Gangsta Style

Holding the hand crossbow sideways "gangsta style" does not add to my intimidate check.
—Things Mr. Welch Is No Longer Allowed to Do In An RPG, #1033

Turning a weapon, frequently a pistol, so its grip is horizontal rather than vertical.

Showy, flashy, and generally useless as a marksmanship technique. Normally recoil lifts the barrel against gravity. When firing in this manner recoil pulls the gun sideways instead and tends to turn the shooter around in a circle. Additionally, it makes the sights much less useful.

Visually, it emphasizes the fist of the gunner. In other words, Rule of Cool wins in fiction.

The technique has sometimes been used with specific guns for practical reasons. For example, it saw much popularity in 1920s China in conjunction with the Mauser C96, where the technique negated the pistol's awkward upwards ejection, and allowed automatic variants to more effectively sweep rooms. Wheellock pistols were routinely held this way to reduce the chance of a misfire. It is the safest method of firing the AK-47 when lying prone - due to its awkwardly large magazine, holding the weapon vertically elevates the angle of the barrel upward by a good 20 degrees, which means you have to lift your head well off the ground to look down the sights, presenting a large target for any hostiles.

Combine this one with Guns Akimbo, and you have something spectacular, but God help us all if it goes too far... More Dakka may be employed in an attempt to counter accuracy issues. To slice the Willing Suspension of Disbelief into little bits, have someone pull Offhand Backshots this way... and hit. Without suffering from a sprain and/or dislocated joint after this. A way to make Improbable Use of a Weapon. See also Reverse Grip, for edged weapons.

This trope, along with various other Hollywood gun styles such as Guns Akimbo, was examined by the MythBusters. They proved that both tropes are just as inefficient as you think.

Examples of Gangsta Style include:

Anime & Manga

  • Kirika in Noir occasionally holds her Beretta M1934 Gangsta Style. (The image on the page for Noir shows her doing so.) She fires her gun right-side up most of the time, but holds it horizontally when she runs or is going to run sideways.
  • Mukuro from Samurai Champloo wields his pistols in the Gangsta style. Notable because the series takes place in feudal Japan the style is super anachronistic. Of course, the entire show is fully intended to be an Anachronism Stew.
  • Dutch from Black Lagoon fires a pump-action shotgun Gangsta style. Considering that he is a Vietnam war vet, he should by all accounts know better, but it sure looks cool. It might be justified because of his shades, having accidently gone into the gas mask routine from his army training, during that scene. (See Real Life examples) or, it may reflect the fact that that particular model occasionally suffers from feeding problems in real life, and that particular posture is recommended to ensure proper cycling.
    • Played straight again when we find out that he never served in the military, or at least not in Vietnam.
  • The Strike Noir Gundam from Gundam SEED C.E. 73 Stargazer fires its laser pistols in this manner. Being a Humongous Mecha with computerized targeting systems, it's quite accurate, but there are still no advantages to shooting Gangsta Style...other than the Rule of Cool, of course.
  • Death the Kidd from Soul Eater takes this trope to its logical extreme, holding Guns Akimbo upside down, firing the weapons with his pinkies instead of the more conventional index fingers. He can be excused because he's a god with OCD. Also, he sometimes uses them as tonfas, and holding it like that would give him more power (torque) in that sense. Also, damn if it doesn't look cool.
    • Holding them upside-down is also useful for blocking melee attacks, since, held right-side-up, one would either have to twist their arms uncomfortably or present their wrists and hands for slicing and dicing to block with a gun. Not that blocking a melee attack with a gun is realistic, but realism isn't important in a series like this.
  • Natsuki from My-HiME is fond of doing this with her pistols. They're very small, so they don't have much recoil to begin with, but hey...
  • Trinity Blood's second episode features Tres firing one of his guns held upside down, over his shoulder, in two directions at once, and yes, even Gangsta Style. Of course, he is a combat android and can probably get away with that.
  • Mello of Death Note occasionally holds his gun like that, but since he never actually fires from this position it may count as a means of intimidation.
  • One of hired thugs in Darker than Black, when he tried to intimidate the people present at the scene of a kidnapping attempt. He could have spared himself the trouble, though, as a successfully scared Person of Mass Destruction killed him and almost everyone around in the next 15 seconds or so.
  • Kiriyama, from Battle Royale, ONLY shoots this way. (in the manga, at least)
  • While giving a firearms training lesson, Rally Vincent gives a student who uses this style a thorough explanation as to why this is so prominent in movies and television: "The shell casings flying past the firer's face are 'a cool image', but without the sights, you can't hit anything." She does demonstrate that Gangsta Style is good for hitting targets flying through the air, as the bulk of the gun doesn't obscure the firer's vision as it moves upward or downward, by plinking a thrown can like a sporting clay - but then goes on to say that it's still a pretty useless technique, as targets on the ground move sideways, not up and down.
    • She also explains Guns Akimbo: "It's a throwback to old Westerns. The first revolvers could only be loaded or unloaded one round at a time, so shooters would fire six round from one, then switch. They only used them simultaneously in movies." She then proceeds to compare shot groupings by firing with two guns, then a two-handed grip. The two-handed grip gives her enough accuracy to cut a target in half. With a handgun. And by changing fifteen-round magazines just before she fires the fifteenth round from the first mag, she's able to fire twenty-nine shots in as many seconds!
      • She also gets chewed out by the owner of the firing range: he wanted idiots to line up and burn ammo with stupid shooting, and teaching them to shoot properly means they shoot less, and therefore buy less of his ammo.
  • You would think a well-renowned killer like Brandon Heat of Gungrave would know better than to exhibit this trope, but you'd be wrong. Notable in that he often uses two guns this way, with his arms crossed above the wrists. Imagine the potential for sprains and broken bones there...


