History Main / FamilyFriendlyFirearms

* ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}'':
** The game more or less plays like a multiplayer deathmatch shooter game, but you use paint guns instead of normal guns. Shooting opponents simply sends them back to their team's base. And in Turf War, the main mode, shooting up opponents isn't really the main goal anyway -- it's to cover the arena with as much of your team's color of paint as possible.
** ''[[VideoGame/Splatoon2 Splatoon 2]]'''s single player trailer featured the player character using what looked like an [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FN_P90 FN P90]] as their main weapon. Of course, the final version of the weapon was heavily modified to look more toylike, in line with the other weapons in the game.

* In the book version of ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets'' and its [[Film/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets film adaptation]], Harry kills the basilisk by stabbing it through the roof of its mouth with the Sword of Gryffindor. In [[VideoGame/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets the video game]], however, the sword is not a melee weapon at all and instead fires magic lasers from its tip. How much it is this trope and how much it was to make [[RuleofFun an interesting boss battle]] is up to debate.

* Parodied in Harry Partridge's "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZpxMyoFpds Bo-Starr]]" short. The titular character is charged at by the [[SarcasmMode ever-menacing]] Grass Man, and his companion tells him to use his laser "stun ray". Bo-Starr does so, only for [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome the laser to kill Grass Man in a single shot]]. He than awkwardly flicks a switch he'd forgotten to hit that switches the weapon to stun mode and [[BlackComedy pointlessly shoots it at Grass Man's corpse]].

* Zig-zagged in ''{{WesternAnimation/Gargoyles}}'': while the first few episodes portrayed "particle beam" weapons as being accessible only to the very rich (such as millionaire David Xanatos), everybody else carried and used real guns. However, in the episode "Deadly Force", mob boss Tony Dracon steals a shipment of these and sells several of them on the street. Thus, the writers establish that there are energy weapons available for criminals to use if they know where to look. In the end, who used what depended on which group one belonged to: members of the NYPD (including co-star Elisa Maza) would uniformly use real guns; high-end baddies such as Xanatos, Demona, and Thailog heavily favored lasers; and anyone else would use whatever the not-always-consistent animation felt like displaying.

** ''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.

* 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 way 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.

** ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' usually averts this trope, as police and criminals often use semi-realistic firearms that fire actual bullets, with laser guns or other "exotic" weaponry only being 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.

* Toyed around with in the ''WesternAnimation/DisneyAfternoon'' fare. The rule of thumb is that villains and law enforcement are allowed to carry realistic guns and other weapons, while main characters are restricted to AbnomalAmmo and other defenses:

* Toyed around with in the ''WesternAnimation/DisneyAfternoon'' fare:

** Primarily averted on ''WesternAnimation/TaleSpin''. Realistic side and longarms (Colt .45-style pistols, Thompson Submachine Guns, etc) are used on the ground, Don Karnage's pirates and Cape Suzette fighter planes are armed with very realistic machine guns, and the cliff guns defending Cape Suzette from outside threats fire realistic anti aircraft artillery. And then you have the [[{{Ruritania}} Thembrians]] flinging bathtubs at enemy aircraft because they're too poor to afford bullets for the guns they do have...

* Both the ''Franchise/YuGiOh'' [[TabletopGame/YuGiOh card game]] and [[Anime/YuGiOh TV show]] have monsters that wield or resemble guns edited into lasers... [[MemeticMutation in]] ''[[MemeticMutation America!]]''. The most notable example of this is the monster called "Barrel Dragon", which could be described as resembling several guns welded together in Japan. An exception is the "Ancient Gear Soldier" in ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'', which uses a submachine gun-arm - it can be argued this was just because editing it would have looked ridiculous.

* ''SEries/RoboCopTheSeries'' sees Murphy retains his [[HandCannon Auto-9]], but uses it to resort to [[BlastingItOutOfTheirHands blasting weapons out of the villains' hands]] and has additional non-lethal weapons.

