Guns 'n Hollywood

By David de Beer

All You Need To Make A Movie

Movies and TV have a strange relationship with guns. On the one hand you regularly have some actor coming out and declaring him or herself anti-gun. This is to be expected from people who are mostly liberal democrats. On the other hand you have lots and lots of guns in movies. Guns add drama, conflict and even humour. Frankly, without guns in movies and TV, there would be far fewer movies and TV series made, and what would be available to watch would be pretty boring.

It is pretty strange how a lot of the actors that come out as anti-gun are the very ones who have made a career out of portraying characters who use guns. Let me correct that, they play characters who use guns BADLY. Yes, these very same characters who are supposed to be CIA assassins, FBI agents, cops and Special Forces regularly do things that even new gun owners know are unsafe and stupid, never mind unprofessional.

Now you may say “Dave, what the fuck does it matter? It’s fiction, DAVE! It’s just some light hearted fun!” Of course, nobody ever imitates what they see on TV, right? So you could imagine that a person with very little formal firearm training or experience could be doing things he’s seen on TV, and in that way the anti-gun actor’s reckless portrayal is probably contributing to accidents and injury in real life. Irony can be a bitch that way.

And stupid gun mistakes aren’t only made by anti-gun actors. Despite an actor’s proficiency with firearms and the advice of a skilled armourer or consultant, a director might instruct them to do something totally insane with a gun because it looks good on film.  Yes, I do realise there are times when you have to break the basic safety rules to tell a story. How can you show someone threatening suicide without having them point it at themselves? I do realise sometimes there’s artistic merit to it, and that it’s usually done in a controlled, safe environment. But the portrayal is often skewed, and characters who are supposed to be extremely proficient with firearms make glaring, basic mistakes.

So what is Hollywood & Co. getting wrong about guns? I’m not talking about physics defying acts like bending bullets in Wanted, I can concede that that is fiction, and if people try to imitate that, they have bigger problems with reality than I can help them with. I’m talking basics here, so let’s look at the four basics rules of firearm safety:

All guns are always loaded. Treat them so.

Movies guns can range from real guns shooting blanks to rubber guns with no moving parts, so no real guns with real ammo are used in the movies, why should we care about this?

Well, firstly, there is the example being set. These guns represent real guns. Even sci-fi ray guns used on screen can show people how to handle and treat guns. Without a real life influence to guide them away from the stupidity, this is how they think guns should be used.

And secondly, who remembers John Erik Hexum? He’s a shining example of why all guns are always loaded, and where do you think he got the idea for the Russian roulette joke that ended his life? Probably in a movie or on TV.

Never let the muzzle cover anything you’re not willing to destroy.

The sweeping, oh dear lord the sweeping! A character moving with a gun is bad, more than one character moving in the same scene is so much worse. They sweep the muzzle across their own body; they sweep it across friends, enemies, children, animals, aliens and every sort of background actor. They even sweep the leg. (Yes, that’s a Karate Kid joke, deal with it)

Moving the muzzle of a gun, where metal exits it at high velocity, across anything that’s alive is extremely stupid. In any situation this is at the very least frowned upon, even if the gun is obviously unloaded (All guns are always loaded, remember?)

Next time you watch an action movie, keep an eye on the muzzle direction and you’ll spot it some serious sweeping going on:

          Jay Baruchel sweeping Jack Black’s ass, if not the whole squad.

Jack Black about to return the favour in Tropic Thunder.

Some Suicide Squad sweeping at head level.

I know some will say “But in a conflict/contact/group situation sweeping someone is almost inevitable!”

Yea, it’s not. If you’ve ever seen properly trained professionals do their job, you’d know they go to great lengths not to sweep the muzzle of their gun across anyone’s body.

Here’s how it happens in real life:

Keep your finger off the trigger until you’re ready to shoot.

Obviously nobody has ever told Pinewood Studios to keep their booger hooks off their bang switches. I have always considered this to be the most fundamental rule. None of the four basic rules may be broken, but even if you break the other three, someone can only get hurt if you also break this rule.

I suppose if you look at the bright side, at least James’ gun is pointed in a safe direction. But pay attention, you will often see actors walking, talking and sweeping their friends with their fingers on the trigger.

Be sure of your target, and what’s behind it…

..and what’s behind that. Captain Deadpool knows this rule and uses it to good effect in his triple headshot.

In the movies you have good guys shooting at bad guys with crowds in the background, in busy marketplaces, in subway stations and while driving. No concern is shown for innocent bystanders, crouching down a little always seems to make sure they survive (Unless killing an innocent civilian is a plot point).

So there you have the very basic rules of firearm safety. Just safety, something most people who use guns learn early, and practice religiously. And yet our friends in the entertainment industry seem to feel shooters trained to a point where their ability is almost mystical, wouldn’t practice these basics.

Besides basic safety, there’s a lot more the movies get wrong.

Does your gun say “Leatherman” on the side? Because some movies seem to think guns are multi-tools. Splitting the rope above someone about to be hanged is the classic here, but you also have them shooting chains, shooting out lights, shooting levers to activate gears and close doors and using their guns to hit people with. Ricochets only happen when the story needs them to.

Then there’s accuracy. Not only can this vary wildly for the same character during the course of a movie, but it can also reach superhuman status in movies with no super humans in them. The same character that repeatedly missed an entire car elsewhere in the movie can suddenly shoot the gun out of someone’s hand or shoot them in the ear, arm or leg right from a quick draw.

Use of optics and sights is also pretty dubious. If you’ve seen any kind of Walking Dead meme recently, you probably know thatRick is especially bad at this. In this photo he’s doing even worse than usual.

And then you have all the people who shoot by feel, mostly because it’s a movie and we need to see their faces. Who cares about accuracy, either of the shooting or factual kind, when we’re paying Bruce Willis’ salary? Show the face!

Now, how about humanity and compassion? Surely writers, directors and actors can get that right? I mean, almost all of them are human after all. Wrong again!

How many of you have seen a real person directly after that person has successfully and justifiably defended their own life from an attacker that meant to physically harm them? I hope very few have seen this for themselves, because it’s not pretty, but it can also be a big eye opener. Experienced policemen who deal with violence on a daily basis and who have been in those situations before are very shaken up by an experience like this, civilians do much worse.

Think about that the next time the hero of the story breezes through a building full of people, killing one after the other, or executes the villain after finally defeating him. Do you know who reacts to violence and death that way? Psychopaths, that’s who.

The last point I’d like to make has less to do with guns directly, and more to do with the general culture of gun ownership. The core reason why most of the things above are mentioned is that they go so strongly against what most gun owners stand for. We are a lot more concerned with safety than people who do not own guns, we want to enjoy a day at the range without anyone getting hurt, and if the shit hits the fan big time we want to be able to protect those we love and not be the ones who cause them or anyone else harm. Safety is drilled into us, and rightly so, until it becomes second nature.

So to “advertise” gun ownership the way these characters do, as reckless, unsafe, and uncaring already portrays us in a bad light. For the person who brings that character to life and makes millions of Dollars in the process to then turn around and tell us we’re the threat is a double betrayal.

Movie and TV studios in general don’t care how they portray gun use, gun ownership or gun owners. They care about making money from things that look flashy and exciting. It seems unlikely that guns will disappear from popular culture anytime soon, and equally unlikely that Hollywood & Co. will suddenly decide to portray the use and handling of these guns in a realistic and responsible manner. So I guess it’s up to the real life gun owners to show the public that we do not behave like the irresponsible sociopaths Hollywood sells to them as heroes.

Anti-Gun Actors/Directors/Writers/Producers Who Have Used Guns On Screen

(Source : NRA/2A Check, verified on IMFDB)