I shall flounce around in a 17th century manner with a rapier on my hip, a big goofy hat with lots of feathers, King Louis 14th shoes, a big wig, and call myself Pimp
Let's not underestimate the power of pepper spray, especially as an off hand weapon. Did you draw your weapon against someone? They are probably paying attention to the club/knife/hatchet in your main hand, not that small bottle hidden in your other hand. They won't expect you to have brought a blinding agent to a knife fight.
The most realistic (in my mind) scenario where this would happened if gunpowder somehow became a much rarer resource and so only the army or the rich could afford to fire guns. Criminals would be more likely to rob you of bullets than to use them on you.
that couldn't be possible, since the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch is a sacred weapon of mass destruction that oly few important figures are allowed to handle.
That wouldn't happen. Firstly, that's bad Japanese, even weebs can speak Japanese at least passably. Second, if they're going to kill someone with a Katana, they'd make sure that the Katana is fit for the job. So more likely a $2,000 Katana than a $20 turd. Then thirdly, if they're targetting you specifically, it's because you've done something to anger them, so they're not going to waste time speaking Japanese. Except maybe as a one-liner once they gut you. Also, not all weebs are fat, nor do they all like katana.
Nonsense, i never go bungee jumping without my trusty greatsword. What if i got entangled in enchanted bungees that are only vulnerable to greatswords? Go figure
You're a lot more likely to get tangled up in bungees if you've got a 2m stick (ie. a greatsword) strapped to you XD (PS. I know you're joking. I'm joking too)
Just imagining this world is hilarious. Inner city violence is mainly perpetrated by crips and bloods performing drive-by lancings. After a number of mass-swording incidents in sword-free zones, politicians in some states start banning swords with "knightly style features" such as pommels, double edged blades, and D-guards. The messer is just a California compliant sword, and everyone else in the United States calls them Swordlets for not being able to have knightly style features on their swords. Police chases are 900% more interesting because of the 70 pounds of plate armor they wear. The Canadian government looks at pictures of scary swords online and starts banning them by name, including many fantasy swords that don't even exist. The possibilities are endless.
> The Canadian government looks at pictures of scary swords online and starts banning them by name, including many fantasy swords that don't even exist. My sides.
if firearms disappear, what happens to artillery? I mean I'm all for bringing back the cutlass, but without a flintlock and a boat with cannons, how much rum do you think you'll get, Ya filthy land lubber?
On a personal note. Pulling out a bigger knife than the angry guy holding a small knife does tend to make the person with the small knife reconsider his plans.
this comment reminds me of tale told me by a dad, he was with group of friends getting girls and getting drunk, other group of tough guys were angry that they took the girls and wanted to fight, so his group (including him) dropped their leather jackets on the ground exposing pretty large knives they carried concealed, other group quickly backed off
@@tornielsen2888 I mean, what's carrying a gun compared to carrying bottles of acid and hardware store supplies?... probably less chances of maiming and disfiguring.
@Max Pain You can legally carry a sword in California too. A buddy of mine needed to walk home in gang territory one night (and he brought his sword over to show us it) and so he walked home with it on his back. No one wants to fuck with people openly wearing swords, even those with guns, go figure
What would happen if guns dissapear? Well here in Romania and probably most of Europe, nothing really. The gun laws here are so strict that nobody carries them for self-defence, rifles are mostly used for hunting, and the people who did get a license, they mostly keep them home or in their car rather than carring them. As for what I'd carry, I'd probably go for a hand and a half sword. Can be used both one handed and single handed, can be carried easier than a longsword as it's shorter, so yeah.
Not everywhere in Europe ;) Here in the heart of Europe, we have 300,000 people with gun license (per 10,000,000 citizens), majority of whom have a concealed carry license.
