If you look at some of the militia records both when colonists moved to the US in the 1600 and 1700s and some of the muster records for militia men during the Revolution, a lot of guy didn't own guns. What did people in Colonial America and elsewhere I guess use as personal arms prior to widespread gun ownership in the US? Like did peasants owns spears?
>>64885104During the colonial period many British men knew how to use bows. Before the fork was popularized in the 18th century, pretty much everyone carried a knife.
>>64885104Very light sabers were extremely popular during one period in America as personal weapons, but obviously something heavier would be preferred for serious duty.Americans also took very well to "large daggers" even before the knives made famous in the old West. Heavy "short sword" like blades were always popular on the frontier.Hatchets and various small axes may have been the most popular option for immediate defense, they were extremely popular on the frontier and on the coast for hundreds of years. Notable also is the infamous "slungshot" or "monkeys fist", a ball of heavy material like lead, iron, or stone wrapped in thick rough rope and swung like a flail, carried by many sailors as an easily made, easily explained, easily hidden self defense weapon (or a weapon of surprise attack).Celtic immigrants, particularly the Irish, were notably fond of wooden clubs of various designs, not for the least reason that it's very easy to source a length of wood and explain its presence.For organized defense, it's unlikely people would rely on the same things they did for personal defense as their primary weapon unless need pressed them to it. There were still spears, bows, and strong swords where there were not enough firearms.
>>64885191>Notable also is the infamous "slungshot"There's this thing in NJ law where they tried to ban slungshots. Like it's listed in the same list with a black jack and sand club and "other leather weapons" but some retard thought it was a typo so the law bans slingshots and not slungshots
>>64885226Jesus Christ Jersey is retarded among a grand college of retards.
>>64885104>a lot of guy didn't own gunsThat shouldn't be surprising. A gun was an expensive luxury the average people at that time could not afford.>>64885191Big knives were extremely common and remained so into the old west era. Everybody wanted them, including the natives. European companies mass produced "trade knives" to swap with the natives, and they also produced a staggering number of different kinds to sell to settlers too, ranging from plain to fancy. The big cutlery firms in Sheffield like Joseph Rodgers, Ibberson, Wostenholm, etc, all made these. Many of them were straight-up advertised for this purpose, "California" knives were a thing when the Gold Rush hit.
>>64885602Also, small handguns were pretty popular, especially closer to the old west. Few people would have a long gun or a big fancy revolver but tons of people carried things like queen anne pistols, muff pistols, tap-action pistols, pepperboxes, derringers, etc. People love to talk about the fancy .45 revolvers, levergats, etc, because those are cool and featured in movies but companies like Remington, Colt, and S&W sold far more tiny pocket pistols than they did 'big irons' or fighting rifles.
>>64885191Very Light Sabers were an elegant weapon, for a more civilized time. This one was your father's...
>>64885626>Very Light SabersI read that as Very (light sabers), like a Very Pistol.
>>64885602Speaking of knives, "folding bowies" were popular in the 19th century. Today there are pajeets and chinks making knockoffs of these but the originals were made by Sheffield cutlers.
>>64885661Some of these had a built-in guard that would rotate into place when the handle was folded out.
>>64885416one of the lawyers in the state brings it up so he can point out how retarded the anti gunners are and how slingshots are banned. he used to meme on them for banning the marlin model 60 and it got enough of them annoyed that they subsequently changed the law (while doing a mag ban) to exempt tube fed .22lrs and I think the marlin 60 by name because he would just show pic of boyscouts shooting marlins and say those were legally assault weapons
>>64885609to be fair, and I think most 1873s were sold in the east, the winchester lever guns were marketed as hunting guns, not fighting guns
>>64885191>Celtic immigrants, particularly the Irish, were notably fond of wooden clubs of various designs, not for the least reason that it's very easy to source a length of wood and explain its presence.The Irish had their own martial art called bataireacht which involved fighting with shillelaghs as quarterstaves. During the 1700s and 1800s Irish Catholics were forbidden to own any kind of weapon so they took to making cured staves of hardened blackthorn (sometimes the knob would be drilled out and filled with lead) which could be easily explained as being walking sticks. In that period there was a phenomenon called "faction fighting" where men in rural Ireland would get into massive brawls where everyone was usually armed with shillelaghs so they developed a very practical martial art revolving around stick/club fighting.
>>64885602>Many of them were straight-up advertised for this purposeThere were a lot of interesting etchings on old Bowies. Here's another one made by a Sheffield cutler for the American market.
>>64886203Daggers were popular too
>>64886218
>>64886000>the potato niggers fought each other with sticksIrish monkeys
>>64886233>fighting... LE BAD!!!Go back.>>64886000The sport of Hurling was also analogous to stickfighting practice, and irishmen used it as an excuse to carry clubs. There's even a record of a Namby Pamby bureaucrat crying in his letters that Hurling becoming more and more popular is a sign that his gay sheep colony ideal is collapsing.
>>64885226>>64885416>>64885936That isn't a typo, a 'slungshot' is a completely different weapon. It is a lead ball used to weigh fishing nets with a rope around it looped over your wrist that is used as a concealed black jack.
>>64887980Yes retard that's the point some idiot in government saw "slungshot", figured it was a typo, "corrected" it to slingshot, and as a result slingshots got banned.
>>64887980yeah I know.>e. Certain weapons. Any person who knowingly has in his possession any gravity knife, switchblade knife, dagger, dirk, stiletto, billy, blackjack, metal knuckle, sandclub, slingshot, cestus or similar leather band studded with metal filings or razor blades imbedded in wood, ballistic knife, without any explainable lawful purpose, is guilty of a crime of the fourth degree.that's the statue. Some retard working for the NJ government, either as the actual legislator or as a clerk or staffer or something saw the word "slungshot" thought it was a typo and then changed to to "slingshot". It's listed next to other concealable impact and leather based weapons so it's obviously supposed to be a slung shot
>>64886233It could be worse
