicted for every single sniper scene I've ever watched. No matter how far away the shooter is, the sight picture is of the reticle sitting perfectly still over some guy, usually from the waist up because of the magnification.

Going from memory - in Shooter, when he shoots the soup can from 1 mile away, the sight picture is a close up of the can, with the reticle sitting perfectly still.

Here's a pic - this is his view after he fires at the can from 1 mile away and somehow gets back on target to watch the hit: Clipboard01-9.jpg

I want to see them come out with a sniper movie where you can't really see the target and where the reticle is only on target between heartbeats.

And on an unrelated note - it bugs me how easy it is to break some guy's neck in the movies. A quick, effortless twist of the head, with less force than it takes to de-leg a cooked chicken, and the guy falls to the ground dead. My suspension of disbelief only goes so far - I wanna see them work for that kung fu neck break.
 
Last edited:
Mango88, there was a short lived Showtime series that ran from 97-99 called "Dead Man's Gun" that had that as the entire premise. The gun would somehow change hands or be found, and each episode would follow that character as the pistol changed their life. They replay it on Encore Westerns.

It really wasn't very good. Turns out the gun belonged to the Devil or somesuch, and was therefore actually cursed, so not exactly what you are talking about.

Also of note was the fact that it was not a Single Action Army, but rather an engraved (possibly with gold inlay? I don't remember) S&W breaktop.
 
"And on an unrelated note - it bugs me how easy it is to break some guy's neck in the movies. A quick, effortless twist of the head, with less force than it takes to de-leg a cooked chicken, and the guy falls to the ground dead. My suspension of disbelief only goes so far - I wanna see them work for that kung fu neck break."

Yeah, my Chiropractor does worse to me, and I'm still here :)
 
A recent episode of "Elementary" called the MP5 a smoothbore and implied all subguns are inaccurate because they are also smoothbore firearms. :eek:
 
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo racking Sig by snapping her hand down followed by a quick stop.
Mel Gibson shooting :) 100 yards with a Beretta 92.
 
How when there is a shooting they can identify the specific model of rifle such as it knowing it was magically a Remington 700 in 30.06 just by looking at the ballistics.
 
"How when there is a shooting they can identify the specific model of rifle such as it knowing it was magically a Remington 700 in 30.06 just by looking at the ballistics"
That's my favorite; when CSI determines that only one pistol was ever made with, let's say, 5 right hand rifling grooves :rolleyes:

The worst gun trope is the notion that no information regarding gun issues whatsoever is needed to write stories about them :banghead:. I've yet to find another issue reported with more willful ignorance (i.e. confusing "miscarriage" with "abortion," although the frequent conflation of "health care" with "health insurance" almost rises to the level of gun story inaccuracies)

TCB
 
BTOWN -I always look for recoil or lack of it. Even the big .45 Matt Dillon carried . "
Click to expand...

On GUNSMOKE, during the years that John Mantley was the Exec. Producer, the very first page of a GUNSMOKE script was advising the actors about the recoil of a real .45 Colt. Actors who would be "shooting" during filming of a script, should fake the recoil for authenticity. Any actor who had never fired a large caliber handgun could ask and the production company would have a prop man take that person to a range in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, and fire real .45 Colt cartridges through a Colt Single Action revolver, before filming.

Actors were advised that the blanks used were about ¼ of the powder load and a paper wad sealed the cartridge mouth, therefore no real recoil.

Some actors took advantage of the offer, others didn't and could not have cared less about recoil authenticity. Some of the directors didn't know how a .45 Colt "bucked" either, and didn't catch it when an actor shot his revolver and there was no recoil.

But at least some tried.

That's the way it is in show business. :)

L.W.
 
Warp said:
All guns are registered to somebody.

A recovered bullet or fragment can be traced back to a gun. And every single time.

Guns are magical and one shot instantly stops and drops every person every time, especially if a handgun was used.

Only criminals and LEOs have guns.

If you disobey the above rule, you will either have your gun taken by a criminal or become a criminal yourself through misuse of the gun.



These and similar are by far the worse. What they are conditioning the ignorant masses to believe ends up, very quickly, leading to a loss of Rights and Liberties as well as good people being charged with crimes/going to prison, all because the media portrays and alternate reality and so many people don't have the real life experience or knowledge to know better.
Click to expand...
Well said. And I agree. I also notice in the CSI shows anything and everything can be traced. Wonder if this is a plug by LE warning evil doers that you will always be caught.

The registration one is believed by many people, and ironically all women I have asked. "Isn't that registered?" "Oh, you're registered" "You have to be registered" etc etc. I've enlighten many. They always seem to be so surprised, and sometimes it backfires because they get defensive/upset after I inform them of this and think there should be a law requiring registration, and will probably vote on it the next time a Democrat gives them the chance to.
 
I have no intention of defending TV in general or CSI shows but so far as gun registration, I would like to point out that the city where CSI is located, Las Vegas, Nevada, does actually have gun registration, so their use of it atleast so far as those owned by city dwellers is not outside reality. 99.99% of everything else is science friction. Keep in mind there are locals where there do exist registration laws.
 
