Thought Experiment: How Would a World Without Firearms Look?

After a tragedy, it's natural to seek control. You yearn to make a difference, to understand why the world can sometimes feel so overwhelming.

At Mytour, we focus on two key actions: research and writing. This is how we began this thought experiment: pondering what the world would be without guns. The true answer remains a mystery to us all.

We have plenty of data on firearms: crime-related violence, police violence, economic consequences, and even the global number of firearms. All of this data helps us piece together the larger picture. The sources of these statistics are noted throughout the article and listed at the end if you want to explore further.

Human nature, however, is far more complex to measure. It's the factor that makes imagining a world without guns so unpredictable. Perhaps the real question this experiment explores isn't, 'What would the world be like without guns?'

Maybe it's actually, 'What do you truly believe about the nature of your fellow humans?'

Here's one possible fictional scenario we've created about what a world without guns might look like.

The View From Mrs. Robertson's

Mrs. Robertson often found herself thinking about a firearm. It was odd, since guns hadn’t been functional for a long time—at least not since her 90th birthday. Nevertheless, she pictured a handgun in her mind, its sleek, dark metal surface. She marveled at its components: the perfectly molded chamber, the textured grips of the handle. But it was the small pins, springs, and bolts that truly captivated her, for somehow, they all came together to make it work.

Truthfully, she couldn't quite grasp the science behind why guns had stopped working. Something about the saltpeter in gunpowder no longer "oxidizing" correctly. At least that’s what the newspaper had claimed. Since the powder was no longer volatile, it couldn’t push bullets down barrels anymore. "Bing. Bang. Boop," as her husband used to say when something broke.

She'd always stayed out of the gun-control debates, but like everyone else in the United States, Mrs. Robertson became deeply involved in understanding what the world had become when guns ceased to function. She had a basic understanding of its global impact, mostly from the newspaper. But she understood much more about how life had shifted in the U.S., in Atlanta specifically, because she witnessed it firsthand.

Following what some referred to as "The Disarmament," many argued that Americans had lost a piece of their identity. They saw guns as something symbolic, something extraordinary. But Mrs. Robertson didn’t agree. To her, guns were just tools, no different from the garden rake she used to check for snakes in her backyard. With enough strength, she supposed, you could kill someone with a rake, too. But no one was regulating the sale of rakes.

No, Mrs. Robertson wasn’t intrigued by guns because they were special to her. It was because the world had shifted without them, though human nature had stayed the same.

Earlier this morning, Mrs. Robertson had been gazing out the front bay window of her house, witnessing two young men exchange insults and brandish weapons in the street. One man on the right wielded a makeshift polearm, a long rod with three kitchen knives attached to the end, while the other, on the left, had a red hand ax—a tool once commonly found next to fire hoses, with a sharp pickhead for smashing windows and doors.

The scene made Mrs. Robertson think of her remaining family—five children and nine grandchildren—and she hoped for their safety. They had all shared their disagreements over the years. Known for speaking her mind, Mrs. Robertson had passed on that trait to her children. One of their most heated debates had been over guns—not because of legislation, but due to the fear of losing another loved one to gun violence, like her grandson Anthony, who had been fatally shot before The Disarmament. Anthony, a band member, was killed during a robbery attempt for his musical gear after a late-night performance.

The handgun that killed Anthony was the very same one Mrs. Robertson often pictured in her mind, though she'd only seen it once in the courtroom as evidence in a ziplock bag. She still viewed it as merely a tool, something designed for use. But, like any instrument, its purpose was determined by the one who wielded it. A gun was made to take a life, and that’s precisely what it had done.

The article mentioned that since guns stopped functioning, approximately 11,000 more people survived each year. What hadn’t been calculated yet was how many lives were lost due to weapons like those the boys outside were holding. Mrs. Robertson believed the number was likely smaller. There were fewer homicides, robberies, and assaults each year. She knew this because her son Jordan and grandson Jordan Junior, both of whom served with the Atlanta Police Department, had informed her that the lack of guns for illegal distribution and trade resulted in a general decrease in crime.

Before The Disarmament, Jordan Senior had shot and killed a man who attacked a woman with a Swiss Army knife at the Ponce de Leon gas station. At the time, he didn’t know how else to handle the situation while on duty that night. In hindsight, he discovered that the attacker was mentally unstable. Jordan Senior hadn't received sufficient training to deal with such a threat without using deadly force. Now, he carried a crossbow and Taser while on the job.

Jordan Junior had never shot anyone. But his former partner had. That officer had killed a young black man because he fled when ordered to stop. Jordan Junior was helpless to intervene, as it all happened too quickly. The next day, 10,000 people protested on the highway. Despite the frequent media coverage of incidents like this, both Jordans assured Mrs. Robertson that police shootings were, in fact, rare.

"But that shouldn’t make it excusable," Jordan Junior once remarked to her.