Skallagrim: "Would be the good ol machete, they are affordable, they are reliable, (well, not the absolutely cheapest ones). But their are plenty of high quality ones that wont cost you a arm and a leg." Me: No, but it might cost someone else an arm and a leg if they ever attack you. xD
I don't think that a compound bow (or any bow, for that matter) would be a very good self defense weapon in most situations. For hunting and open warfare, they're great, but most of the time when you're threatened by an assailant, it's going to be at short range (a few dozen feet at most), where even handguns can't always be brought to bear in time. By the time you've taken up your bow, drawn and nocked your arrow, and pulled back the bowstring to be ready to shoot, chances are you'd be stabbed multiple times, and even if you did shoot your assailant, unless you got them in the brain or upper spinal column, they might not stop. This is also why we don't see bows historically used as self defense weapons, close combat melee weapons were usually preferred until reliable firearms became available (apart from the fact that bows and quivers of arrows are bulky and heavy, of course).
john Mullholand if you wanted to mug somebody, and one if your options had a 150lbs dog at their side, im guessing they would go pretty far down your list.
My thoughts exactly. Don't know that they'd be the most practical but they're the closest replacement for guns by far, particularly in terms of minimizing the relevance of arm strength. But I think melee weaponry made for a more interesting video. Also, correct me if I'm wrong, if the other person has a sword you're basically only getting one shot off, so it better either hit and hit with serious stopping power or just scare the hell out of them.
I think the concept "what if firearms disappear" is actually intended as "what if modern weapons disappear" so no modern crossbows or bows, just medieval weapon
I can actually see that happening. Just so those who vehemently disapprove of firearms may sleep well at night, even an 8 year old could figure out a way to build a crossbow via historical text.
Unrealistic. I assume by "battery-powered", you mean using an electrical motor for the winding (and cocking the action, but that's easy). If you had such a crossbow that could fire repeatedly at a rate that justifies full-auto capability (let's say, >400 rpm), the power requirements would be so huge, and the batteries used so technologically advanced, that you might as well construct a proper handheld *railgun* ! Much simpler, smaller, easier to maintain etc. :)
@@johncrq3594 Just watch out for the gank squads that usually consist of two dickheads with uchigatanas, and one guy throwing pyromancies at you. I encountered one in the 7-11 parking lot yesterday.
@@Megadeth7811 hey, just cause I carry a Sharp Uchi+4, does NOT mean I'm a gang-member! Also someone NEEDS to mod in a kriegmesser into the soulsborne games.
Arent you also allowed to shoot someone with a shotgun in the face if he walks into your garage? Texas is probably one of the regions with the least weapons und weapon use restrictions in the western world. I would be suprised, if you werent allowed to carry a sword.
Yes any bladed weapon, but you can't carry a club, baton, brass knuckles or other blunt weapons, however, a walking stick is legal because it's not intended as a weapon first and foremost. In Texas you can also carry a long-gun without a permit, as well as antique or cap and ball pistols, but modern pistols require a permit.
A big stick aka quarterstaff. Anyone can have one, they're dead easy to make, and a sharp poke in the gut will make obstreperous people immediately reconsider their intentions.
I'd just love to see the modern militaries jumping out of modern transports with kevlar and radios and drawing Swords and Bows. Better yet a tank with a Ballista on top. XD
Modern militaries would probably go revisit some treaties. Less lethal gases may be a popular choice. Electricity weapons, think tasers but with longer periods of action, possibly instant KOs, and with much longer ranges, may also prove popular. Maybe sound weapons, that temporarily deafen people.
At the moment, if guns disappeared, Militaries wouldn't have access to And good Electric or Sonic weapons and Gas wouldn't take the place of a firearm, it would be used in tandem with the Gun replacement. In the long term I expect Magnetic Weapons would be the ideal replacement.
