Remonstrating with a Gun

"Hey man you know I'm really okay

The gun in my hand will tell you the same"

—The Offspring, "Bad Habit"

A comedy trope: John Doe is wrongly suspected of being a psycho and he ends up with a gun or other weapon in his hands. Then, he tries to explain himself while holding the weapon. As he makes hand gestures, he points it at the mob around him, which recoils in terror.

Compare I Just Shot Marvin in the Face. A form of Reckless Gun Usage.

Examples of Remonstrating with a Gun include:

Anime and Manga

• One particularly narmful interpretation of a certain chain of events in Tatarigoroshi-hen of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. Keiichi trying to explain he didn't kill Rika with a bloody axe in his hands is hilarious.
  • Of course, neither of them was entirely sane by that point, so...
  • Not only is he carrying the axe, he chases after Satako with it, then explains how he killed her uncle and has been losing his mind for several days. THEN he offers to disarm himself. And she pushes him off the bridge anyway.

Film

• The Whammyburger scene in Falling Down. Of course, Michael Douglas' character uses the opportunity to make a stand against the fifth or sixth thing that has pissed him off that day.
• The movie Edmond has a sick subversion. During his mid-life crisis, Edmond breaks up with his wife and goes on a nightlong quest for redemption. He picks up a waitress at a bar and sleeps with her. Earlier in the night, he purchased a knife from a pawn shop, for protection, and uses the knife to stab a pimp who tried to rob him. Edmond is in the waitress' apartment, raving and ranting about... whatever. All the while, he's waving the knife around to emphasize his point. To make a long story short, he ends up brutally stabbing her to death in a fit of rage.
• Weird Science: Although not a psycho, Gary does this trope just after driving away the gang of mutant bikers from his party, gesturing casually with his rather large revolver as he talks to Wyatt and scaring the hell out of the party guests in doing so. Justified in that, due to an earlier event involving that gun, he thought it was a water pistol (this time, it wasn't, as he and a chandelier learned the hard way).
• In North by Northwest, Townsend is surreptitiously stabbed in the back by one of Vandamm's henchmen as he talks with Roger Thornhill at the UN. As he falls foward, Thornhill catches him, and seeing the knife pulls it out of Townsend's back. Only then does the large crowd around them notice what's happened, and the trope is duly invoked.

Literature

• In Lords And Ladies, Magrat is explaining the situation to Jason Ogg, all while swinging around an unregarded battle axe.
• In one of the Psych novels, a person of interest in a murder investigation finds a bloody knife in his pocket while giving his statement; he takes the officer interviewing him hostage while claiming that someone is trying to frame him.
• In Polish nove Escape from Festung Breslau protagonist, German soldier, wants to get a doctors opinion, that he needs vacation, but is morally oposed to simulating disease. His friend manipulates a visit to a particularly strict doctor in a way that leads to this trope and diagnosis of mild breakdown. Scene itself is easily Crowning Moment of Funny.

Live Action TV

• One episode of Samantha Who? is called "The Stalker" and it's about Samantha's attempt to apologize to someone to whom she stalked in her "evil" former personality, but continually makes the situation worse. During the same episode, she tries to bond with her father by going hunting with him. Thus, she ends up explaining to the man she stalked and the crowd that she is not crazy, while pointing a rifle at him and them. Hilarity Ensues.

Music

• The Offspring song quoted above is actually Not an Example: it's about an Ax Crazy driver with a Hair-Trigger Temper.

Theatre

• Happens when the mercenaries take over the court in the play Money Talks.

Video Games

• In Persona 4, Yosuke does a variant of this early in the game. After offering the main character a choice between a long sword and a dagger, Yosuke gets it into his head that he should use both, and tries a few moves. A cop sees him, and moves in to arrest Yosuke. Yosuke tries to explain himself, while still flailing about with his weapons. He and the main character end up being arrested.
  • They were in the outdoor food-court of the local department store, and their small town had recently been struck by a series of bizarre murders. This is not the first (or last) time that Yosuke's lack of common sense gets him into (often hilarious) trouble.

Web Comics

• Schlock Mercenary had Dr. Bunnigus of all people talk while brandishing a scalpel. Though she was talking with Petey immediately before that, he has this effect sometimes.

Web Original

• The Gmod Idiot Box, episode two, remakes the Falling Down scene in Garry's Mod.

Western Animation

• The Simpsons, when Homer was accused of the attempted murder of Mr. Burns.

Say I never shot you!... Before.

Real Life

• Real Life subversion: U.S. Senator Feinstein sweeps the crowd with the automatic rife, finger on the trigger, high-capacity magazine attached. While lamenting recklessness of gun manufacturers and preaching for complete gun ban, of course. Her audience does not react.
  • So basically, she's trying to keep guns out of the hands of people less idiotic than she is?
  • No, she's trying to demonstrate what will happen if people who don't have gun training gets a gun. A trained police or soldier wouldn't wave his or her gun in front of a crowd.