Comic Books

  • In "Up is Down and Black is White", a Story Arc in the comic book The Punisher, Frank Castle (the titular crimefighter) is fired upon by a hoodlum in true Gangsta Style—and each shot misses him by a mile. Once the criminal's magazine is exhausted, Frank calmly walks up to him, says "They put the sights on top for a reason" and shoots him in the head.
  • The page illustration is from the Gen 13 arc "Grunge: The Movie", where writer/artist Adam Warren parodies the tropes of Hong Kong Wuxia and Heroic Bloodshed through Grunge's fantasy movie script, featuring other Wildstorm characters in supporting roles.
    • Not shown is the character who's attempting to pull the trigger with his "Gene Simmons-like tongue"
  • A dime-store crook tries this in Ultimate Spider-Man. He misses completely despite being mere feet from Spidey, who actually complains that he didn't get the chance to show off by dodging.


Films

  • In an early example from the Western film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Tuco finishes off a baddie using this technique, during the famous "When you have to shoot, shoot, don't talk!" scene.
  • In The Mask, when the Mafioso and one of his mooks fire shot after shot at Ipkiss as The Mask, the mook holds his gun gangsta style while his boss holds it in traditional style. It doesn't make much difference, because the closest either of them gets to hitting him is grazing his pajamas.
  • In Date Night, Phil (Steve Carell) becomes MORE scared of having a gun pointed at him when it's turned sideways: "Kill shot! That's a kill shot!"
  • Subverted in Star Trek Generations: Dr. Tolian Soran fired his energy pistol with the grip in a sideways position, but the gun itself and its sights automatically aligned itself to an upright position.
  • Blade in the Blade movies and the short-lived TV series' does this.
  • Alonzo Harris (Denzel Washington) in Training Day holds his off-hand gun in this fashion while spraying some gangsters with Guns Akimbo. This could be to prevent the left-hand gun from ejecting hot shells onto his right arm.
  • In The Bourne Identity, Jason manages to disarm a mook by flipping the gun towards him (which would be a forward flip away from the mook), and then, without bothering to correct it, he sticks his pinky in the trigger guard and shoots the mook. He then comes under attack before he's able to correct the grip, and dual guns the other mook down.
  • The Fraternity assassins in Wanted fire their guns gangsta style to "curve" the path of their bullets, like baseballs. In the climactic shootout, Wesley even fires Guns Akimbo upside-down, having snatched them out of the air from a couple of killed Mooks.
  • Subverted in the Death Note live-action film. Naomi Misora fires her gun sideways at Shiori and manages to hit her (much to her shock and surprise). Shortly after, its revealed that Naomi had been shooting with the intent to miss, and had only been successful because Light had dictated with the Death Note that Shiori would die of being shot, and that Naomi would fire warning shots and commit suicide out of horror for having killed someone.
  • Near the climax of Malibu's Most Wanted, Brad fires a pair of machine pistols like this at a bunch of South Central street thugs. He doesn't succeed in actually hitting anybody, but he does send them running for cover.
  • Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis) in The Fifth Element holds his gun/blaster sideways when a mugger meets him at the front door. Since he's at point blank range, his accuracy isn't going to suffer, and he's just trying to scare the mugger off anyway. Intimidation factor of it all.
  • Apoc from The Matrix takes out several policemen in a shootout, with his Uzi turning sideways as he fires at them from left to right. If you know that the Matrix is just a simulation, then using poor firearm technique apparently doesn't matter.
    • Not necessarily a bad move in this context, actually. If you absolutely must fire off a whole magazine at once rather than short, controlled bursts for whatever reason -such as if you're unlucky enough to need to lay down suppressing fire and only have an SMG, which was Apoc's situation- then it's better to have the recoil push your aim sideways instead of up and over the enemy's heads.
  • We see Keyzer Soze hold his gun in this way at the beginning of The Usual Suspects. This acts as a Red Herring later when we see Hockney hold his gun in this fashion later in the film. The filmmakers jokingly referred to this grip as "Nineties Style."
  • McLovin in Superbad, played for laughs.

Break yo self, foo!

I say we go back to the evil lair, grab some ray guns, hold 'em sideways and just go all gangsta on him.

  • Chris-R does this in The Room, like any stereotypical Gangster.
  • Battlefield Earth's villains use guns that are apparently designed to be shot Gangsta Style. Not surprisingly, they're all terrible shots.
  • Invoked in The Green Hornet with an actual gangster, played by Christoph Waltz, who has his custom double-barreled gun upside down when he "punishes" a minion.
  • In Date Night, when the Gang Member turned his gun sideways at the couple, the guy who is unfamiliar with this, believes that means its a kill shot.
  • The police in RoboCop, when shooting the titular hero after his brawl with ED-209. This was done (with sighted weapons, to be precise) in order to prevent hot brass cartridges from flying at the actors.


Literature

  • A street thug employs this style when threatening Jack in one of F. Paul Wilson's Repairman Jack books. Jack informs him that it's not a very secure grip ... and proceeds to prove it to the hapless lowlife.
  • In Roberto Saviano's non-fiction book Gomorrah, about the businesses, influence and actions of Camorra (a mafia-like organization active in southern Italy and particularly powerful in Naples) the author explains that one reason for the awkward length of some gang gunfighting throughout the city is that gang members, imitating movies, hold the guns sideways, resulting in poor aim (which combined with fighting behind cover results in nobody hitting each other for a quite long time).
  • Alas, the Andre Norton Time Traders book Firehand (mostly written by P.M. Griffin) had the time travel project's weapons trainer, no less, use this technique (in a flashback) -- in fact, it was presented as one of the clues telling the main character early on that this trainer knew her stuff. Ouch.
  • A character in Christopher Farnsworth's The President's Vampire turns his gun sideways, counter to what his instructor told him again and again, and the hot casing is ejected into his eye.
  • In 1635: A Parcel of Rogues, some of the good guys need to keep the enemy chasing them, but not getting too close. So they're deliberately shooting to miss, and one of them sprays off several shots Gangsta Style, thinking cheerfully, Sure, you can't hit shit that way, but if you don't want to, it surely is fun.

