During Terminator 2: Judgment Day, future military resistance leader John Connor never fires a gun, and here's why that decision was made. If there's one thing that shows up a lot in the Terminator films, outside of naked cyborgs and time travel, it's guns, lots of guns. There's big guns, small guns, machine guns, and just about every type of gun the crews could get their hands on. That makes perfect sense, since the Terminator movies usually revolve around the machines trying to shoot particular people, and humans trying to stop them.
While one can technically battle without using guns, in this scenario, there's no real point to doing that. No matter how badass a soldier Kyle Reese, or any other human warrior is, they would be crushed like a bug in a close quarters combat situation with any type of Terminator built by Skynet. On the Terminator side though, guns are far and away the most efficient way to kill their human targets or opponents, cutting through their flesh easily, quickly, and in a way that shreds vital organs.
While Terminator 2 is chock full of gunplay, with the T-800, Sarah Connor, and the T-1000 all plugging away at their enemies, John Connor conspicuously never even aims a gun, much less fires one. There's a behind the scenes reason for that.
Terminator 2: Why John Connor Never Uses A Gun
Considering that John Connor is destined to be the savior of mankind, and grew up with a crazy prepared survivalist mother for his early years, it's a bit strange to never see him pick up a gun and shoot alongside her and the T-800. His ability to hack things illustrates that he's already picked up quite a few useful skills despite his young age, and it's almost inconceivable that Sarah wouldn't teach him how to defend himself if necessary, even if she'd usually prefer he hide from danger. Yet, the only thing he does with guns in Terminator 2 is reload them for his mom and new surrogate dad.
As little dramatic sense as that might make, it's down to one man, director James Cameron. Cameron finds the sight of a child holding or using a weapon abhorrent, and the thought of even putting a prop gun in the hands of Edward Furlong made him uncomfortable. So Cameron made the decision to never have John actively get involved in the firefights, outside of him assisting Sarah and the T-800 with reloading magazines. On the other hand, John's seeming reluctance to get violent - and repeated demands of the T-800 to not kill anyone - do cast him in a good moral light, perhaps illustrating why he's cut out to save mankind.