Problem is Kevlar doesn't protect you all that well from sword strikes, only bullets from firearms, so really they'd go back to ordering suits of plate armor to defend against swords lol
Now that would be interesting. But a stun-baton instead of a sword sounds ... much more useful. And for projectile weapons you can use air instead of gunpowder. Air rifles had been use since more than 400 year or so for killing. And the design is like 2000 years old. Would work just fine in a modern world.
well considering we're talking about the modern world with no firearms I would imagine kitchen knives would be the most common before industry picks up to meet the demands for pre-modern weaponry. I can imagine though there would be a lot of development into repeating crossbows as well in such a world.
@@seand.g423 What y'all thinking, one, maybe two generations before HEMA becomes a grade school class? Bout as long as until pistol shooting becomes a grade school class. So quite soon, if certain Republicans have anything to say about it :P.
Nothing. Almost everyone would carry nothing like they do today. Most of the rest would just carry a knife because they need it for other practical reasons. For actual self defense, stun guns and pepper spray would probably dominate.
Yeah, I think Skall is off base here. Even if I wanted a self defense weapon, I probably wouldn't go for a gun because there's collateral damage risk, and I definitely wouldn't go for a machete. No idea why no guns=medieval 2.0.
''If you are gonna go bungie jumping...you are not gonna bring your two-handed greatsword.'' As a runner-up in the two-handed category of the Bungie Sword Jumping Olympics (B.S.J.O) I am greatly offended by this unenlightened statement!
Later on on the news *"Maniac enters at a school with a big two handed sword, the president declare that teachers should use two handed swords to protect their students"* The US students now go to school with chain mail to avoid more deaths
I'd personally carry a shepard's axe (in Poland known as ciupaga, lovely word, pronounced roughly chu-paw-gah). Alternatively - some kind of Polish sabre, there's quite a cult over it here, to the point most older people tend to call all swords "szabelka" (diminutive from szabla - sabre). Funnily enough - I already can cary whatever I want, as long as it's not a blade hidden in an object that doesn't look like weapon, the only legal restriction when it comes to bladed stuff. And frankly, I've used that ability a few times, going out with one of my swords to town.
@@David_Fellner If we're on the subject of word translations, "ciupaga" comes from a verb "ciupać" (chu-pach), which is a Polish highlander dialect form of "rąbać" (rou-bach), which means "to chop". So ciupaga can be almost literally translated to chopper.
@@David_Fellner Yeah my buddy and I were looking for goat meat at at Spanish butcher one time and we didn't know the word for goat but we knew chupacabra meant goat sucker so we told the butcher "chupa" several times. We got a strange look and left only to realize later were telling him suck.
Ones with a steel pommel end, lightens up the stick for whipping it around and fighting for space and then you have the heavy end for using like a mace to end them rightly.
Im from the uk and I can tell u there is no art or glamour about machete fights ive experienced a machete being pulled on me and ive seen friends get cut /chopped /stabbed its not nice
That used to be pretty common in the Philippines...I've heard on a few of their smaller islands, far from Manila & other urban areas, men still fight with machete-type weapons.
"If firearms disappeared" I can tell you, here in the Midwest, it'd be crossbows and compound bows, maybe a few recurves, and all of them as accurate as Robin Hood
Bows are a pain to carry around, and don't work well in close quarters, where most fights take place. Imagine bringing a bow to a bar and trying to pull it out and load it as someone is stabbing you from less than a foot away. They're good if you plan an attack on someone and choose the right environment, but for self-defense blades or clubs work much better.
Skall, you are aware of tasers and pepper spray, and extendable batons, correct? That is what almost all British police carry in a society where guns are relatively uncommon. Yes, British police do have special firearms units, and police in general are also likely to have stab resistant vests and a riot shield, but for ordinary people, many already carry batons, pepper spray, and tasers, the latter two especially in the US where open carrying of weapons is far more normal than in the UK. Knives like the Bowie? Sure, people would carry that, and a variety of other knives. But anything larger than that I seriously doubt people would typically carry unless they are doing it for a specific purpose like camping where an axe would be handy, except as a fashion statement perhaps.