Live-Action TV

  • Jimmy attempts this in The Walking Dead, causing T-Dog to tell him to "cut out that gangsta shit." Jimmy stops missing his target after he turns the pistol the right way.
  • In an episode of Burn Notice, Michael infiltrates a gang in order to help a member get out without putting his family in danger. When Michael is given a gun in order to rob a dry cleaners, his associate corrects his handling of it, turning the gun sideways. Michael, who is certified on pretty much every firearm known to man, winces appreciably.
  • Law and Order: Criminal Intent parodied this, when the detectives are instantly able to identify a murderer as being an amateur - because the location of fired bullets demonstrate that when he tried to hold his gun sideways, he quickly lost control and started shooting everywhere but his target. The cops even point out that this was foolishly done in imitation of "gangsta flicks."
  • Played with in an episode of Diagnosis: Murder. Dick Van Dyke's character Mark Sloan is at a gun range being shown how to use a pistol. He fires off a few rounds normally (with realistic loudness and recoil) and then asks the man who was showing him whether he could fire it sideways "like on TV", twisting it to the side to show him what he meant. While the instructor starts saying why it's a bad idea, Mark fires the gun anyway by accident and the recoil flings it out of his hand with great ease and force - which creates a big enough diversion for another character to sneak past.
  • Ryutaros/Gun Form from Kamen Rider Den-O sometimes uses this. Perhaps because this is his preferred style, his aim is terrible. Considering his Chinese Dragon motif, this may actually be a reference to the Chinese example above, rather than Gangstas.
  • One of the mafiosi on The Sopranos berates a new guy for holding his gun this way, during a truck hijacking.
  • Used in a sketch on Mind of Mencia, wherein Carlos taught gang members to be more effective. After being corrected one remarks "Wow, it lines up and everything!"
  • Daiki Kaito/Kamen Rider Diend from Kamen Rider Decade shoots gangsta style just as frequently as he shoots properly (though only out of suit)--his aim is impeccable, either way.
    • As it is shown by Decade and Diend, the guns have no recoil so it has no real way to affect your aim other than your own aiming skills. However, what is to be noted is that the Kamen Ride : Blast effect allows those shots to become homing which means that he could fire while pointing anywhere and STILL hit on a dime.
  • In an episode of CSI, Catherine Willows tells a smug gangster that this amateurish way of shooting caused a suspicious burn on the gangster's neck from the hot ejected shell casing, as well as leaving traces of the shooter's DNA on the shell casing.
  • Ethan in Power Rangers Dino Thunder often does this, but no point is ever made of it.
  • The leader of the short-lived series "Acapulco Heat" had a variation on this. He held two pistols at once, but fired one normally and the other horizontally, lining them both up at once at a 90-degree angle. This is probably very unwieldy and not at all recommended for use in real life, but it's also the only way you could conceivably try to aim down both sights of two pistols at once while dual-wielding.
  • Sometimes done on The Wire, but anyone (cop or criminal) who actually knows how to use a gun will fire it properly, image be damned.
    • Particularly notable in the Stray Rounds episode when gangsters use their pistols in the most haphazard ways possible (frankly, one of them uses it professionally, up to the point of keeping aim while moving). The result is a prolonged gunfight with a single casualty - the innocent bystander kid.
  • All of the blasters in Otherworld are meant to be held upside-down. This means that guns are all impossible to aim, but maybe that justified the Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship.
  • On Party Down, Kyle tries to hold a gun sideways and Roman immediately tells him "no one holds a gun like that".
  • In the Community episode "Modern Warfare" a continuity goof has Britta holding a gun Gangsta Style whenever the camera's on her and right way up when it's Over the Shoulder.
  • Deconstructed and lampshaded in the pilot of Person of Interest: Reese walks in on a gun buy (to acquire weapons), and asks the people involved if they've taken a firearms safety course.

Reese: Take you, for instance. You're holding the gun sideways. It'll eject the cartridge right into your face.

  • When MythBusters tested the "Blown Away" myth, the intro video showed a stereotypical hunt-the-fugitive scene, complete with Adam taking aim at fugitive-Tory gangsta style. But when you're not actually pulling the trigger,[1] it doesn't matter that this method is inaccurate.
    • They visited it again when testing how effective various firing stances are. It didn't hold up all that well.
  • One episode of Numb3rs showed two gangsters firing their guns like this. They missed.


