Talk:Equalists/@comment-27741265-20120617092951

I have a feeling guns were never invented in the Avatar world because no one saw a need for them since bending filled the niche they would.

The development of firearms begins with some truly piss-poor weapons, those 16th century hand cannons that blow smoke everywhere, take ages to reload after each shot, are just as likely to blow up in your hands as fire, have an effective range little beyond rock-throwing distance, and cannot be aimed reliably at all.

Now if you're a bender, you can lug one of those around, or you can just point your finger and shoot a rock or a fireball at a target of your choice with many times the range, accuracy, and rate of fire.

And if you're not a bender, you're trying to use this against an Earthbender who can just raise the ground around him as cover, a Waterbender who can soak your powder and render it useless in one splash, or a Firebender who can just cook off your powder and overheat the barrel of the gun in your hands. You'd be better off with a bow and arrow, which would be more accurate, fast firing, longer ranged, and less cumbersome.

Now, a World War I-era rifle or a submachine gun (which would be on par with the overall tech level in Legend of Korra) would be a pretty effective weapon against any opponent, but if the ancestors of these weapons were utterly useless, firearm technology would never have progressed to that point at all.