Mrs. Robertson was confident that Jordan Junior and Senior had martial arts training by now; otherwise, she would have immediately contacted them about the two young men in the street. Since The Disarmament, the boys had trained more. Both felt there was less animosity between the police and the local community, which is why they no longer carried their crossbows off duty, as they once had with their firearms.

Violence still occurred from time to time, like with these boys out in the street. But it typically involved basic martial weapons or various types of bows. Before The Disarmament, there had actually been less gun violence than in almost two decades. Some believed this was due to more people owning guns than ever before, which served as a deterrent, with people relying on the threat of their own firepower. Mrs. Robertson wasn't sure what to think, but she couldn't forget how her street had been two decades ago. Her husband had installed bars on all the windows and doors shortly before his passing.

Since guns stopped working, there had only been one mass homicide on U.S. soil. Whatever caused the failure of the guns also affected many explosives. Even the bombs that still functioned were much harder to make or acquire than it used to be to get a firearm. The only tragedy since then involved a deranged man who drove a garbage truck into a Halloween parade. Another weapon used by a monster, but not in the way it was originally intended.

War had evolved, or so her son Daniel, a Navy sergeant, claimed. According to him, warfare had become mostly about fighting "by proxy"—using drones, simple robots, or advanced weapons designed for mass destruction. For poorer countries, Daniel described a return to traditional forms of combat, where makeshift melee weapons and light armor were common. During his time at the academy, Daniel learned that fewer people died in every American war than the number of deaths from gunfire in the U.S. since 1968. Mrs. Robertson had trouble believing that, but Daniel insisted it was true.

Like the rest of the Robertsons, Daniel had his own personal stake in these issues. When his daughter was 12, there was a shooting at her school, but fortunately, no one was harmed. Mrs. Robertson's other grandchild had accidentally discharged a gun inside his house when he was just a toddler. She had been furious with her son Michael, the boy's father, but Michael simply shrugged it off.

Today, some of the grandchildren had grown up and went bow hunting together. Hunting accidents with firearms had been rare, but now that most were required to learn to use bows instead, such accidents had become even less frequent. Two of her nine grandchildren even kept hand crossbows loaded at home, for personal safety and peace of mind.

Michael, her son, owned a railgun, one of those weapons that used electromagnetic forces to launch projectiles. He often complained about the intense recoil and the weapon’s tendency to overheat. It was massive, with giant capacitors on either side, each one weighing around 10 pounds. Daniel, however, disapproved of his brother's gadget, mentioning that the military used far larger versions as artillery on the ships he served on. But Michael would always argue, pointing to the time it worked perfectly on a hunting trip when he obliterated a deer with it.

Her sons frequently debated the consequences of The Disarmament. Their sister Hannah had lost her job because of it—she worked at a Remington plant in Huntsville that had shut down. Why, they asked, would the government continue subsidizing the company when it only produced extravagant paperweights now?

"250,000 people lost their jobs!" Michael would shout to his brothers.

James, their oldest brother, would respond calmly, reminding everyone that while the nation suffered financially from the gun industry’s collapse, it also saw a significant gain in the savings from reduced gun-related violence—especially in areas like medical expenses, legal fees, and prison costs. The paper reported that the government now saved over a hundred billion dollars annually, most of which was funneled into Medicare and Social Security, something Mrs. Robertson always recalled.

Some people believed that without guns, society would revert to a feudal state. Others feared an unsustainable population boom, but neither prediction had come to pass, with only 11,000 new people each year. In fact, the biggest issue was what to do with all the scrap metal left from millions of discarded guns. Some kept them as heirlooms, while others took theirs to recycling centers in exchange for cash. Mrs. Robertson, however, was most proud of her granddaughter Alexis, who transformed the community's firearms into an impressive mural that adorned the walls of the Rocky Ford tunnel, under the bridge in Kirkwood.

The men in the street were becoming increasingly hostile. The one wielding the ax swung it wildly to block the other's attempts with his makeshift polearm. Their weapons collided with a sharp clang when the man on the right lunged forward. If they had firearms, one of them would have likely been dead by now, possibly both. Despite her concerns for her family's safety, Mrs. Robertson unlocked the heavy door and stepped onto her screened porch. Without hesitation, she spoke out as she always did.

"Cut it out, both of you!" she shouted at them.

As she yelled, the man with the ax briefly turned to look at her, distracted for a moment. That was all the man on the right needed. He shifted his weapon downward and thrust it forward, bypassing his opponent's defense, and the kitchen knives at the end of the pole plunged into his foe's abdomen.

The ax-wielder's legs buckled, and he collapsed onto the heated gravel of the street. The weapon made a strange slurping sound as its owner pulled it free from the victim, akin to the sound of a straw scraping the bottom of an empty drink.

"Why did you do that?" the murderer finally acknowledged her presence and asked. "You should stay inside when you see someone holding a weapon, lady!"

She leaned in closer, her nose brushing against the musky porch screen, and spoke, "That doesn't mean I should stop trying to improve the world."

Sources

Whenever possible, we have embedded links to relevant facts and statistics throughout the article, but we've also included the full list of sources for readers who may find it useful.