Miscellaneous

  • This bit of Stephen Colbert fanart (from this story). Given Stephen's obsession with doing what feels good rather than what makes sense, it's not surprising that when he snaps and decides to shoot up the set, he's going to do it Gangsta Style.
  • On a weaponry-themed Image Board, some anonymous posters had possibly Truth in Television pictures of gangsters in an African town shooting in all sorts of "gangsta" styles; it was mentioned that they followed a spray and pray principle and did it as macho posturing.
  • Birdman HoMeBoy Night Sights. "...have your Glock modernized with side-shooting capability!"
  • When LEGO first released their Star Wars line of toys, the battle droids had arms with only sideways hands, which caused them all to be holding their guns in gangsta style. It wasn't until the release of Revenge of the Sith that LEGO finally corrected this, but seeing a literal army of "gangsta" battle droids was pretty amusing.


Tabletop Games

  • Vampire: The Masquerade has "Gangsta Style" as a special attack. It has two drawbacks: reducing your accuracy and increasing the chance of a misfire, and provides absolutely no benefit whatsoever.
  • The New World of Darkness supplement Armory talks briefly about this trope, noting that it incurs massive penalties but could impress/intimidate people.
  • In Hero System's combat handbook, holding a gun sideways incurs a penalty on attack rolls but adds a bonus to Presence when attempting to impress people.
  • GURPS addresses this in "GURPS: Tactical Shooting" under "Things not to do". Specifically, all attacks are treated as "Unsighted Shooting" with all the usual benefits and drawbacks thereof. However, the stance encourages limp-wristing (penalty to Guns) and, if used with an automatic, increases the likelihood that the weapon will malfunction.


Visual Novels

  • Phantom of Inferno: Drei holds her pistols like this, owing to her love of dumb action movies. While the man who trained her actually notes that it's totally useless as a marksmanship technique, Drei later moves on to giving her opponent a chance to shoot her, twirling her guns and yelling out catch phrases in the middle of a gunfight, so she's clearly not at all concerned with anything but Rule of Cool gun-handling techniques. She's sixteen, which might explain it somewhat.


