Why do people on TV holster their guns wrong?
November 13, 2013 7:26 PM Subscribe
Why does everyone on TV or in movies seem to holster or tuck their gun into their belts backwards? Is there something behind this screen convention?
A real-life holster for a handgun seems to generally be oriented such that, when drawing, ones knuckles are facing out, rather than between the grip of the gun and the body. Like this example of a right-handed holster (You're looking at the bit that's away from the body). When drawing, one would come in and grab the gun from the side that's away from the body. This is the style I've seen in real life from both professional and amateur carriers of firearms.
On film, everyone seems to carry their handguns the exact opposite way. They tuck them in their waistbands such that, if right-handed, the bottom of the grip is pointed to the right if the pistol is worn in the back. It seems impractical.
How did this film convention evolve? Or am I just seeing massive confirmation bias? Is there some sort of stage thing I don't know about? Basically, what's the deal with how TV people holster their guns?
A real-life holster for a handgun seems to generally be oriented such that, when drawing, ones knuckles are facing out, rather than between the grip of the gun and the body. Like this example of a right-handed holster (You're looking at the bit that's away from the body). When drawing, one would come in and grab the gun from the side that's away from the body. This is the style I've seen in real life from both professional and amateur carriers of firearms.
On film, everyone seems to carry their handguns the exact opposite way. They tuck them in their waistbands such that, if right-handed, the bottom of the grip is pointed to the right if the pistol is worn in the back. It seems impractical.
How did this film convention evolve? Or am I just seeing massive confirmation bias? Is there some sort of stage thing I don't know about? Basically, what's the deal with how TV people holster their guns?
I'm honestly unclear on what you're seeing.
posted by bitdamaged at 7:50 PM on November 13, 2013 [4 favorites]
posted by bitdamaged at 7:50 PM on November 13, 2013 [4 favorites]
Best answer: It could be about blocking, arm movements, and upstaging yourself/not wanting to twist your body into a strange angle that doesn't look good on camera.
Onstage, you never want to turn your back to the audience or move your body so that your face is blocked. Doing this is called "upstaging yourself". Onscreen, this sort of thing is not quite as important, but there are still vestiges of the "upstaging" concept.
Firstly, a lot of screen actors have stage experience, and "don't upstage yourself" is taught early and often. I learned how to instinctively never upstage myself in high school theatre classes. This means that any actor who has so much as appeared in a school play has likely internalized the taboo against "upstaging", whether they are acting on stage or for the screen.
Secondly, while upstaging isn't quite as big a problem in front of the camera, you still want to make sure that the audience can see what they're supposed to see and that everyone looks as good as possible. Actors, directors, and cinematographers think a lot about blocking and what shapes everyone's bodies will make on camera. If holstering or unholstering a gun the "proper" way looks weird, the blocking will be changed regardless of correct technique.
Even if there isn't an issue of awkwardness, often blocking is changed in favor of something that looks cool as opposed to whatever is correct gun handling practice. See basically any action movie ever for evidence of this.
posted by Sara C. at 8:10 PM on November 13, 2013 [2 favorites]
Onstage, you never want to turn your back to the audience or move your body so that your face is blocked. Doing this is called "upstaging yourself". Onscreen, this sort of thing is not quite as important, but there are still vestiges of the "upstaging" concept.
Firstly, a lot of screen actors have stage experience, and "don't upstage yourself" is taught early and often. I learned how to instinctively never upstage myself in high school theatre classes. This means that any actor who has so much as appeared in a school play has likely internalized the taboo against "upstaging", whether they are acting on stage or for the screen.
Secondly, while upstaging isn't quite as big a problem in front of the camera, you still want to make sure that the audience can see what they're supposed to see and that everyone looks as good as possible. Actors, directors, and cinematographers think a lot about blocking and what shapes everyone's bodies will make on camera. If holstering or unholstering a gun the "proper" way looks weird, the blocking will be changed regardless of correct technique.
