This may shock you, but some of the earliest Batman comics had Batman actually using a gun. In the first few issues Batman carried a gun. That came to an end when a Batman comic was published where Batman was flying his Batplane and discharged an onboard machine gun. That led to artists Bob Kane and Bill Finger getting chewed out by Detective Comics editor Whitney Ellsworth, who emphatically told them, "Never let Batman carry a gun again!"
This incident also led to Detective Comics creating their own formal censorship guidelines more than a decade before the Comics Code Authority was implemented in 1954. Here are those guidelines:
NATIONAL COMICS PUBLICATIONS INC.
EDITORIAL POLICY FOR SUPERMAN D─C PUBLICATIONS
1. Sex. ─ The inclusion of females in stories is specifically discouraged. Women, when used in plot structure, should be secondary in importance, and should be drawn realistically, without exaggeration of feminine physical qualities.
2. Language. ─ Expessions [sic] having reference to the Deity are forbidden. Heroes and other “good” persons must use basically good English, through some slang and other colloquialism may be judiciously employed. Poor grammar is used only by crooks and villains ─ and not always by them.
3. Bloodshed. ─ Characters ─ even villains ─ should never be shown bleeding. No character should be shown being stabbed or shot or otherwise assaulted so that the sanguinary result is visible. Acts of mayhem are specifically forbidden. The picturization of dead bodies is forbidden.
4. Torture. ─ The use of chains, whips, or other such devices is forbidden. Anything having a sexual or sadistic implication is forbidden.
5. Kidnaping [sic] . ─ The kidnaping [sic] of children is specifically forbidden. The kidnaping [sic] of women is discouraged, and must never have any sexual implication.
6. Killing. ─ Heroes should never kill a villain, regardless of the depth of the villainy. The villain, If he is to die, should do so as the result of his own evil machinations. A specific exception may be made in the case of duly constituted officers of the law. The use of lethal weapons by women ─ even villainous women ─ is discouraged.
7. Crime. ─ Crime should be depicted in all cases as sordid and unpleasant. Crime and criminals must never be glamorized. All stories must be written and depicted from the angle of the law ─ never the reverse. Justice must triumph in every case.
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