Videogames

  • In Unreal Tournament, the secondary fire of the default Enforcer pistol is to increase the rate-of-fire and turn it sideways; the manual specifically calls it "gangsta style". Pick up a dropped Enforcer, and you can double the fun. Realistically, (if anything in UT can be called realistic) this does decrease your accuracy.
    • The beloved Enforcer returned in Unreal Tournament III and while there's no dedicated Gangsta Style mode, keeping an opponent in the crosshair long enough will make your character automatically turn his gun(s) sideways.
    • It's carried over from Unreal, in which you could do the same thing. It's averted, however, since attempting it at anything less than point blank range will cause you to miss spectacularly.
  • Coyote Smith in Killer7 fires his gun this way. Con Smith in the same game combines this trope and Guns Akimbo, but then again, he's a teenager. A blind one.
    • Technically, Coyote holds it almost-upside down. Surely enough, the recoil is crazy compared to the other characters'.
    • Also, Con's blindness may be the cause of his side-shooting: it keeps his super-hearing turned toward his targets.
      • And the iron sights wouldn't do him much good anyway.
  • Used by EVA in Metal Gear Solid 3 with her Mauser C96 (see below for the entry on that gun, under Real Life). The technique of turning a C96 sideways so the recoil guides your hand to the next target in a sweep is referred to as Bandit Shooting, Snake and Sigint have a discussion about using a Mauser this way.
    • In a few cutscenes in 4, Snake cants his M4 about 45 degrees to the side to use a different set of offset optics, rather than what's mounted on the top rail. It's a real technique, but it's not very widespread.
      • Towards the end of the game, a Navy man, probably a SEAL, can be seen briefly with a canted weapon in one cutscene. Given that he's in a cockpit, he may have it that way to easier clear the consoles and equipment.
  • In Resident Evil 2, Leon's special costumes gave him the ability to rapidly fire his handgun Gangsta Style, which he loses if you clip on the custom stock - that fires even faster, so it's an acceptable loss. Ada also holds her pistol 45 degrees sideways, albeit she does so with both hands on the gun.
  • Mike LeRoi, a.k.a. Shadow Man fires all his guns Gangsta Style, despite having no other "gangsta" traits whatsoever. He holds them correctly in the sequel, though.
  • The Gold Edition of Alien vs. Predator gives the Marine new (and mostly useless) pistols as a weapon. When alternate fire is used with a pair of them, he turns them sideways.
  • In Perfect Dark, characters in single and multiplayer are able to do this - however, it only happens when they are right next to their target.
  • Local gunslinger Gilder from Skies of Arcadia shots this way for close-range attacks (though for him, close range means walking up to the enemy and dropping the gun right in the enemy's face). However, for long range attacks he uses the more practical two-handed grip.
  • Dante in Devil May Cry fires his twin pistols this way when firing while sidestepping. In addition, in the third game, he often turns one pistol or the other sideways if firing at separate targets in his Gunslinger fighting style.
    • Also, in cutscenes, or if using gunslinger mode to fire at a single target, Dante will hold both guns sideways and hold his arms across each other, left gun on the right side, right gun on the left side. First done in the series at the end of the first game, coupled with Dante's Catchphrase: "Jackpot!"
  • Dungeon Fighter Online has a gunner class. Most of their shots are normal, but Multi-headshot and Moving Shot skills turn sideways like Dante.
  • Naturally, this affects the gangstas in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. You even see CJ using it with Guns Akimbo. (He even fires a pair of sawn-off shotguns this way.) Note that all other weapons are held conventionally (well, as conventionally as possible, for the minigun).
    • This is also the standard stance for Mafia, highway patrol, and SWAT teams (normal beat cops hold their pistols with both hands).
  • Falco holds his Blaster this way in Super Smash Bros.. Melee. Granted a laser gun probably wouldn't have the same issues facing it as a real gun.
  • Elvaan from Final Fantasy XI tend to hold guns and crossbows in this fashion, as well as firing bows in an awkward diagonal position. Now it makes sense why their DEX is so crappy.
  • Axl from the later Mega Man X games fires a energy pistol this way. Though that is hardly his worst problem.
    • The box art for Mega Man ZX Advent depicts Grey holding two energy pistols gangsta style.
    • Also, Omega in Mega Man Zero shoots his pistol buster like this, which is odd, considering that since they went to the trouble of making a new sprite for the pistol shooting, why not give him an Arm Cannon?
  • In the Wii video game Red Steel, the player can fire his gun gangsta style if he turns the controller sideways.
  • In LEGO Star Wars: The Original Trilogy, Lando would hold his blaster sideways.
  • R Amarls (Ranger + Human + Female) in Phantasy Star Online fire pistols like this. Ironically, this allows them to fire a bit faster than other classes, making them the best users of handguns in a case of Awesome Yet Practical (though like the Falco example above, they are photon handguns, so...)
  • City of Villains, Troperiffic as ever, has the Thugs summoned by Masterminds (and the Masterminds themselves) use dual pistols like this. One of the reasons the players have been begging for years for a fully fleshed-out powerset to be given to the ranged combat classes.
    • And now those who have pre-ordered 'Going Rogue' have access to the Dual Pistols power sets for Blaster, Defenders and Corruptors that employes Gunfu with liberal amounts of sideways shooting.
  • In Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines you don't actually get to use this mode of fire, but Romero the Ghoul provides some advice on gunfighting that includes "keep that glock-to-the-side crap in the movies."
  • In Silent Storm German soldier-class characters fire heavy machine guns sideways on full auto with one hand.
  • Similar to the above example, enemy Brutes in Uncharted 3 can do this with the PAK-80 LMG. The worst part about it is that they still hit you. Repeatedly.
  • In Blood 2 the alternate fire for the single pistol fires the gun this way and increases the rate of fire. It's apparently an emergency mode to quickly empty the pistol into a close-range attacker. Notice how Caleb points the barrel downwards as he shoots.
  • It's possible to fire some weapons (such as Mini Uzi) this way in the Wii version of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.
  • While you can't actually see your weapon being held like this in House of the Dead: OVERKILL, the game recognizes when you hold the Wiimote sideways and will give you a $1337 post-chapter bonus for killing 50 mutants in this manner.
  • Averted in the 50 Cent game series. Mr. Jackson and his cohorts fire their armament in the standard manner, though foes will occasionally cant their guns the ninety degrees required of this trope.
  • In the first Saints Row, all gang members hold their handguns Gangsta Style unless they're using two. In the sequels, everyone holds every gun upright at all times.
  • In Rainbow Six: Vegas and it's sequel, characters do this when using a ballistic shield, so it's not as awkward to fire.
  • This can be done in Jurassic Park: Trespasser, since the game lets you rotate the objects in your hand (including guns) in any manner you liked. It serves no practical purpose and absolutely kills your long range accuracy (assuming you don't line the sights back up), but it does look cool.
  • In Poke646 You can do this with the nailpistol, which lowers the accuracy and highens the fire rate. But because the weapon in question looks like a big blue drill, it does not look cool here either.
  • In Team Fortress 2, the user-created randomizer mode randomly assigns you a class and weapons. If the Medic gets a gun, he holds it this way due to the way he usually holds his Medigun.
  • Jak occasionally does this when firing his scatter gun.


