History Main / FamilyFriendlyFirearms

* An episode of the ''WesternAnimation/AttackOfTheKillerTomatoes'' cartoon, "Invasion of the Tomato Snatchers", Professor Gangreen did a bit of LampshadeHanging, where at one point he complained, "If this were prime-time, I could use real bullets!"

* Unlike [[WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries its predecessor]], ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'' played this trope straight. While it's unclear what kind of ammunition the weapons used by the GCPD and other criminals used--the more-graphic movie and the series proper are somewhat inconsistent in this regard--the guns themselves were very sci-fi looking, in a way that made them look quite out of place in a world that tried to remain somewhat realistic. Averted in ''WesternAnimation/TheBatmanVsDracula'', though - at one point, Batman is pursued by a SWAT team whose guns are quite clearly firing bullets, even though they look rather sci-fi-ish.

* ''Series/{{Wishbone}}'': Downplayed in one of the Sherlock Holmes episodes (the one with the Baskervilles), in that Watson draws his revolver out of his jacket pocket at Holmes' instruction, but it's a gray area whether we actually see him firing it: the next shot in an extremely foggy one, to the point where we can't see actors or anyone on-screen, but we do hear gunshots and see the small spurts of flame you might expect from a revolver fired at night. Next shot, we can see the actors again, and Holmes is asking Watson if he's hurt.

->''"With Creator/{{ABC}} deleting dynamite gags from cartoons, do you find that your children are using explosives less frequently?"''

* The original ''[[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987 Ninja Turtles]]'' cartoon, on the other hand, went in the opposite direction. While initial seasons featured characters using what where meant to be “real” firearms (although the animation, as was typical for the show, was rather inconsistent in this regard, showing what looked like lasers at the same time lines like “eat hot lead” and “the bullets aren't stopping them!” were being said) by its final season you'd have security guards using some very sci-fi-looking lasers. (Presumably, this was a side effect of [[ChannelHop switching]] from syndication to Creator/{{CBS}}, who'd presumably have tighter standards regarding such items.)

* In ''[[WesternAnimation/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice The Adventures of Sam and Max: Freelance Police]]'', the title characters never got to use their guns, but they did use all manner of [[StuffBlowingUp explosives]] and blunt instruments, and the occasional flamethrower. Even so, the roach terrorist at the end of "Bad Day On The Moon" uses a realistically-drawn AK, although it's never fired.

* The American ''WesternAnimation/StreetFighter'' animated series has an episode featuring a Chinese drug cartel using laser guns. Also in the "VideoGame/FinalFight" episode, Belger uses a wheelchair equipped with missiles and lasers instead of his bowgun.
-->"You know [[DoesNotLikeGuns I hate guns]]. '''Guns are for wimps!'''"

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** ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' downplays this trope by using Tommy Guns (their "gangster film" flair likely got them past the censors). Laser guns or other "exotic" weaponry are only used occasionally and typically with an InUniverse justification of it being a character's gimmick, such as Mr. Freeze's {{freeze ray}} or Maxie Zeus's thunderbolt rod.

** ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'', like other typical DC cartoons, had both lasers and real guns being used. "Savage Time", a time-travel episode set in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, had lots of guns and bombs going off, [[FamilyUnfriendlyViolence and a lot of soldiers are killed]] (though conveniently obscured or off-screen, [[BloodlessCarnage without any blood]] of course).
** Although ''WesternAnimation/StaticShock'' mostly plays this trope straight, exceptions were occasionally made for particularly serious episodes. Such as the pilot (where Virgil is almost goaded into joining a gang, even being given a handgun that [[DoesNotLikeGuns he immediately throws away]]), an episode dealing with school violence (a bullied kid threatens his tormentors with a stolen pistol, accidentally shooting his friend Richie in the leg), and another one dealing with his mother's death (who was shot and killed while doing emergency services during a violent riot).
** Justified at great length in ''WesternAnimation/TheZetaProject''. Two things: one, bullets strong enough to damage the protagonist Zeta (a robot) will probably destroy him, and the antagonists (a team of federal agents) have orders to capture him alive and intact, as he's a very expensive piece of equipment. Two - [[WhatTheHellHero and Agent Bennett goes off at great length on Agent West for this]] - real bullets will ricochet off of Zeta because his body is built specifically to deflect bullets, and therefore endangers {{innocent bystander}}s. Bennett, despite being a {{jerkass}} most of the time, [[EvenEvilHasStandards enforces the no bullet-firing guns rule based on this]]. The only time anyone uses a real gun is when Agent Lee goes up against a ruthless mercenary who had tried to ''kill her'' earlier. The rest of the time, they used energy-based weapons. Zeta adheres to ThouShaltNotKill so strictly that he refuses to even carry any lethal weapons.

* The Music/{{Wheatus}} single ''Teenage Dirtbag'' was mutilated like this for radio airplay. The line "Her boyfriend's a dick, he brings a gun to school'' was seriously censored to ''Her boyfriend's a [strange scratchy noise], he brings [even stranger scratching noise obscuring words]'' .

* The Wheatus single ''Teenage Dirtbag'' was mutilated like this for radio airplay. The line "Her boyfriend's a dick, he brings a gun to school'' was seriously censored to ''Her boyfriend's a [strange scratchy noise], he brings [even stranger scratching noise obscuring words]'' .

* Despite the video for the ''Music/BeastieBoys'''s "Sabotage" parodying the hell out of [=70s=] movies, the police have no guns, just empty holsters. Given this is the same song with an f-bomb in the first thirty seconds, this presumably came from a combination of ease-of-filming (as the video is set outside) and RuleOfFunny.
* Similar is the video for ''Music/JudasPriest'''s "Breaking the Law", where the band stick up bank tellers by threateningly pointing ''guitars'' at them.

