It's common knowledge that Steed never carried a gun and Macnee claimed he insisted on not using one in the show. The Internet Movie Firearms Database shows screen caps of Steed holding guns. Did he ever actually fire those guns? It's been quite a while since I watched the series, so I can't recall.
shareIn the black and white episodes it is not that unusual for events to reveal Steed is carrying a gun, but I think it is rarer that he actually fires it. One example I can think of is in Dial A Deadly Number, Steed is attacked in a parking garage by a thug on a motorcycle and he takes fire at the biker.
shareHe shoots and kills someone in "How to Succeed.... at Murder"
shareSteed definitely used a handgun and killed a bad guy in season 6's Legacy of Death.
shareSteed even points a gun at Tara in Noon Doomsday, to lock her away into hiding - until she knocks Steed unconscious with a champagne bottle!
shareIt isn't so much that Steed never carried one or refused to use one. A gun just wasn't part of his everyday arsenal. Patrick Macnee stated he preferred not to resort to guns, due to seeing so much violence during the war. However, there were times the character felt a gun was a necessary precaution, so they turn up, albeit infrequently. Sometimes his partners comment on it, even. I believe Tara makes a note of how serious an adversary must be, since she is surprised to see he is armed in "The Morning After" episode, for example. But he does indeed fire guns in certain shows, and is shown to be an excellent shot, as Mother observes in "Stay Tuned."
"Holy one-track Bat-computer mind!"
I think it preposterous that given the extreme danger of his job, he would not carry a handgun at all times.
Nevertheless, my favorite show of all time.
Us Brits hardly ever see guns in real life - no ordinary people carry handguns over here. So the number that seem to be available in The Avengers we regard as part of the fiction of spy TV.
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