# Examples of responsible gun use by citizens in modern movies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 17, 2009, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-responsible-gun-use-by-citizens-in-modern-movies/500113 "2009-06-17T21:36:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-responsible-gun-use-by-citizens-in-modern-movies/500113/1 "2009-06-17T21:36:09Z")
In [this post](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=11253449&postcount=30), **Argent Towers** makes the following claim: > [@Argent Towers](#): > > I can’t really blame you for your attitude - it is a direct product of the media, specifically movies and TV shows. In the movies, the ONLY people with guns are either cops or villains. Any time a “normal” person has a gun in a movie, something always goes wrong; it jams or turns out to be unloaded, or they drop it, or they accidentally shoot themselves, etc. Guns are never used for the defense of a home or the defense of a person against a random attack - they exist in a world of superhuman archetypes that are elevated to a level far above that of mere mortals. Heroes and villains, that’s all the movies present to you. Is this correct? It may be confirmation bias, but now he’s mentioned it, I can bring to mind several such examples, a couple of border-line (on each side) examples, and no counter-examples. But I’m not a great watcher of TV or movies, so the sample is small. Plus I live in gun-fearing Britain. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-responsible-gun-use-by-citizens-in-modern-movies/500113/2 "2009-06-17T21:51:11Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Is this correct? It may be confirmation bias, but now he’s mentioned it, I can bring to mind several such examples, a couple of border-line (on each side) examples, and no counter-examples. But I’m not a great watcher of TV or movies, so the sample is small. Plus I live in gun-fearing Britain. It’s a sitcom, but HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER nevertheless plays it fairly straight with the news anchor who (a) gets shown shooting targets at the practice range, and also (b) effectively stood up to crooks by pointing her gun at 'em in a “home defense” situation where nothing went wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-responsible-gun-use-by-citizens-in-modern-movies/500113/3 "2009-06-17T22:40:29Z")
Plenty of westerns show responsible gun use in self defense situations. _Star Wars_ shows the use of weapons to oppose tyranny. _Star Trek: TNG_ had an episode where Guinan, a civilian, out shot Worf, chief of security for the Enterprise. _That 70s Show_ has a hunting episode where Red and Eric both safely handle guns, and Red kills a deer. Nobody would let Kelso handle a gun, because he’s Kelso. _King of the Hill_ had an episode where Hank and Bobby enter a target shooting contest. ---
**Author:** ![Tanbarkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a698b9/32.png) [@Tanbarkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tanbarkie)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-responsible-gun-use-by-citizens-in-modern-movies/500113/4 "2009-06-17T23:13:01Z")
“Firefly” is basically an entire show about normal people with guns. Some of them have names. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-responsible-gun-use-by-citizens-in-modern-movies/500113/5 "2009-06-17T23:17:25Z")
No. The people on Firefly are not normal. Jayne Cobb is not normal. Those characters are _heroes,_ in a sci-fi/adventure context. In no way do they fit the description of an average everyday person the way I meant it in the post that I wrote. Here is an example of what I’m talking about, and it took me a lot of mental scraping to come up with it. In _Remember The Titans,_ Denzel Washington’s character is at home when his house gets attacked by racists. Like any sane person, he grabs a shotgun to protect himself and his family. He doesn’t wind up using it, but nevertheless it is there. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-responsible-gun-use-by-citizens-in-modern-movies/500113/6 "2009-06-17T23:33:33Z")
**Tremors**. Subterranean monsters burst into the cellar of Michael Gross and Reba McIntyre, who happen to have enough guns stored there to secure a small country. This is the one remotely imaginable scenario where owning so many guns might make sense. It got a chuckle in the theater where I saw it. Also, the mad dog scene in **To Kill a Mockingbird**. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-responsible-gun-use-by-citizens-in-modern-movies/500113/7 "2009-06-18T00:10:16Z")
Back to the Future 2 and 3. In 2, the former generic school authority figure threatened to shoot at Marty McFly, and the audience is meant (I think) to see his reaction as mostly fine, because the neighborhood was such shit and Marty looked suspicious. In 3, the Doc has a shotgun (and almost everybody has a gun) because this is the old West, and that’s what you do. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-responsible-gun-use-by-citizens-in-modern-movies/500113/8 "2009-06-18T00:13:18Z")
Well, there’s always war movies too, although soldiers probably don’t fall too far outside of the “Cops and Villains” archetype. We Were Soldiers has a scene where a photojournalist covering the conflict in Vietnam is forced to pick up an assault rifle to defend himself during an NVA assault against the troops he’s photographing. He comes off neither as terribly brave, terribly skilled, nor terribly prone to mishap when using the weapon. Simply an ordinary guy in an extraordinary situation attempting to defend himself. Plus, Sam Elliot had his back. This explains how he didn’t _die_ in such a situation. ---
**Author:** ![Apollyon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apollyon/32/4238_2.png) [@Apollyon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollyon)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-responsible-gun-use-by-citizens-in-modern-movies/500113/9 "2009-06-18T01:11:31Z")
Wouldn’t a lot of the counter-examples be invisible? The entire cast of characters of _Friends_ (just to pull something out of the air) could be carrying concealed, but if none of the stories ever have them clear their weapon then how would you know? ---