Even if there isn't an issue of awkwardness, often blocking is changed in favor of something that looks cool as opposed to whatever is correct gun handling practice. See basically any action movie ever for evidence of this.
posted by Sara C. at 8:10 PM on November 13, 2013 [2 favorites]
I don't think I've ever seen what you are talking about.
posted by gjc at 8:21 PM on November 13, 2013 [3 favorites]
posted by gjc at 8:21 PM on November 13, 2013 [3 favorites]
You're comparing people drawing out of a holster (and usually an outer holster) to people who have shoved a gun in their waistband in the small of their back. Which nobody who has any sense & choice in the matter is going to do. But if I absolutely had to temporarily store a gun that way (I would not) I would probably put it such that I'd have to push my knuckles between the gun and my body; twisting my arm to do it the other way is harder, at least on my shoulder. Grab a banana or something and try it for yourself.
In real life there are inner-pants holsters out there and they're configured with the knuckles-out direction you mention. However when you look at all the picture of them you'll see that they're expected to be worn on the side of front of your body. So again, it's not so much an apples to apples comparison you're making.
Which I guess is my way of saying "artistic license."
posted by phearlez at 8:48 PM on November 13, 2013
In real life there are inner-pants holsters out there and they're configured with the knuckles-out direction you mention. However when you look at all the picture of them you'll see that they're expected to be worn on the side of front of your body. So again, it's not so much an apples to apples comparison you're making.
Which I guess is my way of saying "artistic license."
posted by phearlez at 8:48 PM on November 13, 2013
Holsters designed to go the "wrong" way are apparently a real thing.
posted by juv3nal at 8:54 PM on November 13, 2013
posted by juv3nal at 8:54 PM on November 13, 2013
It is just body mechanics. Put the palm of your hand flat against your right side. Now slide it around towards the center of your back along your waistline. You have limited mobility because your shoulder stops. Now put the knuckles of your hand in the small of your back at your waistline. Far more comfortable, right? Now slide them towards your side. You can't really move around your body that way.
When the pistol is behind your body, then knuckles in just works better. When it is to the side or front of your body, then knuckles out works better, so the pistol grip points the opposite direction.
posted by procrastination at 8:57 PM on November 13, 2013 [3 favorites]
When the pistol is behind your body, then knuckles in just works better. When it is to the side or front of your body, then knuckles out works better, so the pistol grip points the opposite direction.
posted by procrastination at 8:57 PM on November 13, 2013 [3 favorites]
Hey, wow, they are !
As a M1911 carrier, that friction holster you linked to gives me the heebie-jeebies.
posted by Kakkerlak at 8:57 PM on November 13, 2013 [1 favorite]
As a M1911 carrier, that friction holster you linked to gives me the heebie-jeebies.
posted by Kakkerlak at 8:57 PM on November 13, 2013 [1 favorite]
phearlez beat me to it, but yeah, I think the films are showing people not actually using a holster. From what I've seen, actual holsters are rare on television: everyone uses the standard hip holster (or setting-appropriate variations thereof) or crazy custom things because the character is a crazy badass gun nut type. I think Law & Order showed the detectives with shoulder holsters; that's the only counterexample I can remember right now.
To put this in context, NYPD actually teaches its beat cops to look for people who occasionally press a hand to their sides when breaking stride or otherwise making sudden movements. That's because a nontrivial fraction of people will just stick guns into their coat pockets and let them bounce around any old way. I don't think sound gun-handling practices are the right way to think about this question.
posted by d. z. wang at 9:03 PM on November 13, 2013 [3 favorites]
To put this in context, NYPD actually teaches its beat cops to look for people who occasionally press a hand to their sides when breaking stride or otherwise making sudden movements. That's because a nontrivial fraction of people will just stick guns into their coat pockets and let them bounce around any old way. I don't think sound gun-handling practices are the right way to think about this question.