Smallswords are basically the fashion statements of swords, and they suck outside of fighting other smallswords. However, I'd say it depends on where you are, what you're doing, etc. There'd be a lot more necessary variety depending on the situation. For the most part, maybe people would only carry large knives in relatively safe areas(sort of like how daggers were commonly carried by all) outside of a smallsword if they were rich. If going into a riskier area, maybe a Messer or military sabre. If you're preparing for certain trouble, then whatever melee weapon you're best with and like 5 backups. Obviously they would all have backups but still, context. If there's a better chance of trouble, I agree with Skall, go for a sabre or Messer. If just chilling around the house? Maybe a large knife. Going out to the woods? Diphos! And if you don't have the money for that maybe an ax/kukri and backup knives and a couple bows or crossbows or spears(hunting stuff). As I said, context is key, and I see where Skall is coming from here and agree. Maybe not with his weapon choices because they're not my schtick, but the premise itself.
staves are a little hard to use, especially in tight quarters. but, if you can detach them into two parts, you can have a staff in wide areas, and dual sticks like in filipino martial arts. or, you could always get tonfas. good for defense, and improves attack, but with a lack of range.
I'm in the UK, this video is strange to me, I carry my keys, my purse and my phone. When I was a kid I carried a BBQ fork, because thats how kids roll, never had to poke anyone with it.. Once saw a man pull a kitchen knife out on a old lady, some guy just walked stright up behind him, picked him up and body slammed him into the pavement, he didn't get up again.
@@astrophobia6049 Yeah its a big difference, here in Europe noone walks around with the thought that at any time someone could pull out a gun. Because thats not the case, noone here has a gun. The only real, functional guns I ever saw were probably the ones police officers carry and thats about it. In the US though, someone pulling out a gun in public is very much a real possibility. So people do have to keep that in mind and it suddenly makes a lot more sense to carry one yourself. The problem feeds into itself in a way, but because of that it does make more sense for everyone to carry a weapon in public.
@@TheSpeep It all depends on the area, though. In high crime places, then I would be worried about someone pulling a weapon out on me, but I live in an area with very low crime. You never know what will happen since danger strikes when you least expect it, so stay safe.
IamCombustible thats a shotgun, people dont don't kill each other with shotguns, they don't go walking around with one under their coat they are not practical, my grandmother had a shotgun and she lived in Surrey it was for clay pigeon shooting, my brother had a friend with a gun license he had everything the law allowed him to have at the time and carried a small machine gun in his car, but we are not paranoid about guns. You do hear about people getting shot, there was a driveby last week but its normally just gangs killing each other so no ones bothered, let them kill each other, sometimes theres mistaken identity but most people think thats rare, more so then the news makes out, its more like that person isn't known to the police yet so its assumed thry are innocent as they don't have a criminal record. French people have plenty of guns, that country doesn't feel unsafe, it doesn't really feel any different to the UK in that respect, and I have plenty of relatives in Canada, plenty of places there where people leave their doors unlocked, guns are for hunting. Americans seem to have some special mentality, paranoia even that makes them so trigger happy, they are up there with Brazil and South Africa, yet those two you can see reasons behind more.
Fist to fist in a secluded place and shake hands afterwards is dead in Britain now people are not willing to man up and fight fair because there are a lot of cowards that represent them selves as what they aren’t and as such use a weapon I have already been on the receiving end of the cowardly technique of endangering my children and then use a weapon to sort me out for. Denying him his fun because he gets more of a thrill endangering other people than he does endangering himself. I don’t understand it but I am not as soft as bollocks
I have researched what could i really bring to London if I somehow want to go back there now, when even telescopic baton, pepper spray and small pocket swiss knife are all "offensive weapon" - and walk with it undisturbed by police. Found that the only option (apart from famous "acid in a jar") are some speciffically made umbrella sfor self-defense purposes, sturdier than normal so it behave like a stick and don't break. Recommend you to google that, but perhaps even umbrellas will be banned in London soon. (Also seems that if you use heavy motorbike security chain on some guy from CZ and kill him by it, it is still considered self-defense, so there is another option - black humor...)
