And while there have been some changes in law enforcement, we're still not really at the tech level of CSI or any of those Police Procedural shows you see on TV. Heck, I just had lunch with the Cmdr. Milner of NPD (he helped out on our
Bodhidharma Cane & Shaolin Tonfa DVD) as well as another lunch with a good friend who is a local Fire dispatch. All the government departments are struggling - they can't afford those fancy-schmancy crime labs you see on TV. But that's off point, really. My point is that the era of guns isn't a 21st century factor. The impact of guns hit the martial arts some 3-4 centuries ago, and has already been addressed. Beyond
Meir's book, another great scholarly analysis of the impact of progress is
Armed Martial Arts of Japan: Swordsmanship and Archery by G. Cameron Hurst. It's a really good read for anyone interested in this topic.
I think the biggest impact on martial arts now is the availability of video. We saw some impact from the initial VHS offerings in the 80s. In the 90s, it was all about VCDs in China. Now with
YouTube, video access has exploded.