* Not-quite-a-gun example: in the cartoons based on ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfZelda'', Link couldn't kill the enemies by stabbing them with his sword like in the games. Instead, he had to defeat them by shooting them with the {{Sword Beam}}s -- which are also in the games, but are only available at full health and thus aren't used as much as regular stabbing. In one episode, Link foolishly trades his sword for a fancier one which, he discovers at a critical moment, does not shoot laser beams. It does not help that [[WreckedWeapon the sword snaps in half from one enemy attack.]] Also, Zelda's bow fires glowing beams instead of regular arrows.

** In the Baratie arc, a gun that shot spikes from Don Kreig's shield was changed to shoot "poison suction cups". But when the spikes were flying through the air for a few frames they were unedited, and they still hit the ground with a metallic "clank".

** In the Baratie arc, a gun that shot spikes was changed to shoot "poison suction cups". But when the spikes were flying through the air for a few frames they were unedited, and they still hit the ground with a metallic "clank".

** In the first few episodes, guns would occasionally be replaced with a sillier-looking equivalent. One scene where Helmeppo holds a flintlock pistol to Cody'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 Krieg mini-arc, a gun that shot spikes was changed to shoot "poison suction cups". But when the spikes were flying through the air for a few frames they were unedited, and they still hit the ground with a metallic "clank".

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'' featured real guns during the first two seasons, with cops, robbers, commandos, and even ''Miss Bellum'' wielding threatening, bullet-firing weapons with appropriate sound-effects. One episode even points out that the girls are bullet-proof, with Blossom [[ShootingSuperman wondering why criminals even try]] as bullets bounce off of her. This changes in the third season, in an episode which shows policemen fire fully-functional pistols and machineguns which are inexplicably colored fire-hydrant red, and eventually the trope is played straight, with a bank robber shooting at the girls with a laser pistol.

* The original ''[[Franchise/SpyroTheDragon Spyro the Dragon Trilogy]]'' averted this, with multiple enemies in each games having guns, ranging from Flintlock weapons to modern machine guns. ''VideoGame/SpyroReignitedTrilogy'' changed many of the guns into non-bullet projectiles like slingshots or goo weapons. However, the Flintlock weapons and some revolvers still clearly fire bullets.

* Near end of episode 8 of Chinese animated series ''Brainless and Unhappy'' ('''Chinese:''' 没头脑和不高兴) have police shoots at the arm of the mastermind of the scammer. No bullets were shown but laser sound were heard.

* Guns were [[{{Bowdlerise}} replaced with friendly ones]] in the official Website/YouTube version of ''Animation/PleasantGoatandBigBigWolf'' episodes (episodes 341-380). But in episode 342, Weslie and others, dressed as robbers, are holding toy guns and point to Wolffy, and he said that they just want uses toy guns (actual guns in the original version) to scare him, and then they shoots no bullets but the gun sound is still heard...

* VideoGame/CrashBandicoot's [[http://crashbandicoot.wikia.com/wiki/Fruit_Bazooka Fruit Bazooka]].
* Franchise/RatchetAndClank's weaponry is generally done in a retro sci-fi style to make the series more kid-friendly. Then of course, there's all the DenserAndWackier weapons like the Morph-o-ray, Groovitron and Mr Zurkon.
* ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'': In interviews about ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl'', it was specifically said that [[VideoGame/MetalGear Solid Snake]] could not use guns... but his rocket launcher, mortar, grenades, and land mines are all good. This may have also been for gameplay reasons though, since a projectile that [[{{hitscan}} moves almost instantly]] (like Sheik's needles) that you could [[SpamAttack fire almost constantly]] would be [[GameBreaker really cheap]] (also, [[StuffBlowingUp explosions]] [[RuleOfCool are more fun]], [[RuleOfFunny more hilarious]] and much harder to imitate). The titular protagonist of ''VideoGame/{{Bayonetta}}'', showing up as a DLC character ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosForNintendo3DSAndWiiU'', gets to keep her firearms, but they're [[BlingBlingBang unrealistic]] and a pretty big part of her style. The ''VideoGame/DuckHunt'' fighter can summon characters from Wild Gunman, but the Wild Gunman characters and their weapons are flat 2D NES sprites thus look even less realistic than Bayonetta's weapons. [[VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry King K. Rool]] has a flintlock blunderbuss, but it fires a comically large and slow moving cannon ball (not to mention somehow acts a vacuum). [[VideoGame/Persona5 Joker]] somewhat averts this. In lore, the gun itself is only an airsoft gun made real by the Metaverse, but ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'' never acknowledges this, and the gun looks and acts realistically, with bullet casings exiting the gun. His special that uses it is just called "Gun." Since the Gun is Joker's neutral B, Kirby also can copy the gun, blasting foes while saying, "Bang! Bang! Bang!"
* Occurs within the {{novelization}} of ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberiumWars''. Within the novel, the regular infantry of Nod (the bad guys) are armed with energy weapons. While Nod do have lasers within the game, they're limited to special forces, while the regular mooks get conventional weapons. The trope is almost invoked by one soldier wondering "Where the hell'd they get-" after seeing the lasers. The change isn't because of censorship, but as a result of a continuity error.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/AllDogsGoToHeaven'', Carface use a tommy gun... that fires red lasers. Dialogue refers to it as "a ComicStrip/FlashGordon thermo-atomic RayGun". How they got advanced laser weaponry in 1939 is never explained. Oddly enough, they leave in the part where they violently gun down Charlie in front of the apple cart (and somehow miss every shot).

