Quote Originally Posted by Cilia View Post
Aside from the traditionalist and caste angles, the nobility fears that their superiority will disappear if everyday commoners are given the power to defend themselves. Even more, they may be justifiably paranoid that giving commoners such power will lead to revolt and the loss of their high status.

Really, without the Horde to unite everyone via a common enemy it could have easily come to that.
This. ^

It's actually explicitly mentioned in the MCH storyline that there are certain individuals in high places that are uneasy with the thought that a commoner can be handed a rifle with little or no training and be just as lethal as a knight armed with a sword and years of training. Particularly since many among the nobility KNOW that they haven't given the common folk much reason to love them.

Guns and such may be useful against the dragons, but once the threat of the dragons is gone, those guns will still be around. And once the commoners no longer need the nobles to protect them from the dragons, the nobles are going to need to lean hard on the commoners to keep them in line. Guns would give the common folk a way to meet the nobles on equal - or even superior - terms, and the nobles don't like the sound of that one bit. There's a reason why the greatest advocate for the rights of commoners, Hilda the Mongrel, is a gun user...

To be frank, Stephanivien always struck me as a bit the starry-eyed optimist for failing to consider these things. While his work IS important, the fact that he's so confused and flabbergasted by the continued opposition the nobility shows him indicates to me that he really hasn't considered the possibility that guns could be used against targets OTHER than dragons...