Doesn't Like Guns/Playing With

Basic Trope: A character is notable for their refusal to use guns.

• Straight: Bob is a professional killer who has absolutely no remorse when it comes to taking someone's life. However, he absolutely refuses to use guns in his line of work.
• Exaggerated:
  • Bob is an ego-maniacal dictator who's trying to take over a country, but refuses to use a gun and doesn't allow his soldiers to carry them either.
  • Bob, a crazed dictator, is enraged if he sees someone so much as holding a water gun.
• Justified:
  • Bob prefers to use his hands or knives, as guns are noisy compared to those methods.
  • Carol, Bob's daughter, was killed when a gun he was handling accidentally went off. This scarred Bob for life.
• Inverted:
  • Bob is completely helpless without his gun. When he's disarmed, he's toast.
  • Bob uses a gun to be more humane than his opponents who cause horrible deaths with toxic weaponry.
• Subverted: Bob seems like the kind of guy who would refuse to carry a gun...but he does.
• Double Subverted: That gun is only for show - it's unloaded and is only used as a Weapon for Intimidation.
• Parodied:
  • Bob is a police officer, or military officer, or some other profession where a gun is standard.
  • Bob uses crossbows, grenades, rocket launchers, and tanks, but he refuses to use guns.
• Deconstructed:
  • Bob doesn't use guns and that's noble. Unfortunately, the people he faces aren't so noble and they shoot him down.
  • Alternatively, Bob is forced to use a gun - which causes him great distress.
• Reconstructed:
  • Bob refuses to use guns, so he finds other ways to disable his opponents.
  • Alternately, after a close call, Bob decides to abandon this approach and carry a firearm. He doesn't always use it, though.
• Zig Zagged: Bob carries a gun, but it's just for show. But the second one he's hiding on his person isn't...
• Averted: Bob carries a gun and has no qualms about using it.
• Enforced:
  • "The Moral Guardians won't let us show guns! Wait, I just thought up the perfect workaround..."
  • Alternately, "Most folks think guns are evil. If we want to make our villain sympathetic, let's make him choose other methods. Should make him be seen as honorable."
• Lampshaded: "You're a professional killer...shouldn't you carry a gun?" "I guess I should, but I don't."
• Invoked: Bob's friend Charlie is killed by someone using a gun. This causes him to disavow the use of guns.
• Defied: "I may not like the use of guns, but anything that people are gonna throw at me is something I've got to throw back."
• Discussed: "I swear, every time someone I know dies in a fight it's a gunshot wound. Most people in my place would've started avoiding guns by now. I mean, if that one book I read is anything to go by."
• Conversed: "So...he doesn't have a problem killing people, but he has a problem using a gun? Interesting."
• Played For Laughs: Bob not only refuses to use guns but refuses to use tools that look remotely gun like. He's perfectly fine with using white phosphorus grenades with impunity, even on innocent targets.

---

Back to Doesn't Like Guns.