Webcomics


Web Originals

  • Crapshots episode 69: The Aim. Also features increasing amounts of crouching.
  • A hilarious video on "how not to shoot" here, demonstrating the "gangsta grip", the "modified gangsta grip" and the "super modified gangsta grip". The latter also requires to raise the hand as high as possible without major risk of a dislocation from the very first shot's recoil, move it back and forth as if you tried to throw the bullets rather than fire them (it's an important part), use the other hand as a codpiece and shout insults - presumably so that something would have a good chance to hit the target.

Western Animation

  • In The Simpsons episode "Trilogy of Errors", One of the cops asks Chief Wiggum if he can hold his gun sideways like they do in the movies ("It looks so cool!").

Chief Wiggum: You can do whatever you like, birthday boy.


Real Life

  • On YouTube, you will actually find several videos of people wielding guns sideways, from random guys with dual 9mm pistols to experts doing it one handed.
    • Also, the expert actually points out that you want to only tilt it slightly sideways, and not completely to the side, and not to have your arm outstretched because it leaves your vital organs open to be shot.
  • Occasionally police officers using armoured shields will hold their pistols like this so they can see their sights through the window in the shield. That's about the only time you will see someone competent doing this in real life.
  • Members of the United States military are trained to hold their rifles sideways when wearing gas masks, as the design of the mask is too bulky for standard sighting. The M16 has a selectable rear sight with a larger peep hole designed for quick acquisition of targets at shorter ranges or in low-light conditions, however it also makes it easier to use when looking through a gas mask.
  • The famous Mauser C96 'Broomhandle' was only used as a primary service firearm by one nation: the Republic of China. Except they modified it with automatic fire and a much larger cartridge when they were invaded by Japan. This weapon could ONLY be used firing sideways (in Gangsta Style), or else the huge recoil would spray the gun straight up (rather than sideways, which is actually highly effective as it can sweep a room out), or the already-fired cases would jam the gun. More here
  • The Darwin Awards gave an Honorable Mention to a man who attempted to fire a high-power pistol Gangsta Style at a firing range, the recoil causing it to fly back and smack him in the mouth, knocking out several teeth.
  • December 10, 2009: fleeing from police through crowded Times Square, scam artist and sometime rapper Raymond "Ready" Martinez draws an Ingram machine pistol, holds it sideways in the best "gangsta" fashion, flips the selector to full auto, and pulls the trigger. The weapon jams after two shots, neither of which hit anyone; police return fire and "Ready's" criminal career comes to a swift conclusion. Had he held the gun correctly, the jam would have been averted and the loss of life could easily have been much worse.
  • It's said by many that this trope was adopted by modern gangsters from film stuntmen who turned their guns sideways to avoid ejecting hot shells onto each other. That said, ejecting straight upwards tends to drop spent casings directly down the shooter's collar; definitely a lateral move. Except the case in which the gangster is using is left hand in the case of a weapon designed for being held by right-handed people or using the right hand in the opposite cases.
    • The guy in the front seat during a drive-by would hold his weapon on its side so that the ejected casings wouldn't be propelled into the rear window - instead they would be ejected up onto or over the top of the car.
  • Another understandable reason for Gangsta Style is that when one has not been formally trained in shooting, the heaviness of the gun can make a sideways hold "feel" more natural.