* Changes in [[UsefulNotes/AmericanGunPolitics American gun culture]], akin to those that made things like [[NoSmoking smoking]] and drinking alcohol an increasingly rare phenomenon in American media.[[note]] Despite restrictions on the ''availability'' of guns in America being loosened quite a lot since the 1970s, the proportion of the American population who actually ''own'' guns has dropped by over a third in that same period. Interestingly, the ''number'' of guns in private hands did not go down during that time period. By 2023, guns outnumber people un the US by a narrow margin. [[/note]]

** In the flashback to Luffy's origin, Shanks is held up point blank with a gun to his head by one of the bandits that was threatening Luffy, and he casually tells him that he's risking his life by using the gun because guns aren't toys, before one of his men, Lucky Roo, sneaks up and shoots the bandit in the head, killing him. Shanks lines were mostly the same in the 4kids version except the bandit is holding a popgun, and a line was added after he was shot by Lucky Roo saying that his gun was full of blanks and the bandit simply fainted.

** In the first few episodes, guns would occasionally be replaced with a sillier-looking equivalent. One scene where Helmeppo holds a flintlock pistol to Koby's head had the conventional weapon heavily edited into [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/621839602b084eb8963a12f25350bea7.jpg something that looks more like a hammerhead on a spring.]] (The weapon changed back to a gun in a long shot and a few other frames that 4Kids missed.) Simultaneously, other guns would be edited or recolored to look less realistic — Navy soldiers' rifles were changed to resemble super-soakers, for example — but would still explicitly shoot bullets.

** In the flashback to Luffy and Shanks's origin stories, Shanks is held up point blank with a gun to his temple and he casually points out that the man holding the gun is in danger of a backblast if his skull causes the bullet to shrapnel, just to show how badass he is. In the 4kids version the man is holding a popgun, although Shanks's lines remain mostly unchanged. Shanks's man shoots the would-be shooter dead and they didn't bother changing his gun, but left in a comment that it was full of blanks and that the other man simply fainted.
** Kaya threatens Kuro with something kind of resembling Usopp's slingshot. Which makes a rattling sound suspiciously similar to a gun when she trembles.

* ''Manga/{{Doraemon}}'' had it's moments.

** ''Anime/DoraemonNobitaAndTheGalaxySuperExpress'' have the gang fighting a race of PuppeteerParasite behind a galaxywide AssimilationPlot, where those parasites are vulnerable to ''soap''. The final shootout have the gang taking down plenty of enemies using squirter guns loaded with shampoo. The film also introduces the inflatable pellet gun, where the bullets will cause any living being to [[InflatingBodyGag swell like a bubble]] rather than causing any bodily harm. The same weapon reappears in ''Anime/DoraemonNobitaAndTheSpiralCity'' where Nobita guns down Onigoro and his clones and ties them up like balloons.

** In the Japanese version of ''Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds'', some character wield realistic-looking guns, but to remain child friendly, these guns shoot "lazer beams" in one arc, and in another arc in the next season, six-shot revolver style guns shoot "Stun Cannons". To be fair, ''[=5Ds=]'' does take place in the future, and in one scene the laser beam completely dismembered a man's arm.

* In episode 60 (54 in the Creator/DiC dubbed version) of ''Anime/SailorMoon R'', Chibi-Usa points a gun at Usagi's forehead, demanding she tell her where the Silver Crystal is. It was later revealed that it just a toy gun. This was cut out in the dubbed version.

* Averted all over the place in ''Comicbook/PaperinikNewAdventures'': the main enemies and the hero uses laser (justified, since their technology is way more advanced), but the normal humans all use guns with regular bullets. [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids And use them a lot]]. Did we mention the protagonist is WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck?

The most fearless X-Man let out a horrendous, bloodcurdling scream and then he fell to the ground. The blast destroyed him and left behind only a smoking adamantium skeleton.\\

* A tv comedy pilot "Inside O.U.T." (a parody of ''Series/MissionImpossible''), made after the infamous year 1968, made a point to show the good guys' guns shot non-lethal tranquilizer bullets.

* ''Series/TheMrPotatoHeadShow'': The show lampshades and dances around the fact that you can't have real guns on a kid's show. For example, in a western episode, sherrif!Mr. Potato Head and outlaw!Johnny have some closeups of them that size them up head-to-toe, and you can tell that ''their holsters are empty''. And yet, when Mr. Potato Head is showing this western episode to the [[ScrewedByTheNetwork TV bosses]], seconds after these size-up camera shots, you can ''hear'' gunshots as part of the climactic shootout while seeing the bosses' reactions of horror as they tell him he can't have guns on the show.

* The Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon both uses and averts this trope. Played straight in ''WesternAnimation/SaludosAmigos'', ''WesternAnimation/TheThreeCaballeros'' (Panchito's gun), ''WesternAnimation/{{Pocahontas}}'' (plenty of people get shot, but there's no carnage in sight) and ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}}'' (even though the movie is set in the Industrial Era, the bad guys still use crossbows and swords when advanced firearms are already developed in that time), but averted painfully in ''WesternAnimation/{{Tarzan}}'', ''WesternAnimation/AtlantisTheLostEmpire'', ''WesternAnimation/TreasurePlanet'' and ''WesternAnimation/HomeOnTheRange''. And the number of Disney movies in which non-advanced weaponry (swords, arrows, etc.) are used is huge -- to ''quite'' the effect. Disney averts this trope in its films far more than it plays it straight. Guns appear in a really mind-blowing number of their animated films, even in settings where it would have made perfect sense not to have them, such as ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas''.

* In ''VideoGame/KirbyAndTheForgottenLand'', the newly-introduced Ranger ability features Kirby firing star projectiles from his blunderbuss gun.