* The doll for Yukon Cornelius from ''WesternAnimation/RudolphTheRedNosedReindeer'' had his pistol removed although he never used in the movie itself.

* The 1990's ''WesternAnimation/XMen'' animated series was a serious offender. Everything shoots "lasers". Machine guns shoot lasers. Tanks shoot big red beams that somehow arc and hit the ground like heavy artillery. Also typical for this trope, the series had the anti-mutant supremacist group stockpile what were clearly regular munitions, despite constantly using laser weapons onscreen. Even sewer-dwelling edge-people have lasers! The animated version of the battle between ComicBook/{{Storm}} and Callisto for leadership of the Morlocks was fought with what looked like double-bladed lightsabers (in the original comic book, it was a knife fight). The one arguable exception in the season 5 episode “Old Soldiers”, in which more realistic sounds are heard when a few rounds are let loose.
* Alongside ''WesternAnimation/XMen'', ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'' (known for its particularly heavy censorship and restrictions) also excessively used laser weaponry. Many realistic guns were not allowed, and no firearms could shoot bullets, so instead they fired lasers complemented by "futuristic" sound effects. This often led to preposterous scenes in which ordinary policemen wielded bizarre, futuristic pistols, and the mere ''appearances'' of realistic-looking guns (as seen in "Tombstone" and "Day of the Chameleon") were pointed out as major exceptions. The most preposterous example ''has'' to be “Secrets of the Six” where, during a WWII flashback, Comicbook/CaptainAmerica leads a crackdown on the ComicBook/RedSkull's Nazi infiltrators, which, upon being discovered, promptly pull out their standard issue ''1943 model laser guns'' to shoot those pesky heroes.
* If projectile-based weaponry existed in the present-day ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution'', it was never used. Policemen would never draw their weapons. The army would either use non-lethal ordnance such as taser or tear gas, or escalate to laser rifles. Even civilians created their own improvised lasers when the need arose: in one episode, high-school graduate Duncan Matthews uses what is described as modified mining tools during his short lived anti-mutant terror campaign. One clear exception, mercifully, occurs during the World War II flashback sequence in “Project Rebirth”.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSpectacularSpiderMan'' has cops and common criminals use guns which are meant to be realistic ones, but which are made to sound more like lasers. While a particular subset of DVD's was meant to make them sound like real guns (among other general changes, including additional footage, and the editing of the individual episodes of an arc into a pseudo-movie), only the first story arc got this treatment before the line was discontinued. Villains higher on the tech scale, incidentally, would occasionally use what were unambiguously meant to be lasers, or some other form of AbnormalAmmo.

--->'''Tara:''' A tomato!
--->'''Chad:''' Nah, a prune... now we're gonna hear from the ''Prune'' Board!

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' plays this trope straight, although the fact that the world established in the series appears to be different from our own in several key ways means their use is not as jarring as some other cases.

* Everyone in the various ''WesternAnimation/{{Ben 10}}'' series uses lasers. While it make sense for characters who are connected to the numerous alien races that are a series mainstay, the fact that regular people--such as the security detail assigned to protect a to-be-released videogame--also use them without explanation can be rather off-putting, if you care about stuff like that.

* ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'' seems to zigzag with this trope at times. On one hand, Agent Fowler's helicopter is armed with what looks like a pretty accurately-modeled M230 Chaingun, and when he fires it at Laserbeak in the third episode, it clearly makes gun-like sounds and even runs out of ammo. When it appeared again in episode 17, however, the same gun fired bullets with a laser sound effect. It's even weirder with MECH's various weapons; Silas' personal chopper clearly fires some kind of energised projectile, while his goons carry futuristic assault rifles that fire both laser-sounding bullets (which are animated like normal gunfire and make obvious ricochet noises against Breakdown and Bulkhead's armour) ''and'' blue, energy-like stun blasts from a secondary barrel. Meanwhile, ordinary US troops carry normal-looking M16s, but never fire them. In ''Nemesis Prime'', we get some rather awkward scenes where said troops point their M16s at targets, but all actual gunfire comes from offscreen, and sounds like lasers; it's implied that they're firing their rifles at the eponymous MECH robot, but not once is anyone shone pulling the trigger of their weapon on-camera. The lack of projectile weapons is especially baffling given that the show has no problems with Transformers dismember each other with blade weapons.

* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' toys with this. Some villains are armed with lasers and otherworldly weaponry, but soldiers and thugs still carry standard firearms.

* Both played straight and averted in ''WesternAnimation/WolverineAndTheXMen2009''. Most instances of firearms tended to be cartoonish lasers, but realistic handguns were infrequently seen as well.

* The fantasy world of Perim in ''WesternAnimation/{{Chaotic}}'' featured this trope via FantasyGunControl: while the Tribes can churn out arsenal fulls of flamethrowers, hand-held water cannons, and {{boom stick}}s powered-by the classical element air, gunpowder-based firearms appear to be completely alien to their world. Likewise, in the episode "Chaotic Crisis" featured a conflict between the creatures of Perim and real-world humans, who, instead of using the expected arsenal, instead used tanks with ''[[KillItWithFire flamethrowers]]''.

* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', where George Lucas and Steven Spielberg set out to release remakes of ''ET'' and the ''Franchise/IndianaJones'' movies where all the guns have been digitally replaced with walkie-talkies. This is later taken a step further {{lampshade|Hanging}}d when the boys are being held captive by real soldiers, all armed with machine gun sized walkie-talkies.

* This trope was, ironically, averted by a bizarre case of ExecutiveMeddling in the case of ''WesternAnimation/TheAvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes''. Originally, the episodes set in World War II were supposed to actually be the Marvel Universe conception of World War II, Nazis and all. Realistic firearms were also called for. However, according to original showrunner Creator/ChristopherYost, Disney's BSP unit made them a deal -- they could ''either'' have Nazis in [=WW2=], but they had to use lasers, or they could have realistic firearms but no Nazis. Hence ComicBook/CaptainAmerica, the ComicBook/HowlingCommandos and [[ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} James Howlett]] all shoot hot lead at HYDRA, who are apparently helping unseen, unmentioned Nazis conquer Europe.

* ''WesternAnimation/SwatKats'' zigzags the trope: normal guns and rifles, as used by the Enforcers and assorted villains, are laser-based and generally look that way, though Commander Feral's handgun looks a little more realistic; [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness some early episodes showed bullets being fired from guns, but with red streaks and laser noises]]. The SWAT Kats' arsenal, on the other hand, is intended to be as non-lethal as possible. Therefore, they tend to lean towards AbnormalAmmo- the varieties of missiles used in the [[CoolPlane [=TurboKat=]]] range from being able to deploy buzzsaws, to producing electrical or flame impacts. They rarely ever fired a standard missile- which was [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] when a standard was fired by a button marked "Plain Old Missile". In addition, they also had a [[GatlingGood cement gatling gun]] equipped; their ammo in their [[SuperWristGadget Glovat]][[PowerFist rixes]] and [[{{Thememobile}} other vehicles]] tended to be scaled-down versions of their [=TurboKat=] armaments.

