They did not have guns -.-

[Ploppy]

Honestly, gunners, bombers etc wtf. Whole point of the Dune Universe is that it was a feudal society with daggers and shields etc.

Not ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ troopers running around with guns etc on the desert.

[Piderman]

Uhm... Lasguns? Maula Pistols?

[Jeffer'son Airship]

Atreides primarily used shields and swords but a lot of the other factions did use guns.

[10ebbor10]

Did you read the book? Or watched a movie or even read the wiki?

1) Dune does have guns. It has quite a range of projectile weaponry. It's just that they are not as effective as they are IRL because of the Holtzman shields.
2) You can not use shields on Arrakis, because they attract worms.

[Piderman]

Originally posted by 10ebbor10:

2) You can not use shields on Arrakis, because they attract worms.

Depends. Arrakeen being build on solid rock, had a defense shield.

[Jeffer'son Airship]

In fact, guns are probably safer on Arrakis to some extent. The motion of a bunch of melee fighters is also more likely to attract worms.

[Maatrac]

Now they have guns and can make proper war

[cswiger]

Herbert's world had firearms and energy guns, but they weren't widely used on most planets because the Holtzman Shield would block anything moving quickly. Thus the use of bladed weapons like daggers.

However, Holtzman Shields can't be used much on Arrakis because they enrage the sandworms. So open warfare is possible on Dune, at least to the extent of skirmishes and small battles between forces of limited size. (Long extended battles between large forces still aren't a good idea because the sandworms will show up sooner rather than later.)

[holden]

Reading a book is hard

[famine40]

Spoilers: Artillery was even used during the final conflict in the first book. If you think that the entire point of the Dune Universe was "no guns" you missed out and I recommend re-reading it for the deeper religious and philosophical implications.

[Keemperor]

In the movie we see that the Harkonnen have developed some kind of penetrating squash ammunition that can maintain momentum even while slowed down in order to penetrate shields.
This is used to destroy the Atreides Frigates and clearly shows that the universe knows how to create work arounds against shields.
The issue I have with shields is that they seem to be impenetrable unless one slows down to a speed that the shield would allow, but by that point the entire point of Kinetic energy is lost.
This of course allows for the wonderful close combat shown to reemerge, but posits the idea that shields are impenetrable and have infinite endurance, but this is just ridiculous.
We know that enough ordnance on shields can overwhelm them, as Duncan Idaho did during the stealing of the Ornithopter and firing a missile barrage against shielded ships that still blew them apart, so clearly it is possible to overwhelm shields with enough firepower.
Now we also know that Laser weapons cause an atomic reaction at a random point between the shooter and the receiver, but there are many ways to take advantage of this during combat, especially since drones are so common in Dune.
Herbert simply wanted to create a universe where Guns where not the main means of warfare and a return to more classical forms of warfare was possible, but this is more a staple of his lack of knowledge of other forms of weaponry beyond chemical explosive's and lasers (that at the time where the height of sci-fi).
Some Dune games have posted that plasma weapons exist and particle weapons also exist, but simply using enough bullets from a regular gun would be enough to bring down shields, similarly traditional artillery would overwhelm personal shields, though the power of the shield would increase with the available power to create it and maintain it.

[Gopnik God]

Has OP even read the books or saw any of the films? Sure knifes are popular but there are a bunch of guns in the world.

[Roadwraith]

And artillery. Which was amusingly not included in the recent films

[Ator-77]

Originally posted by roadblock101:

And artillery. Which was amusingly not included in the recent films

IIRC it was moved from Harkonnen surprise attack in the book to the Harkonnen blimp attacking Sietch Tabr in second movie. And it was made to be the idea of Feyd-Rautha that the Baron congratulated him for.

[Roadwraith]

Originally posted by Ator-77:

Originally posted by roadblock101:

And artillery. Which was amusingly not included in the recent films

IIRC it was moved from Harkonnen surprise attack in the book to the Harkonnen blimp attacking Sietch Tabr in second movie. And it was made to be the idea of Feyd-Rautha that the Baron congratulated him for.

Eh not the same. but I take your point. That was arguably close air support or carpet bombing depicted in the movie. The books used artillery to shell out the trapped Arteides survivors in the caves after Siege of Arakeen using actual artillery because they hadnt be able to be used elsewhere because of shields so was quite novel if memory serves.

[Kōizumi Seishiro]

But apparently the director of new Dune was more engaged in ego battle with the director of the original movie rather than making a movie based on the book. That is why we don't have this arti scene...because it was never in the first movie )