What movies/tv shows portray civilian gun ownership as totally normal?

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The character Robin from "How I Met Your Mother" comes to mind. There's one scene where she's at a shooting range with what appeared to be a DE in .50.
 
While not entirely in tune with the premise of this post, since guns are used in the main plot, I thought "The Adventures of Tintin" had a wholly grounded viewpoint. The title character is essentially a European teenager, yet he is comfortable around firearms and versed in their use. He even has what appears to be a Walther PP when answering his apartment door late at night. Later, he shoots down an airplane with a Browning Hi-Power.
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Indeed, I felt that the portrayal of firearms used frequently and proficiently -- by a young person no less -- in righteous defense was extremely unexpected and refreshing.

However, this and many other examples given seem to violate the constraints of the OP's question as the use of those arms was pertinent to the plot.

In other words, we know young Mr. Tintin carries a pocket pistol and is well-trained in using various firearms -- but we only know that because he's required to use them in the story. If not for that, if he simply went about his business as most of us do every day, firearms would not be a visible presence in the story, except as placed in a scene specifically for some reason.
 
In other words, we know young Mr. Tintin carries a pocket pistol and is well-trained in using various firearms -- but we only know that because he's required to use them in the story. If not for that, if he simply went about his business as most of us do every day, firearms would not be a visible presence in the story, except as placed in a scene specifically for some reason.
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I guess you were right in your earlier post then. Movies won't show the guns being used unless it's pertanent to the plot, because there's just not enough time. Unless you count scenes where the gun is used just as sort of a background for the scene (like when the Senator and the Colonel are talking in Shooter while the Senator is shooting clays) or as just a gag.

Scenes from Second-Hand Lions come to mind all of a sudden, when they're fishing with shotguns (that scene was downright hillarious) and when they use corn for sporting clays.
 
there is no reason to write in a gun unless it furthers the plot in some way.
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That absolutely is the standard practice for screenwriters and has been for a long time. The firearms are used to further the plot and drive the action. So if a character has a firearm, it WILL be used. To a ridiculous extent in many cases. It's gotten to be just lazy writing. If you're stuck in a script, you throw in a firearm for the characters to wrestle over. I've seen that exact scene at least one thousand times in movies and TV. Brandishing, wrestling, reverse brandishing, some pithy words from the hero and then on to the commercial.

It's hard to think of any film or TV show that really normalizes firearms without using them as a plot device. One film that springs to mind is "The Ranger, The Cook and the Hole in the Sky" which is a very nice Sam Elliot TV movie about forest service workers around 1919. The young ranger carries a heavy framed .38 for snakes. Though even then I think it was drawn and ineffectually fired at a snake. Can't remember for sure.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114235/
 
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Take firearms out of the question, and when is ANYTHING in a movie that isn't important to the plot? Even if the movie has no plot.
 
There are many things that help flesh out a character but don't play a role in the plot. From clothing to cars. They're just part of the scenery. They help to tell you a little about a person and also give you a sense of the time and place. But firearms are really just plot devices. They get things moving forward from one scene to the other. In many respects they stopped being firearms a very long time ago. The screenwriters use them as a sort of totem/symbol for action and movement.

Ever notice the absurd number of firearms stuck or cut-n-pasted onto DVD covers and movie posters? Often in films that feature few shootouts. They're a symbol of action.

I just thought of a film that uses at least one firearm for building character without a shootout: David Fincher's Zodiac. Dave Toschi's famous upside-down rig is featured, but he never draws his firearm. The weapon is featured solely to establish Toschi's off-beat personality. Like the animal crackers he eats. I don't think that's a conscious choice by the director. It's simply the result of his obsessive fixation on PRECISE details, right down to the typewriters used by the Chronicle or the type of sandwiches people ate in the early 70's. Toschi never draws iron because he never did in real life. He never caught the guy.
 
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Just thought of another one, Chicago-set lawyer show, "The Good Wife" had a fairly well-balanced episode where a gun-savvy employee gets her anti-gun employer a (quite illegal, BTW, per Chicago law) handgun and the only "shoot-out" in the episode is the employee with another (not her boss) lawyer at an indoor range.

Interesting quirk about the range scene is that each of them holds his/her handgun in the right hand and leans over to close the right eye and aim with the left. Kinda bizarre (although I tried it just for grins and it works okay).