**Author:** ![PatriotGrrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9dc877/32.png) [@PatriotGrrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotGrrrl)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-responsible-gun-use-by-citizens-in-modern-movies/500113/10 "2009-06-18T01:46:26Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > **Tremors**. Subterranean monsters burst into the cellar of Michael Gross and Reba McIntyre, who happen to have enough guns stored there to secure a small country. This is the one remotely imaginable scenario where owning so many guns might make sense. It got a chuckle in the theater where I saw it. > \*\*. That was the first one I thought of. IIRC, they weren’t the only characters who had guns, the “regular folks” did too. And note that none of them would give one to that teenager. Red Dawn is another example. Those were ordinary kids, not heroes, at least in the beginning. The store owner thought they were responsible enough to carry guns, and indeed they didn’t charge right into battle ASAP. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-responsible-gun-use-by-citizens-in-modern-movies/500113/11 "2009-06-18T03:05:25Z")
> [@PatriotGrrrl](#): > > That was the first one I thought of. IIRC, they weren’t the only characters who had guns, the “regular folks” did too. And note that none of them would give one to that teenager. Well, Bud gave the kid a gun; it just wasn’t loaded. And I noted that when he took the gun back, he checked it right away. I thought that was a nice touch. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-responsible-gun-use-by-citizens-in-modern-movies/500113/12 "2009-06-18T03:52:00Z")
The wife in _Fatal Attraction_ shoots and kills the Glenn Close character in self-defense/defense of her husband. Nothing goes wrong, despite there being IIRC no previous indication that the wife has any experience at all with guns. That is probably because the original ending of this film didn’t involve a gun at all. It was reshot because test audiences didn’t like the original ending, in which Close’s character commits suicide. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-responsible-gun-use-by-citizens-in-modern-movies/500113/13 "2009-06-18T04:35:48Z")
> [@Raguleader](#): > > Well, there’s always war movies too, although soldiers probably don’t fall too far outside of the “Cops and Villains” archetype. We Were Soldiers has a scene where a photojournalist covering the conflict in Vietnam is forced to pick up an assault rifle to defend himself during an NVA assault against the troops he’s photographing. He comes off neither as terribly brave, terribly skilled, nor terribly prone to mishap when using the weapon. Simply an ordinary guy in an extraordinary situation attempting to defend himself. > > Plus, Sam Elliot had his back. This explains how he didn’t _die_ in such a situation. Maybe he came across as an ordinary guy because Joe Galloway is a real guy and it actually happened. But in real life CSM [Basil Plumley](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basil_Plumley) had his back which is even better than having Sam Elliot. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-responsible-gun-use-by-citizens-in-modern-movies/500113/14 "2009-06-18T14:19:50Z")
[Sleeping with the Enemy](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102945/). Julia Roberts fakes her own death to escape her abusive husband, but when he tracks her down and breaks into her new house, she shoots him dead. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-responsible-gun-use-by-citizens-in-modern-movies/500113/15 "2009-06-18T14:22:39Z")
In [Saved!](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saved!) the teenage girls go to a shooting range to practice (I think it’s part of school). The very religious one played by Mandy Moore talks about how she’ll preserve her virginity ‘by any means necessary’ while shooting, but she seems very skilled and no one ever gets shot. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-responsible-gun-use-by-citizens-in-modern-movies/500113/16 "2009-06-18T14:47:26Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > [Sleeping with the Enemy](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102945/). Julia Roberts fakes her own death to escape her abusive husband, but when he tracks her down and breaks into her new house, she shoots him dead. I put that as one of the border-line incidents. On the bad side of the border. Her shooting him is understandable, but she was holding him at gunpoint and shot him only after telling the police that she’d shot an intruder. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-responsible-gun-use-by-citizens-in-modern-movies/500113/17 "2009-06-18T17:37:14Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > I put that as one of the border-line incidents. On the bad side of the border. Her shooting him is understandable, but she was holding him at gunpoint and shot him only after telling the police that she’d shot an intruder. Yeah, you’re probably right. I don’t remember - did she already have a gun, or did he bring it with him? Regardless, she should have shot him as soon as she could, before he had a chance to surrender. **Reservoir Dogs** , when Mr. White & Mr. Orange carjack the woman and she shoots Mr. Orange. Sure, she got shot herself in return, but she was clearly defending herself from armed attackers. ---
**Author:** ![TheMerchandise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b487fb/32.png) [@TheMerchandise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheMerchandise)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-responsible-gun-use-by-citizens-in-modern-movies/500113/18 "2009-06-18T20:20:42Z")
_Grand Torino_. It’s quite reasonable that Clint Eastwood’s character would have those old guns. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-responsible-gun-use-by-citizens-in-modern-movies/500113/19 "2009-06-19T01:27:45Z")
> [@TheMerchandise](#): > > _Grand Torino_. It’s quite reasonable that Clint Eastwood’s character would have those old guns. Also noteworthy because: He never fires any of them in the movie, although he does occasionally brandish them to ward off attackers or to protect others. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-responsible-gun-use-by-citizens-in-modern-movies/500113/20 "2009-06-19T03:51:38Z")
**Any time a “normal” person has a gun in a movie, something always goes wrong; it jams or turns out to be unloaded, or they drop it, or they accidentally shoot themselves, etc. Guns are never used for the defense…of a person against a random attack…** Absolutely not true for Jodie Foster’s character in the movie “The Brave One.” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-responsible-gun-use-by-citizens-in-modern-movies/500113.md?page=2)