Yup - parallel worlds are not proof.   But they probably give enough info such that Harry can investigate and confirm things on his own one way or another.

Comment on Justine is not known to me.  Where do we get the hint that Justine has some hidden background?   Not surprised, just not familiar with the details. 

I think the real barrier for wardens with regards to packing serious firepower in the shape of guns is range.   They pack swords in part because they are old school, but also because a wizard is at their weakest at point blank range.   Wizards like to fight at range - where their magic is much more useful.

the other reasons is that wizards have limited time.  Becoming experts in a lot of weapons simply takes time to achieve and practice to maintain.  It is certainly doable, but almost all wizards are going to limit themselves to a small number of such weapons so as to minimize the time required as they really want to devote their free time to magic, not firearm skill.   That naturally lends itself to wizards having a favorite few weapons and ignoring the rest. 

Finally, when it comes to supernatural threats, a supernatural threat with a gun is going to have a significant advantage over a wizard with a gun -- faster reflexes, supernatural grace, etc.  Firearms are never going to be more than a backup weapon for a wizard.   Their magic is simply a far bigger threat to enemies.   Where firearms have an edge is when the battle is long (ie - they exhaust their magic), when the gun is unexpected (surprise), when their foe is particularly good at blocking magic,  or when they need to kill something without breaking the laws of magic. 

That's because Kevlar is the only stop in town for armor against modern weapons; which are all basically just guns.  If there were qualitatively distinct armor options (say magnetic/energy armor vs physical) or if other weapons were more common (say Flamethrowers) then the arguments might be comparable. 

Sure we do. We can equip police with leather jackets, steel breastplates, shields, helmets, and all sorts of things.  We do not because these items are either rarely useful or suffer major liabilities.     For a similar reasons, I would not see wardens being routinely equipped with anti-ghost charms, mind shields, salve to see through fey illusions or any number of specialized defenses or attacks.   But common attacks – especially non-magical attacks -  or common tools are something that can be easily incorporated.   That is why cops are often issued batans.  Not because they are the primary weapon, but because it is a simple tool that is often useful.  That is the type of magical equipment I expected the council to issue. 

But who's to say that Harry's brand of Shield that is a force-wall is universally superior enough to Carlos' Entropy-based shield to the point where all wardens should standardize to that method.  His Duster has been pounded through an awful lot.

I suggested general purpose items that provide passive defense or some other useful non-combat function make a lot of sense.  Foci of any sort are very specific to the mage and it would be tough to make one for another that would be super efficient.   Harry might be able to use Eb’s staff as Eb trained him, but not as effectively as his own staff.  Using the Merlin’s staff would be even less effective.   The point of issued equipment is that it works no matter the specific strengths of the wizard vs common threats/use cases.  It is a supplement, not a replacement for the wizards magical abilities. 

There is also the matter of the Burden of Upkeep.  Per WOJ the vast majority of Harry's time goes to basic maintenance on each of his gizmos, or they eventually get worn down by the sunrises and need to be re-enchanted.  Each item that is Standard Issue is one more timesink for each warden, translating to one less item of personal/optomized usage they can maintain themselves, or less time they can actually be doing the Job of a Warden.

Upkeep is the cost of all magic items.  It does not matter who creates.   Upkeep certainly limits how many items a wizard can have, but making sure wardens have a small number of very well made general purpose items can easily save lives – and the warden can keep the maintenance going.   And if the warden does not want it, he can give it back.   Very experienced wardens probably have only their own self created gear, but younger wardens would really benefit from issued gear. 

And to point to a specific example, Thorned Namsiel was able to go right through Harry's shield using variances in magical "frequency" (in SmF).   

And I think that Kevlar vest will do diddly against a marine sniper rifle.  That is not an argument against wearing Kevlar as very few people pack marine sniper rifles.  Denarians are major league threats and few wardens would be easy going against any one of them.   Even if they did, the general purpose defense provided by the council would be only one of their defenses – and not the most important one. 

Standard equipment is a supplement that provides a minimum baseline of capability.   It is not a replacement for what the wizard can do and would never be the primary element in a wizard’s arsenal.   But this solid baseline can often make the difference between success and death/serious injury fro common situations.   Equally important (not just defense), common equipment can allow wardens to more easily work together, communicate, or effectively deal with issues outside their personal strengths.         

I'm not sure I agree with this statement. The main purpose of the wardens isn't to fight wars against other Accord nations: it's to police against warlocks who break the 7 Laws.

