I've killed dream characters before and have been able make firearms operate correctly in dreams, but I think it requires that one be performing one's alotted duty. In one instance I dreamt that I was a headquarters clerk when the headquarters was overwhelmed by a Team of Soviet Commandos. We had been expecting an attack and so even the clerks like myself had rifles handy. I was surprised that one of the Soviets, with all of their training, would be caught out in the open and I was able to machine gun him down. Not two seconds went by with me congratulating myself, when a grenade comes in through the window... lobbed in... obviously the Soviet who tossed it in was just outside. Still being very lucky, I caught the grenade in my hand, and flicked it out the window, and was angling toward putting my back to the side of the wall for cover against the explosion, but BOOM! I was caught in the explosion. The grenade had gotten a foot or two out the window and exploded... killing both me and the Russian. Grenades are not the safest of weapons. In the dream, both me and the Russian floated upward in our spirits, and we were smiling, almost laughing that our little battle had freakishly come to a draw.

In a second dream, I was the Chief Guard for a young King during War Time and I was with him while he was inspecting some trenches up at the front. The Battlefield was quiet and I did not anticipate any action. The soldiers were all tired, on both sides, and everyone was in 'live and let live' mode. I noticed a few of the enemy off about 300 yards away, but they had their rifles strapped up and presented no immediate danger. But the King followed my eyes and saw the enemy soldiers and got excited like a child and simply had to take some shots at them with his funny little carbine. He hardly aimed, and the bullets flew away uselessly, except that it alerted the enemy that they were under fire, and they began to ready their rifles to shoot back. I had only a few seconds, and so I dropped to the edge of the berm of sandbags and steadied my rifle and, firing two very deliberate shots, killed both of the distant soldiers.

In both these dreams, the killing was not gratuitious, but was done because the duties and obligations involved required such actions from me. In the second dream, I was even reluctant to shoot, and was somewhat annoyed with the young King for having forced the situation.