All joking aside, there's one aspect of modern life we have to remember: vehicles. Long weapons are out because of the hassle of getting in and out efficiently. I'd say gladius size or smaller would be realistic, and the seax would probably be the most popular. The traditional horizontal belt carry puts it out of the way, and there's no projecting guard to dig into your side or potentially punch through the upholstery of your car. I work in a rough neighborhood (spent shell casings one the sidewalk rough), and company policy doesn't allow me to have a gun on the job, so I make do with a knife. I've tried all kinds of folders, bowies, and karambits, but nothing works quite as well as the seax.
I'd also encourage trying to find a good percussive weapon. Those Cold Steel Kubatons, the polypropylene things, are surprisingly devastating. And, if it's legal where you live, a quality collapsible baton. Unless you really put your weight into it, knives don't always deliver a large shock to the system, immediately atleast, and attackers might not care immediately, or might not even notice until later. Kind of the same arguments of cut vs thrust, from back in the day.
Take a look at the exact wording of the company policy and cross-reference it with your state law to see whether you can (rules-as-written, undoubtedly not as-intended) carry a cap-and-ball revolver.
Finally someone mentioned vehicles. I agree large knives would be the most popular. I think closely followed by pepper spray, with throwing knives or shuriken for those who want projectile concealed carry. All these ranged weapons would be deterrents they would have trouble killing someone for that use a bow, crossbow, or sling. Sling probably wouldn't be common even though it can be quite deadly and travels easily because this is more about fashion than actual defense and slings just aren't popular enough.
Up in Skall's neck of the woods the most common improvised weapon would be the hockey stick. Down where I live where there are a lot of golf loving Koreans, golf clubs would be the improvised weapon of choice. But more specifically, Skall would probably be one of, if not the best, equipped for an all guns disappear scenario in Canada while Matt Easton would be the one for the UK, Jorg Sparve in Germany, the Metatron in Sicily, and Shad down in Oz.
We have electricity now; something that was unavailable to pre-firearms civilizations. Electricity is extremely effective at both incapacitating and killing, and inventive persons could devise of all manner of ways to deliver it from something like a stun baton to lethal capacitor bolts from something like a drone-mounted launcher.
Law Enforcement Units wouldn't need to conceal their weapons, so I guess polearms would be pretty common for them. Maybe a High Tech Version? lol, I dunno why, I just imagined now the return of jousting duels, but instead of horses, they use motorcycles.
George Miller in the Mad Max series has already addressed this where ammunition is scarce. They use compressed air to launch bolts, They have lances tipped with explosives. Give way signs make great shields. Everything you just showed us in this video is not going to protect you from The Doof Warrior. Flame thrower guitars beat anything you are contemplating carrying.
As far as people making guns for themselves there is a neat episode of Forgotten Weapons where he looks at a couple of guns seized from poachers in Africa that had been home-made. They were not incredibly sophisticated, but if people still had access to machine shops there would be a steady supply of guns neverending. I have no idea how easy it is to make black powder or nitrocellulose.
Machine shop? There's people in parts of Pakistan that make guns using only hand tools and they can look almost as good as one made in an actual factory.
People make working guns inside of prisons. Anyone with access to a stocked machine shop can do far better than some improvised handgun. Black powder is Nitre, Sulfur, and Charcoal, in a variety of ratios, depending on the type of powder you want. Typically 65:15:20, respectfully. Sulfur is widely available as fertilizer, and Charcoal is easily made. Nitre is just common stump remover, though you can make your own with little trouble (it does require cooking large amounts of animal dung, so not exactly a fun job).
@@Riceball01 When people say guys in Pakistan are making guns by hand, it always turns out to be the stock. The hard parts are imported or made in machine shops in Kabul.
