Who was the first to forge the deadly blade?
From rugged steel his savage soul was made;
By him, his bloody Flag Ambition wav’d;
and grisly carnage thro’ the battle rav’d
—Tibullus, Elegy 11 (Trans. James Grainger 1759)
Part 1: Why the Knife?
What is the deadliest weapon on the modern battlefield?
FPV Drones are the new hotness; Nuclear Weapons hang like the Sword of Damocles; Airstrikes plunge like thunderbolts with Jupiterian Precision; Artillery rains like a storm God’s deluge ( or at least it does when you have a manufacturing base); IEDs and mines lie in wait for the unlucky traveler; Precision rifles take their silenced harvests; and chemical and biological weapons lurk like an emperor’s poisonous consorts.
But Yet… when you start adding up the bloody results of the full scope of the modern battlefield: Interstate wars, guerilla wars, Clandestine operation, Gang wars, Marriages… Shocking statistical realities reveal themselves.
The deadliest weapon in American history… Is the Handgun.
Obligatory.
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When you add up every official causality in every war the US has ever fought since the revolution, Including DISEASE depending on what you include as a war related disease… The approximately 1.2 million Americans who’ve died in all wars since the Revolution of 1776 is SLIGHTLY LESS than the 12000-15000 Americans who die annually to guns violence (90% of which are handguns) which very roughly averaged over a 100 year period would be about 1.2-1.5 MILLION Handgun deaths. (and the republic is 200 years old not 100, though populations do shrink dramatically the further back you go)
And remember… This is just Handgun deaths OUTSIDE of declared wars… Within wars presumably some percentage of those killed are via handguns (think of all the policing, executions, feuds, enforcements, assassinations etc. that occur which can end with a handgun death… Even conventional wars are quite irregular in the manner civilians, partisans and soldiers interact).
This is surprising… but it should not be.
The most likely way for someone to be killed by an enemy is the way that is MOST convenient, immediate, and offers the relative safety of speed and surprise. Rarely is a violent death delivered without violence of action.
However is the Handgun truly the deadliest weapon on the modern battlefield? Or is it just the deadliest in America? is there another?
Applying the logic which we have already seen, that outside of the most war-ravaged countries ordinary homicide, gang wars, feuds, and clasdestine actions are VASTLY more likely to kill people than high intensity warfare… You quickly notice a trend.
The 3 deadliest weapons in the world today in terms of body-count (your likelihood to be killed by them) varies between
Handguns in the New World where guns are plentiful but open carry of rifles is not the norm
Auto and semiautomatic (and previously bolt-action) rifles in the third world of Africa and failed parts of the Middle-East where it is perfectly acceptable for gangs to walk about with AK-47s in their arms
Knives and bladed weapons in Gun restrictionist jurisdictions (Europe), Asia, Prisons, etc.
If you die a violent death dear reader whether in the killing fields of darkest Africa, darkest Detroit, the trenches of forever war or the smuggling tunnels of Mexico, to an enemy you’ve never spoken a word to or to a spouse you said just one word too many to, it will almost certainly be to one of these 3… Even in the age of FPV Drones, IEDs, Cluster munitions, and Thermobaric rocket artillery… a super-majority of the time the person who decides you need to die will be within 2-200 meters of you see you with their bare eye or possibly a simple optic, and decide in sight of your face to end your life with the tool they have at hand. Knife, handgun, or rifle.
And it’s very hard to tell which of the 3 actually leads the pack globally.
In the US where guns are widely available knife homicides are only about 10-15% of what firearm homicides are… In the UK this is reversed, and firearm related murders are 10% of knife murders.
An Interesting map could be made of the world by most common killing weapon… but I don’t have the data.
However, it is the case that these 3 are globally the top 3 killers indeed its kind-of rare that any of them are unseated in a period or setting. You might think they’d be more common killers in low intensity warfare and would be unseated in major wars… but When you look at ww2 firing squads and executions were responsible for maybe a majority of violent deaths (Whether one is a Holocaust revisionist or maximalist, it is now widely accepted ad hoc firing squads and killings in Eastern Europe probably dwarfed in scale any “industrial” or “efficient” killings via oddities like gas chambers… Holocaust by Bullets) likewise the fastest most brutal genocide in living memory was the Rwandan Genocide, largely carried out with Machetes.
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However, notice something about these 3 weapons and modern warfare.
Every single soldier in every army in the world goes through some kind of Rifle qualification, a soldier with no idea how to use a rifle (at least at the rudimentary level non-specialized soldiers are trained to) can barely be regarded as a soldier. Likewise across a wide sections of Infantry and various occupations handgun qualification is a right of passage for much of military life as well as the police… and of course civilians, hobbyists, and irregulars of all sort take courses, read books, look up manuals, watch YouTube videos… etc. Regarding Handguns and rifles of all sort.
Hell my mother and her friends happily attend range days to fire rifles and handguns and familiarize themselves… So common is this a part of North American life.
And whilst I am certainly no expert on rifles or handguns, I’ve dabbled at best with both… and everyone can name countless experts on guns and call up wonderful video on YouTube…
Who can say the same of the knife? who are the experts on knife fighting?
Who studied the blade?