W
 
Interesting quirk about the range scene is that each of them holds his/her handgun in the right hand and leans over to close the right eye and aim with the left. Kinda bizarre (although I tried it just for grins and it works okay).
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That's actually the standard way for folks who are cross-dominant to shoot handguns. Usually it's just a slight turn of the head, not "leaning over," but that's the general idea -- right hand operation, left eye aiming.

With rifles or shotguns a "weak-side" dominant-eyed person is usually best-served to shoot from the "weak" shoulder so their dominant eye can give them a better sight picture and they don't have to close or squint one eye to shoot.
 
To Kleanbore: The gun used in "To Kill a Mockingbird" is central to the plot. When used by the main character, to shoot a rabid dog, it is showing that he is not just some cerebral, high minded attorney but a practical man who is a crack shot as well. Especially in the setting of the movie, the deep south, proficiency with a rifle would be seen as a sign of manhood.

As others have stated, the sight of a gun without relevance to the plot would be a distraction and possibly cause confusion since viewers would keep waiting to see when the gun will come into play. Even a detail about a gun is only shown when it is needed to advance the plot. If you have ever seen the Coen brothers film "Blood Simple", at one point a character takes her husband's revolver, opens the cylinder, and you see several rounds (but not all chambers with a round). Late in the film the gun comes into play, and the specific number and placement of the rounds becomes key to the outcome of the action.

What might be most interesting would be a film or TV show where a key character, in the course of, lets say, taking off his coat after being at work all day, also removes a concealed handgun, placing it on a counter, or in a drawer, etc. without any further reference to it. This would show an ordinary citizen who just happens to carry a gun. If the individual were a character who is seen in a generally positive perspective, all the better.
 
The TV series "Smallville". Although the guns were very often a part of the plots or subplots, concealed or open carry of firearms never appeared to be a big deal to any of the other characters.

The TV series "Justified". Although, once again, often part of the plot, it is built in to the series that every one in those hollers has a gun.
 
Despite being an archetypical hero, Indiana Jones is, at his base, a private citizen. I don't think he'd be so well protected on his expeditions today, though.

I think Chekhov would object.
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"If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it's not going to be fired, it shouldn't be hanging there." Anton Chekhov, 1860-1904
 
Indeed, I felt that the portrayal of firearms used frequently and proficiently -- by a young person no less -- in righteous defense was extremely unexpected and refreshing.
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Even more surprising; it's from Steven "Beat Your Guns into Walkie-Talkies" Spielberg. I suppose he could say he was being true to the source material, or "it portrays a different time".

Supposedly, they're working on a sequel. It will be interesting to see if it keeps the same vibe. Might be a while, though. Motion capture can take a long time, and the first one was in production for over three years.
 
Dain, what does that phrase even mean? "Beat your guns into walkie talkies"?
 
I have mentioned this before in an old post but in the 1930s

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Only_Angels_Have_Wings

in the movie "Only Angles have Wings" IIRC every male character is shown carrying a revolver in an open holster in every scene and yet there is never any mention made of the guns "at all" and the guns fired for any reason.

I can't remember about the chief female character, she may have been carrying as well.

In that movie carrying a revolver was just as normal as wearing pants!

Edit: I just found some clips from the movie on youtube:

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q...1586A1A3F7FCE7B34BF015&view=detail&FORM=VIRE5
 
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Come to think of it, last season, "Modern Family" had an episode where a female character went to the range to relieve stress. It was followed up later with a mysterious coupon being mailed to her house, which she pretended to not understand. :)
 
Dain, what does that phrase even mean? "Beat your guns into walkie talkies"?
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In the later releases of "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial", Spielberg wiped the guns out of the hands of the FBI men chasing the kids, and replaced them with CGI walkie-talkies. It was taken as a PC anti-gun gesture, although Spielberg has no problem arming archeology professors, Nazis, and brutal Japanese soldiers. That's why Tintin was a pleasant surprise.
 
Somewhere on a croquet forum there is a similar thread with people lamenting the lack of croquet players in mainstream media.
 
Movie: Couples retreat

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1078940/

Vince Vaughn's character (main character, kinda) retrieves a handgun from his bedside safe when he thinks somebody is breaking into the house. He goes downstairs to check it out (I think he even followed rule #3) and when he realizes it's a friend trying to break into the house, they quickly talk about the issues at hand (relationship stuff) and firearms are never brought up again
 
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