The White Council has had multiple wars and conflicts with other supernatural powers --- in the books we have seen them go to town against Formor, Rakashashas, references to several vampire wars, and vague references that indicate that wars are not uncommon among the supernatural set.   And all these bad guys use various non-magical threats along with any magic they can do.    The reality is that the wardens have probably been in many small conflicts, minor wars and several major wars in the last century or two.   They may exist to enforce the laws, but they are also a military force and are routinely expected to fight as such.   

If we can assume a School would be a viable option at all, why are we assuming a single Master cannot adequately teach multiple Apprentices?

If you assume a master takes several apprentices at the same time, they certainly could.  The problem with a single master is that when the apprentices skills begin to diverge, they start to need separate training.  A single master with Molly and Harry as students would find their individual strengths to rapidly diverge, limiting the opportunities for co-training. 

In a college setting, molly would move to the advanced class in veils while Harry stayed in the basic class.  That is the strength of the college groups.  You can cluster several students together on any one topic that have comparable skills. 

Do not get me wrong, these classes might be only five students in size.  I doubt any wizard class beyond general education lectures would have more than ten students.  but that still means a given group of wizards can turn out 5X the apprentices of a single master. 

The apprentice system may be very old, but that doesn't mean it isn't efficient. If it ain't broken, why fix it?

Scale.  The White Council cannot train a lot of wizards using the apprentice model.   Realistically many wizards are not good teachers and thus would not have apprentices.  Many wizards are too busy to have an apprentice.  Any one wizard with apprentices would rarely have more than one apprentice.  A school would enable the same number of wizards to teach a lot more apprentices. 

As magic is often very personal, a personal one on one instruction might just be mandative for some things.

This is the biggest argument against a school.  if every wizard has a completely different approach, then it is hard to teach them collectively.   The success of the boot camp implies that this is not an insurmountable problem, but it would certainly complicate things.  I think it would be inevitable that any academy system would make make wizards "style" more consistent over time. 

It is pretty clear that wizards are old school.  They teach via the ancient model of apprentice/master.    But times have moved on.  We have seen with Luccio that they created a boot camp for new wardens that was quite successful.   I can see the possibility that they extend that model to create a wizard academy to more easily train wizards in larger numbers.  Something like this would be essential if Harry's ideas regarding training Paranet members is implemented.   

How would such a magical academy work?  I doubt it would be very Harry Potter, but I can see something comparable to a old style college format.   A dozen different "schools" each focused on a particular discipline that combines lecture and practice.   Each taught by an expert in that type of magic.   Everybody takes the basics, but students generally continue in a specific school based on success/skill/aptitude.   

They certainly do not have enough students right now to have a dozen concurrent schools taught, but they could teach a few schools every month and just alternate.   As student populations increase, they can run more classes concurrently. 

The advanced classes might continue via the apprentice model - especially as the WC is still paranoid about wizards misusing their power.  They would want experienced wizards to personally evaluate candidates before teaching them advanced magical techniques.   

Why is everybody obsessing over whether Eb had permission in Changes when he went to town against the Reds?   The fact that Eb was the blackstaff is ONLY relevant to the extent that he used death magic to kill those human guards.  But if Eb had limited himself to targeting Red court vampires or disabling humans, there is no issue.   

The White Council is not like the CIA or FBI.  It is not an agency with a centralized command structure and wizards do not routinely act on orders.   It is much more like a fraternity which gives its members broad freedom of action within very rigid boundaries set by the laws of magic, the rules of the White Council and the treaty obligations like the Unseelee accords.  Harry has gone out and killed loads of supernatural bad guys without specific white council permission - or the expectation that this permission was even expected.    The organizational culture of the WC was set in medieval times and probably resembles more an guild of master craftsmen or perhaps a conclave of nobility than a modern corporation, army or government organization.  It is a group of independent and powerful peers, not a strongly hierarchical organization. 

Since the White Council is at war with the Red, any wizard is pretty much free to attack the Red Court whenever and wherever they wish -- provided they do not otherwise break the laws, accords or other white council rules.   They White Council would "prefer" you coordinate your actions with their wardens as that makes the WC as a whole more effective.   The wardens are often given orders like soldiers, but I suspect even wardens are not expected to "only" attack the red court under SC orders.   Eb is not a warden, so even that restriction does not apply. 

My personal opinion is that the WC restrictions on the Blackstaff are more strategic than tactical.  The WC may point the BS at specific problems.   The WC may censure the BS if the BS goes to far or abuses the position.  I imagine the BS position could be revoked if abused, but I doubt that has ever happened.   I imagine that only the most trusted of wizards would be allowed to take that position.   

That said, I do think Eb might be the most powerful Blackstaff since the original Merlin (who is suspect was the first).  Blackstaff and Senior Council member -- that is a very powerful combination.