Father Weasley, can't remember his name, repeatedly shows us that wizards raised purely in the magical world are unbelievably stupid when it comes to the non-magic world so it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if they didn't even know what a gun was.

Wait a minute. We can go deeper. In the deathly hallows, when they tell the story about the invincible wand, the original owner loses it because someone straight up cut his throat — no magic. Harry also takes it from Malfoy by beating the shit out of him.

Ok, this has been driving me crazy for seven movies now, and I know you're going to roll your eyes, but hear me out: Harry Potter should have carried a 1911.

Here's why:

Think about how quickly the entire WWWIII (Wizarding-World War III) would have ended if all of the good guys had simply armed up with good ol' American hot lead.

Basilisk? Let's see how tough it is when you shoot it with a .470 Nitro Express. Worried about its Medusa-gaze? Wear night vision goggles. The image is light-amplified and re-transmitted to your eyes. You aren't looking at it--you're looking at a picture of it.

Imagine how epic the first movie would be if Harry had put a breeching charge on the bathroom wall, flash-banged the hole, and then went in wearing NVGs and a Kevlar-weave stab-vest, carrying a SPAS-12.

And have you noticed that only Europe seems to a problem with Deatheaters? Maybe it's because Americans have spent the last 200 years shooting deer, playing GTA: Vice City, and keeping an eye out for black helicopters over their compounds. Meanwhile, Brits have been cutting their steaks with spoons. Remember: gun-control means that Voldemort wins. God made wizards and God made muggles, but Samuel Colt made them equal.

Now I know what you're going to say: "But a wizard could just disarm someone with a gun!" Yeah, well they can also disarm someone with a wand (as they do many times throughout the books/movies). But which is faster: saying a spell or pulling a trigger?

Avada Kedavra, meet Avtomat Kalashnikova.

Imagine Harry out in the woods, wearing his invisibility cloak, carrying a .50bmg Barrett, turning Deatheaters into pink mist, scratching a lightning bolt into his rifle stock for each kill. I don't think Madam Pomfrey has any spells that can scrape your brains off of the trees and put you back together after something like that. Voldemort's wand may be 13.5 inches with a Phoenix-feather core, but Harry's would be 0.50 inches with a tungsten core. Let's see Voldy wave his at 3,000 feet per second. Better hope you have some Essence of Dittany for that sucking chest wound.

I can see it now...Voldemort roaring with evil laughter and boasting to Harry that he can't be killed, since he is protected by seven Horcruxes, only to have Harry give a crooked grin, flick his cigarette butt away, and deliver what would easily be the best one-liner in the entire series:

"Well then I guess it's a good thing my 1911 holds 7+1."

And that is why Harry Potter should have carried a 1911.

"The more sophisticated a magic system is, the funnier it is to pull out a gun"

Snape, probably

In the American version of the books, they changed kids hexing each other in the corridors for shooting each other instead, to make it more believable.

https://coub.com/view/2rbxor

That’s why us Latinos aren’t represented in the series. Jose el Mago would have walked up to the guy and just shanked him a bunch of times and taken his shoes

As if they didn't have some simple hex that can protect them from physical projectiles.

They would have been killed a long time ago by arrows.

Its been done look up "Harry potter and the deathly weapons."

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyWeapons

https://archive.org/details/harry-potter-and-the-deathly-weapons-2020-1080p

That fancy magic won't protect him from a .308.

I'm a little bit surprised Rowling didn't throw in something about some human technology not working in the wizarding world, like electronics and firearms. Surely this came up while the books were being written.

What about testis tortius?

It’s over Miss Granger. What do you say?

I cast ICBM

Obligatory

Lil magic nerds halfway through "Avada ka-" before a 5.56 round blows out the back of their skull.

I cast Volley of Lead!

Fun version: Harry Potter and the Deathly Weapons.

Weird version: the final chapters of Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality.