What is with all the negativity relating to guns? If you say you will stop playing Zelda if they have guns, you obviously aren’t being very open mined. Contrary to what you all are probably thinking, guns a long time ago, were far slower to shoot than a bow and arrow. They had to clean it out, stick the gun powder in, do a whole bunch of steps just to fire another shot. It is actually more primitive than the bow and arrow in a way.
This is not outside the box for Zelda at all. If we had been asked what if Link drove a train, most people would think that would be far to advanced, and non-medieval for Zelda. As we have seen in Twilight Princess, they had canons. Guns, they kind I am talking about, are essential hand held canons, honestly it’s not that much of a leap in technology. Watch any older movie with guns in it, and you will probably see that they take forever to be used just once.
Nintendo would probably put some twist on it, some sort of magic or maybe it firing fruit or something. They might factor in some reload time, or they might just eliminate it and treat it as a sling shot. The bow and arrow is a staple in the Zelda inventory, I doubt a gun would replace something as traditional as the bow and arrow. However, it could just play cameo in a mini-game or a quick boss battle in which it becomes obsolete after wards, or could be used in later dungeons.
I can think of tons of way in which Nintendo could be creative with this weapon. A boss with a weak point that can only be hit with a gun, shooting a pattern in an area, buttons activated by it, some reflective material that could be shot in a puzzle. What I feel like comparing it too is the spinner. We never used it much outside of Arbiters Grounds, so I think that the gun would have a similar roll. Most likely a dungeon that revolves around in then a few puzzles here and there, maybe a mini-game for it as well, maybe a side quest. As I said before, infinite possibilities. I have no doubt in my mind that Nintendo wouldn’t be able to pull it off.