@@berserkasaurusrex4233 You can easily make your own Nitre by collecting your urine and boiling away the water. France during the Napoleonic wars used urine to supply most of their black powder after they were cut off from overseas saltpeter imports.
@That one friend that genuinely enjoys Rick Astley Is that only for law-abiding citizens? It should be obvious, PAINFULLY obvious, even to people like YOU, that criminals don't give a RAT'S ASS for laws, ESPECIALLY laws saying they can't have firearms! People who advocate the banning of firearms all live in a fantasy world because A) they think that doing so will, magically, make all guns vanish, B) all criminals will VOLUNTARILY surrender their guns because they're illegal, and C) banning guns will, again, magically make all crime disappear! Totally delusional
Funnily enough, even in some gun happy states, small crossbows are illegal to own. I think in Texas you couldn't carry a blade over 3.5 inches, or a crossbow smaller than like 18 of so inches. But you conceal carry just about anything. Or even open carry full on rifles. But no, small crossbows are scary. Assassin's in fantasy games and movies use those, they must be a threat.
I think in states where they are legal, gas propelled ballistic knives may become popular. Though it begs the question, what constitutes a 'firearm?' Are we considering it by U.S. federal laws?
@@GallopingWalrus >high energy air pistols/rifles How many people do you know carry rifles for self defense? How small of 'high energy air pistols' have you seen? Concealability is a concern to many. Someone can conceal multiple ballistic knives on their person easier than an air gun. I have mentioned the issue of legality. In many states ballistic knives are legal to own and in some can be concealed carried. Furthermore if firearms did not exist the right to keep and bear arms should naturally be seen as applying to knives, swords, and crossbows, and the laws regarding them would see more contention.
For inner city carry, yeah. You'd have to shell out a fair bit for a decently small high energy air pistol. Even then, they're barely super sonic, and have like effectively a 4 round clip.
I’d carry a retractable baton. It would be compact enough to carry on my belt, but give me the reach, speed and focus blunt force i’d need in a hand to hand combat.
@spider love ASP is a brand name like kleenex and weed waker. I also carry one daily. Saved me more than once. I also carry a fixed blade knife daily as a backup to the baton.
@spider love Not so. ASP is actually the name of a weapons company, being Armament Systems and Procedures. They do make retractable/collapsible/telescoping batons however.
The Village in Indonesia where I'm staying has people open carrying Parang and other short blade type weapons. It's an old tradition to have such on person. And there's no murder case with such weapon for years.
Just because firearms disappeared, that doesn't mean you can't use things like chlorine gas, tear gas, and other forms of chemical warfare. Nor does that disallow things like using cars or tanks to run over people. (But they require loads of fuel and maintenance and logistics to operate to be fair) And lastly . . . *WHAT ABOUT FLAMETHROWERS!?!*
S.M. Stirling has a good series of books based on gunpowder and internal combustion failing in a single moment. The characters diversified into the various pre-gunpowder weapons based on availability of materials and skill of crafters. It's a very good book series, at least as far as the sixth or seventh book that I am up to.
“Machete...won’t cost you an arm and a leg” I think some people in Africa and Brazil would disagree after losing their Rolexes and air Jordans to criminals.
This is always an interesting type of question. The whole "what if?" scenario. I've always wondered, similar to the scenario here, what would a modern day set of armor look like? No guns in this scenario either so not the same stuff we have now. But what would it look like? Both a practical military set and a fancy knight's armor to show off their position?
I can answer this. I'm in the uk. Criminals use knives. I use a compound bow (pse brute force 70lb), Mongolian horse bow (60lb), katana, bastard sword and a Viking shield. Nothing really changes.
Could you imagine living in Louisiana or something and calling 911 to get the deputy sheriff named Daryll and his comrades to pull up in shining armor showing up to save you Edit: Also 4th of July would be so much different now
