Board Thread:Off Topic/@comment-25396609-20151012154515/@comment-26397825-20151023043156

But compare just how much space you need to draw a bow. Laying down, and drawing it horizontally, you need a couple of feet either side plus the length of your body. Standing up and drawing it horizontally, you need a couple of feet taller than you, plus a few feet for the draw length.

Yes, bows and arrows are a decent stealth weapon. But in terms of ease of learning them (if you pull out the bowmen from the middle ages, I will point out that they started learning from when they were about 8, as compared to Signal, which satrts teaching at about 12-13), a gun is actually a bit easier. Waiting for the perfect shot? A gun assassin just has to track the enemy with his scope and keep a finger on the trigger. A bow assassin has to track the enemy, and then draw the bow itself, which even the fastest bowman can't draw one as fast as a finger can twitch against a trigger.

Plus, in a high tech world like RWBY, I think bullets would be easier to get with no one remembering who you are - everyone buys bullets and has a gun. But that guy walking down the street with a bow and quiver of arrows? He's going to stick out a bit, if only because not as many people have them. Add in him trying to slip away from a scene where someone just got killed with a bow and arrow, and there's a higher chance of him getting pulled up by the police, simply because of the lesser amount of people in RWBY actually weilding bows and arrows.

Plus, it's basic economics that quantity + demand determines the price of something. Bullets would be cheaper in this case because everyone uses them, so they can just keep pumping them out without ever having to worry about losing the market. Arrows would be just enough of a niche market that the price would go up, because they wouldn't just pump them out due to the demand not being as high.

Cinder got away with it because she made them out of dust. Someone who carries around a proper one wouldn't get away with it as easily simply because of the sheer fact that bows and arrows aren't used as often as guns in RWBY.

For the purpose of the setting, a gun is a more practical assassination weapon, despite the bow being marginally quieter and a slightly stealthier weapon.