* Sort of an in-universe example: VideoGame/CommanderKeen used rayguns in his first games, the Invasion of the Vorticons trilogy (and the opening story of Keen Dreams), then switched to a Neural Stunner for the rest of his games. This was likely due to how 1.) all the Vorticons Keen slaughtered were mind-controlled instead of evil and Keen didn't want to risk ending up responsible for the annihilation of an alien race again, and 2.) stunned enemies with stars circling their heads are more amusing to look at in a game that pioneered DOS as a gaming platform.

* Any time the dog mafia used guns in thr DePattie/Freleng “Dogfather” shorts none are actually shown on screen, gun shots and smoke are seen but we always cut to the dog who shot the offscreen gun tucking it back into his coat.

* ''VideoGame/LegoAdaptationGames'' avert this, surprisingly. Characters in games like ''VideoGame/LegoBatman'' and ''VideoGame/LegoIndianaJones'' use real, albeit slightly cartoony, guns that obviously shoot bullets (rather slow moving bullets but bullets nonetheless). The only exception is ''VideoGame/LegoCityUndercover'' which features the main character using things like grapple guns, color guns, and futuristic stun guns but nothing resembling an actual gun.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Asian Animation]]
* Near end of episode 8 of Chinese animated series ''Brainless and Unhappy'' ('''Chinese:''' 没头脑和不高兴) have police shoots at the arm of the mastermind of the scammer. No bullets were shown but laser sound were heard.
* Guns were [[{{Bowdlerise}} replaced with friendly ones]] in the official Website/YouTube version of ''Animation/PleasantGoatandBigBigWolf'' episodes (episodes 341-380). But in episode 342, Weslie and others, dressed as robbers, are holding toy guns and point to Wolffy, and he said that they just want uses toy guns (actual guns in the original version) to scare him, and then they shoots no bullets but the gun sound is still heard...
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* Very notably averted with ''WesternAnimation/COPSAnimatedSeries'': almost all characters carry and use realistic looking firearms that fire bullets and have gunfire sound effects, the one exception being Mace and his laser bazooka.

* In "Saturday Morning ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}" the criminal's gun fires lasers at Nite Owl.

* Just like with ''Digimon Fusion'' above, the Nick dub of ''VideoGame/DanballSenki'' also recolored all guns with lightening sparking all over them.

* ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'': In interviews about ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl'', it was specifically said that [[VideoGame/MetalGear Solid Snake]] could not use guns... but his rocket launcher, mortar, grenades, and land mines are all good. This may have also been for gameplay reasons though, since a projectile that [[{{hitscan}} moves almost instantly]] (like Sheik's needles) that you could [[SpamAttack fire almost constantly]] would be [[GameBreaker really cheap]] (also, [[StuffBlowingUp explosions]] [[RuleOfCool are more fun]], [[RuleOfFunny more hilarious]] and much harder to imitate). The titular protagonist of ''VideoGame/{{Bayonetta}}'', showing up as a DLC character ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosForNintendo3DSAndWiiU'', gets to keep her firearms, but they're [[BlingBlingBang unrealistic]] and a pretty big part of her style. The ''VideoGame/DuckHunt'' fighter can summon characters from Wild Gunman, but the Wild Gunman characters and their weapons are flat 2D NES sprites thus looking even less realistic than Bayonetta's weapons. [[VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry King K. Rool]] has a flintlock blunderbuss, but it fires a comically large and slow moving cannon ball (not to mention somehow acts a vacuum). [[VideoGame/Persona5 Joker]] somewhat averts this. In lore, the gun itself is only an airsoft gun made real by the Metaverse, but ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'' never acknowledges this, and the gun looks and acts realistically, with bullet casings exiting the gun. His special that uses it is just called "Gun." Since the Gun is Joker's neutral B, Kirby also can copy the gun, blasting foes while saying, "Bang! Bang! Bang!"