posted by d. z. wang at 9:03 PM on November 13, 2013 [3 favorites]
Just a data point: I have seen plainclothes security guys in Israel wearing their guns in the back waistband of their pants, under their untucked shirt exactly as you describe. I assumed immediately it was to appear inconspicuous.
posted by R. Schlock at 9:05 PM on November 13, 2013
posted by R. Schlock at 9:05 PM on November 13, 2013
Another data point, our CPOs in Kurdistan did the same when they didn't want to be obvious.
posted by arcticseal at 9:12 PM on November 13, 2013
posted by arcticseal at 9:12 PM on November 13, 2013
Seconding shoulder mechanics. It's actually really hard to get your right arm around your back in such a way to grab a pistol with its grip pointed to your left and your knuckles out. If you do manage to grab it from that position, pulling up to get the gun out of your waistband is nearly impossible. Doing the same action with your knuckles towards your back, with the grip of the gun pointed to your right, is significantly easier.
posted by vytae at 4:19 AM on November 14, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by vytae at 4:19 AM on November 14, 2013 [1 favorite]
Best answer: To add another (quasi-educated) guess, it could be some safety thing. My training is in theatre, not film, and most of the stage combat classes I had to take centered on swords and fist-fights rather than guns. But I do remember there were certain rules about guns onstage. E.g. we were taught that if you point a gun at another actor, you never really point it at them, but just slightly to the side of their body. This was so that if something somehow become lodged in the gun, and you somehow managed to shoot it, the errant piece of wood or plastic or whatever would not accidentally become a flying projectile. It looks the same to the audience, if the angles are right, and it is (I assume) an overabundance of caution. I don't know about shooting guns in real life, but I could imagine you'd handle one slightly differently if your goal was to shoot someone vs looking like you are shooting them but absolutely totally never shooting them. And so I could imagine a choreographer teaching an actor to holster or draw a gun in a certain way that would make it less likely the gun would go off, or fall on the ground.
Also, it might look cooler.
posted by DestinationUnknown at 6:18 AM on November 14, 2013 [2 favorites]
Also, it might look cooler.
posted by DestinationUnknown at 6:18 AM on November 14, 2013 [2 favorites]
Bit of aside topic, but not pointing things that could be real guns at people is a VERY important safety feature: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Lee#Death
Also on that point, not pointing guns at my delicate below the belt bits also sounds very important to me. So I'd imagine a front waistband carry is: Dangerous, stupid, and for emergency use only.
posted by Jacen at 9:03 AM on November 14, 2013 [3 favorites]
Also on that point, not pointing guns at my delicate below the belt bits also sounds very important to me. So I'd imagine a front waistband carry is: Dangerous, stupid, and for emergency use only.
posted by Jacen at 9:03 AM on November 14, 2013 [3 favorites]
It's important to remember how the action of the gun is meant to be perceived, rather than what it would achieve in real life. For example, remember how the "tough" guys would fire from the hip or when people would turn handguns to the side to look tougher? This is like that. Is a show trying to display handguns as a normal part of average life? You're going to see a shoulder holster. Are they trying to show criminality? Gun in the jacket or other weird places for surprise and fearsomeness.
posted by corb at 9:25 AM on November 14, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by corb at 9:25 AM on November 14, 2013 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
A proper small-of-the-back holster presents the pistol grip-up, so you can grasp it with your right hand, knuckles-out.
I've never worn one; it's hard enough to keep my shirt tucked in and not flapping in the wind, let alone my Beretta.
Of course you couldn't "tuck it into your waistband" that way, and it wouldn't present grip-bottom-first as the actor pulls up his shirt or coat to reveal it.
I can think of exactly one time that I placed my pistol into my waistband like that, and it was because I had to hide it in a hurry and wasn't wearing my holster. Maybe that's the source of the trope, as well.
posted by Kakkerlak at 7:48 PM on November 13, 2013