Finger gun

The finger gun is a hand gesture in which the subject uses their hand to mimic a handgun, raising their thumb above their fist to act as a hammer, and one or two fingers extended perpendicular to it acting as a barrel. The middle finger can also act as the trigger finger.

It is also sometimes used by placing the "gun" to the side of one's own head or under the chin, as if committing suicide, to indicate a strong desire to be put out of one's misery, either from boredom or exasperation. In addition, it can also be used as a way to say an awkward "hey" or "what's up" to friends or acquaintances.

Children and teenagers have occasionally been punished or removed from school for making the gesture. In some cases this was because authority figures interpreted it as a signal for threatening real violence, while in others they interpreted it as unacceptably supportive of gun violence in general. These have often been labeled "ridiculous" by some commentators.

In 2006, Fahim Ahmad allegedly made the gesture when speaking about the possibility of Canadian Security Intelligence Service agents ever coming to his apartment, which was used as evidence of his conspiracy to commit terrorism by a police informant.

In sports

Raider Red with a pair of finger guns

Fans of Texas Tech University use a form of this hand gesture with fingers always pointed upward, called "Guns up." The idea is that the Red Raiders, as the university's sports teams are called, will shoot down their opponents. The Guns Up sign is the widely recognized greeting of one Red Raider to another. It is also the sign of victory displayed by the crowd at every athletic event.

The gesture, performed with both hands, was a signature of professional wrestler Mick Foley while he was in his "Cactus Jack" persona, as well as the The Motor City Machineguns.^{[citation needed]}

Major League Baseball pitcher Pascual Pérez would often draw criticism and ire from his opponents, as he would mimic "shooting" them with finger-guns during games.

In popular culture

In the climax scene of 1976 film Taxi Driver directed by Martin Scorsese the heavily wounded protagonist Travis Bickle (played by Robert De Niro) after a gunfight in a brothel, surrounded by the police forces attempts several times to fire a bullet into his own head from under his chin, but all his weapons are out of ammunition, so he instead resigns himself to resting on a sofa and when a police officer approaches him he ″shoots″ himself several times in the left forehead using the finger gun gesture.

An advertisement for the Xbox 360, which featured an impromptu mass finger-gun battle by people in a subway station was later banned from syndication.

In the South Park episode "Something You Can Do with Your Finger", Eric Cartman believes that the gesture is called "fingerbang".

On the January 13, 2009, episode of "Late Show With David Letterman", comedian Jimmie Walker claimed that the general manager of a Best Western hotel in Seattle, Washington, asked him to leave because the staff had felt threatened by his inadvertent use of the finger-gun gesture at the registration desk.

In the anime Yu Yu Hakusho, main character Yusuke Urameshi's signature technique involves using the finger gun pose, followed by shouting "Spirit Gun" which discharges a bolt of spiritual energy from the tip of the extended finger gun gesture. Similarly, in the anime Cowboy Bebop, main character Spike Spiegel is seen using the finger gun gesture, always followed with him saying "Bang."

In the videogame Team Fortress 2, the Heavy character can taunt his opponents by mockingly making the finger gun gesture and pretenting to shoot with a shout of "Pow! Ha ha!"; as an easter egg, the taunt deals lethal damage to any opponent within range, causing a humorous and humiliating death.

In the TV show Heroes, a minor character named Trevor Zeitlan has an ability that allows him to blast things with invisible bursts of energy using the finger-gun gesture. Also, Elle Bishop uses the finger-gun to shoot a bolt of electricity in one episode, though her lightning is typically launched from the palm of her hand.

In a well-known scene from the film Gran Torino, the main character makes the finger-gun gesture at a car, to which its passenger responds with the middle finger.

In an episode of season six of The Office, Pam Halpert, Andy Bernard, Dwight Schrute, and Michael Scott hold each other at finger-gunpoint as the climax to a role playing game that the entire office had been participating in. The scene ends with Pam leaving to go home, and Michael, Dwight, and Andy finger-shooting each other to death.

In the movie Crank, the protagonist Chev Chelios threatens several armed gang members with the gesture, then 'shoots' one, who is promptly shot with a silenced pistol by a rival gang. The sequel also includes a similar scene.

In a cutscene from the 2008 videogame Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, antagonist Liquid Ocelot, after gaining control of the SOP system, points a finger gun at two helicopters, and then his own head, and shouts "Bang!" to shut the helicopters and SOP down, and then kills the soldiers by pretend-shooting them while his FROGS actually shot them.

There is also an Finger Gun iPhone app available to simulate the action of shooting someone with a finger gun called "Finger Gun."

In the anime/manga Death Note, the character L greets the Kira task force with a finger gun saying "Bang. If I were Kira, you would be dead." stating that the task force would be dead already if L were Kira.