  • Tilting a handgun about 20-30 degrees can help recoil management, and is often taught as a technique for shooting one-handed, with the off hand. However, a 90 degree tilt results in a weaker grip than normal.
  • As mentioned with the Mauser C96, this technique can be useful with a submachine gun, allowing the recoil of the weapon to create a sideways sweeping motion, essentially mowing down everything in front of you. Now, you have to seriously know what you're doing in order to be able to take the recoil of firing a submachine gun one handed for prolonged periods of time. After all, most were designed to be used two handed.
  • The Nerf N-Strike Deploy CS-6 gun has its targeting light flipped to the left of the barrel, which may necessitate this. Sure it's got regular sights, but being sponge darts launched at safety speed, the drop in the trajectory makes a targeting light below the barrel more practical.
    • Also, a number of Nerf guns such as the Maverick are cocked using a pistol-style slide after every shot. If the shooter wishes to increase the rate of fire while holding the gun at arm's length, the logical thing to do is to hold it in a gangsta grip, giving the left hand easy access to the slide.
  • Going back a few generations in firearms design, this was the only practical way to ensure that a wheellock actually fired. Given the design of the action, turning the gun at least 45 degrees (NOT 90 degrees) was the best way to make sure that the powder was close enough to the sparks to actually go off. (Specifically it puts the sparks directly over the priming charge so that they fall into it rather than some of them going over the side and being wasted.)
  • There actually exists a shooting system in which the firer cants their pistol 45 degrees or more to the side. It is known as Center Axis Relock (CAR) and it is used by many law enforcement, security, and armed forces groups as a method of close quarters shooting. The technique is actually extremely effective for trained shooters and can be applied to rifle and shotgun shooting in close quarters as well. Watch a demonstration Here. This technique is SCARY effective at helping the shooter cope with recoil, as seen Here where a shooter fires a 12-gauge shotgun as though it were a pistol. Here's an explanation of the physiological flaws of Gangsta Style and the strengths of CAR.
  • Another consideration is that many techniques for disarming a guy with a handgun are meant to be used when the opponent is holding it vertically, and need to be adapted and practiced in order to deal with an opponent holding it in this manner.
  • Dual Glock full auto pistols.
  • Something like this does get used by some military units, called an Ambi stance. It's used when breaching a room, if you catch a hostile in your peripheral vision, to bring the gun to bear as fast as possible, before following round into a proper shooting stance. It's not used for protracted periods of time.
  • This is similarly impractical with airsoft guns that use hop-up to make pellets fly further. Firing one in this manner can cause the pellet to curve in-flight.
  • A police officer in Missouri related that a gangsta took a shot at him with a Calico M-950. The M-950 has a 50-round magazine, but it also has idiot-proofing—it ejects spent casings downwards, using gravity alone. The gun jammed on the first shot and the policeman tackled his assailant.
  • 45 degree offset sights are common. These are intended for use in conjunction with another, normally mounted, optic. The offset sights are intended as either backup in case of failure or for close quarters use when combined with a magnified optic.

Q: Why do gangsters shoot their guns sideways?
A: Because that's how they came in the box.
 

  1. ↑ (Tory went flying courtesy of a special harness, a rope, and the rest of the team)
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