You're all talking about guns, but all I know is if I had some of those special super duper grenades they're using now, when I was in Vietnam, the war would have been over a hell of a lot quicker!

Hell, one super duper grenade could take out an entire house in todays flicks. They even have more flame than napalm - guess I wasn't around when they issued those!

Someone already mentioned it - supressed guns - phtt - standing 1 foot away and no one hears a thing - I want one of those too! Rifles with unlimited ammo - magical magazines that continually reload themselves during a fire fight with special no recol ammo that knocks the BG twelve feet away from where he's standing.

Or best of all - head shots where there's only a little hole in the front.

Don't get me started - what they don't show is how many illegal guns are being used - instead everyone is tracked directly to who it's registered to!

Have to stop now before I really get going!

Stay well people - enjoy our sport and stay healthy.
 
Or best of all - head shots where there's only a little hole in the front.
Click to expand...

Even better, a headshot where the wall, window, other guy next the head shot gets splattered with blood, suggesting the bullet went through the other side, but the wall, window or other guy are unharmed.
 
In the movie "2Guns" Markie Mark pulls out his Sig and draws down on a helicopter flying above him, strafing him and Denzel Washinton. Although the helo is probably 200' up and away and moving, Markie Mark ices the pilot with one shot!:eek: I realize it's Markie Mark, but c'mon!

And not merely a trope since it's based on fact, but has anyone here ever seen a sniper movie where the hero doesn't shoot another sniper thru the front of his scope?:rolleyes:
 
Other than the ones already mentioned; high up on my list are the "telephoto zoom" scopes.
And the scope reticule always has more stadia than a surveyor's theodolite. Which is all the more distracting, as those stadia are never in relation to the crosshairs.

My other pet peeve is training. Once All Is Lost, and the Last Recourse Is A Gun, all that is needed is 10, 20. sometimes 30, rounds. Usually these are fired at glass bottles with no backstop (and no range cleanup, either, ever). This one session makes them better shots than the evil, studied-for-a-lifetime, bad-guy gun "expert" who can shoot a .25acp into a soupcan at 1500m.

Also on my list would be when the good guy starts the firefight with a suitable longarm, with a 20 or 30 mag loaded, then fires about 10 rounds (or a 100), and tosses it down to change over to a handgun (this always despite there being either similar weapons or magazines as close as the handgun).

Oh, and all gunstores have a 'secret' backroom (larger than the store itself) with more arms in it than the Central Armory of the Dominican Republic. Even if there is no secret room, all it takes to make anything in an MG (even a revolver) is a screwdriver and some WD-40 and about 60 seconds.
 
Heh! Just finished watching "For a Few Dollars More". I loved the scene where Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef shooting each other's hats and the hats scooting several yards when shot.

And most expecially when Lee shoots Clint's hat off his head and it sails straight up in the air...to be shot 5 more times, each time bouncing further straight up!

God, I love those old westerns! Everybody's a crack shot!

:):)
 
Phaedrus/69 said:
In the movie "2Guns" Markie Mark pulls out his Sig and draws down on a helicopter flying above him, strafing him and Denzel Washinton. Although the helo is probably 200' up and away and moving, Markie Mark ices the pilot with one shot!:eek: I realize it's Markie Mark, but c'mon!

And not merely a trope since it's based on fact, but has anyone here ever seen a sniper movie where the hero doesn't shoot another sniper thru the front of his scope?:rolleyes:
Click to expand...
I don't recall there being a 'shot through the scope' scene in Shooter, also with Marky Mark.
 
bobalou said:
Mel Gibson shooting :) 100 yards with a Beretta 92.
Click to expand...

Which 100 yards? The 100 where he shot a precision smiley face (OK, maybe 100 feet...), or the 100 where he missed the rather large helicopter running a mag empty? Of course if you watch close enough, he missed that rather large ocean behind it as well. Guns are apparently more effective indoors.
 
Last edited:
Any time the CSI, Medical Examiner, or lead action hero looks at the recently deceased and pronounces

"They were shot with a 9mm - that's the same as the bad guy has."

Could it maybe have been a .38? Or a 10mm? I mean, skin is elastic so the hole stretches. How can you tell caliber looking at skin? Not to mention that no one seems to realize that 9mm is pretty damn close to the same diameter as a .38. Or a .380. Or a 9mm Mak. You get the idea.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

W
  • Locked
you drive a what?
2 3 4 5 6 7
Replies
151
Views
6K
dadman
D
O
  • Locked
What do you guys think of this?
Replies
2
Views
585
Justin
Justin
Z
  • Locked
A template for the media
Replies
5
Views
564
bogie
B
B
  • Locked
Do you think there is gun-placement in movies?
2
Replies
44
Views
2K
Kenneth Lew
K
3
  • Locked
Gun registration-what do you think of this?
Replies
9
Views
669
OB-1
O
Back
Top