While I'd prefer it didn't happen at all, how much it bothers me depends on the cartoon and how its handled. For example, I really didn't mind the original "Navy rifles are turned into super-soakers that shoot bullets" edit in 4Kids' One Piece dub—they looked natural enough so that I didn't even suspect that it was an edit until I went to the internet. G.I. Joe Renegades also works relatively well enough, although it's annoying when the show is dealing with civilians who should have guns but don't. Something like the guns in The Batman, X-Men: Evolution or Spider-Man: TAS, or turning guns invisible in the original Yu-Gi-Oh! dub, however, really takes me out of the action. Personally, I think Gargoyles and (eventually) the second TMNT series handled it best: limit lasers to people with extraordinary resources and/or make sure there's a reason why Jimmy Bats the meth addict can get his hands on ordnance with a million-dollar research budget behind it.
Avatar art by Lorna-Ka.Still, better than replacing them with Bananas and Lollipops.
edited 20th Feb '11 3:09:10 PM by Mattonymy
You are displaying abnormally high compulsions to over-analyze works of fiction and media. Diagnosis: TV Tropes Addiction.Looking around here it seems that people really liked that episode for dealing with gun control in a manner that didn't treat the viewers like idiots. Maybe less "gun control" and more "gun responsibility." Guns are dangerous, but not evil. Respect them and treat them like anything dangerous: carefully.
"Silent Hill always gives the best presents." -agentjr "Death feels like acoustic guitar." -helloweenAs for a banana gun, you can purchase a real life version here: [1]
Family-Friendly Firearms has a good overview of the reasons why. One of the big ones is because with lasers, you can fudge the amount of damage they do to make it as bloodless as necessary. If you have people getting hit by real bullets, you either have to show realistic damage, which is a problem when you can't show blood and such, or you have to sanitize it to a degree that is both unrealistic and may give the wrong impression of how dangerous guns are.
Avatar art by Lorna-Ka.I think its alright as long as the show is PG. But if you take it a bit far(like say, Columbine and 9/11) your going to get a big complaint from people. I was going to say that Diddy Kong had a Banana gun but it was with nuts instead of bananas.
Yo!Guns KICK ASS.
They need to be featured A WHOLE LOT MORE in cartoons so we can compete with Japan and their overrated BS.
Violence makes EVERYTHING better when properly used and executed, and having guns is a step in the right direction. I mean, what happened to the freedom to bear arms for self-defense's sake??
I know I sound crazy, but it's all in the execution, and showing respect for the real world and the portrayal of it through animation to your audience. It's all in the execution, handling of the situation, and maturity to put things forward.
Now if these things are carried out immaturely or for the sake of proving a point that only serves to talk down to the audience, like most of Japan's fare does IMHO, then, yeah. Maybe we are better off just having fun with lazers...
edited 22nd Feb '11 10:04:37 AM by S3
In Neo Arcadia, there are no politics. Just Law, Order, and judgement. And violence - LOTS OF F***ING VIOLENCE! YAY, VIOLENCE!!!@Ozaiangels: Wait, did they really have to choose between guns and Nazis?
So, you can say Nazis exist in your universe, and you can say guns exist in your universe, but you can't say Nazis with guns ever existed in your universe? What's the logic behind that?
edited 22nd Feb '11 10:02:53 AM by NapoleonDeCheese
The stupidest part of all of this is that no child mentally distinguishes a bullet-shooting gun from a laser-shooting gun in a way that would make them less likely to pick up and play with the former. To kids, a cool shooty weapon thingy is a cool shooty weapon thingy.
bogleech.com for my writing, comics and cartoons.When lasers are used in anything that's not science fiction, it makes it seem just a bit more "kiddy". At the same time, having bullets whiz by is another extreme. It's really just grey area. As a weapons enthusiast, I would love to see some more realistic looking firearms in fiction, but at the same time I'm not sure it's appropriate exposing kids to that sort of thing.
I'm torn.
Part of the reason why Japan allows more guns in its animation is because of the country's high firearm control. It's very easy to get a gun in the US of A, so guns are treated with more caution in our cartoons.
Fight. Struggle. Endure. Suffer. LIVE.More guns for adults=Easier access for minors.
I don't agree with the idea that guns in children's media=more children dying due to getting shot, but that's Moral Guardians for yah.
edited 22nd Feb '11 8:08:34 PM by Scardoll
Fight. Struggle. Endure. Suffer. LIVE.You want to know what's worse than having guns in cartoons? Fart jokes. The fact that violence is so bad but toilet humor can get past the censors bothers me.
More Buscemi at http://forum.reelsociety.com/If I were doing a kids action show, and I could use real guns, I'd still use rules similar to The A-Team: Only the bad guys shoot to kill, that's what makes them the bad guys. The good guys only shoot to disarm or rout the bad guys. Unless they're robotic henchmen, of course.
Of course, don't you know anything about ALCHEMY?!- Twin clones of Ivan the Great

it's something i've been wondering for a while now. does replacing firearms with lasers really bother anyone who watches these shows or you personally? would shows like GI Joe or superhero cartoons be better with them or not?