Gun/Accuracy Safety in TV and Movies

Factual Questions
1

I remember in the old days every time you saw actors portraying policemen or soldiers and they were holding guns their fingers tended to be on the triggers rather than next the trigger guard. What I learned[sup]*[/sup] about gun safety from my days on the army is that you never put your finger on the trigger unless you are planning to shoot so this inaccuracy was always very noticeable to me.

Skipping ahead to current times, it seems that the actors have had better training because now they keep their fingers off the triggers but it seems to have gone too far in the opposite direction because they never put their fingers on the trigger. Take, for example, the standard standoff where the bad guy has a hostage and is holding a gun to their head. Our hero cop is aiming a gun at the bad guy but the cop has his finger outside the trigger guard. Surely in this situation you would want to have your finger on the trigger so that you can shoot as soon as you need to without the slight delay that would be caused by moving your finger?

Hopefully somebody with proper training or experience will be able to set me straight here.

Thanks

P.S. This seems to be question with a factual answer which is why I posted in General Questions rather than Cafe Society

    • Something else I learned is that they aren’t called guns, they’re called rifles. Anyhow, by guns I mean rifles, pistols and revolvers.
2

You are trained to keep your finger off the trigger until you have made the decision to shoot. This is to prevent accidental shootings due to the startle reflex - the tendency to flinch when startled. If you have already made the decision to shoot the perp but are just waiting for the opportunity, having your finger on ther trigger would fall within guidlelines. The type of situation you refer to is very, very rare. The time difference between having your finger on the trigger and “in register”, as it is sometimes called, is almost immeasurable. There have been studies on this but I don’t have any cites readily available. In training we remind the officers to keep their fingers off their triggers. Experience shows that, under pressure, people perform the way that they have been trained. So, the actors being under pressure to get the take and having been trained to stay off the trigger, stay off the trigger.

3

MikeF,thanks for your answer. If the situation I described happened in real life, in your opinion do you think the officer would be more likely to have their finger on or off the trigger while waiting for a possible opportunity to shoot or would this depend more on the particular officer.