Which small arm has killed the most people throughout history?

[SS-18 ICBM]

So, which weapon that can be carried by a single person has shed the most blood in all of written history?

Edit: Poll added.

 

[holy king]

the kalashnikoff i guess...

 

[nonconformist]

Prolly the Kalashnikov, either 47 or 74

Thought he MG42 would give it as good run for its money I guess

 

[budweiser]

No. The roman sword, by far has killed more than any other single weapon.

 

[Ace]

The Machine Gun. It killed millions in WWI, alone. And many more in WWII.

 

[Loki130]

Assault rifles, as the ak47 (and 74) alone is so widespread, all the little wars add up. Swords and arrows may seem logical as they've been around longer, but there was less people and smaller battles in their day.

 

[t87supra]

Remember that assault rifles are a relatively new weapon. Even the AK47 missed WWII. Is this just for battles, because I'd imagine an uncountable number of people have been beaten or stabbed to death. This is a difficult thought provoking question given the number of weapons and the fact there have never been good breakdowns of causes for death for even single battles. That said, I will have to go with "IDK."

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

I think casualty figures in wars would vastly surpass that of normal murders. Then again, no reliable figures exist for the latter in past years. So I guess we're counting only battles in wars here.

 

[Cutlass]

Probably the spear. It was more ubiquitous throughout history than swords. And while guns have killed many more, because the human population has increased so much, the spear existed for 1000s, perhaps 10s of 1000s, of years before the sword and was still in use through the 19th century. A bayonet is even a form of spear, so they are still in use.

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

Heck, even chimps kill each other with spears.

 

[Marla_Singer]

Categories aren't well balanced.

You have "all kinds of sword", "all kind of axes", "all kinds of spears", "all kind of bows", and all of a sudden, a detailed list of 6 kinds of guns. That doesn't sound right.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Categories aren't well balanced.

You have "all kinds of sword", "all kind of axes", "all kinds of spears", "all kind of bows", and all of a sudden, a detailed list of 6 kinds of guns. That doesn't sound right.

The difference between an MG42 and an MP5 is substantially bigger than between a scimitar and a claymore.

 

[Cutlass]

The difference between an MG42 and an MP5 is substantially bigger than between a scimitar and a claymore.

Not in a historical perspective. It should be categories of weapons rather than specific ones.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Not in a historical perspective. It should be categories of weapons rather than specific ones.

I'm trying to justify my weapon categories.

 

[Bugfatty300]

Categories aren't well balanced.

You have "all kinds of sword", "all kind of axes", "all kinds of spears", "all kind of bows", and all of a sudden, a detailed list of 6 kinds of guns. That doesn't sound right.

Not in a historical perspective. It should be categories of weapons rather than specific ones.

He doesn't list specific guns. Assault rifle and machine gun are as much generic categorical terms as sword and spear is.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

The AK-47 is so widely proliferated, it is easily the deadliest small arm of the 20th Century.

However, if I had to guess total deaths in all of history, probably the human hand.

 

[North King]

It may seem weird, but there are probably nearly as many people alive today as have ever died in the world. Owing to the ridiculous population growth after the Industrial Revolution, a modern weapon is extremely likely to top the list (in fact, modern weapons in general are). I imagine the top few are the machine gun, assault rifle, submachine gun, and rifle, probably in that order.

Though I imagine bombs and artillery give them a run for their money...

Categories aren't well balanced.

You have "all kinds of sword", "all kind of axes", "all kinds of spears", "all kind of bows", and all of a sudden, a detailed list of 6 kinds of guns. That doesn't sound right.

If we counted guns as one category, due to the aforementioned population imbalance, they'd top the list by a ridiculous margin. Probably something like 100:1.

 

[Arwon]

It's actually more like: 10% of all humans ever born are alive today, I tihnk.

 

[budweiser]

Everyone is just guessing.

The deadliest single weapon in history is the gladius.

Remeber, rifles, small arms, assault rifles etc actually account for a very small percentage of 20th century combat deaths. Artillery is the true killer, and there are very many mixed types of arty.

 

[North King]

It's actually more like: 10% of all humans ever born are alive today, I tihnk.

Humanity in the last 100 years has gone from about two billion to seven billion people. I'm not actually going to do the math (gotta run), but it seems like that would imply about 8-9 billion were alive in the last century, which would be about the equivalent of, what, a millennium of humanity, say 2000 BCE to 1000 BCE? And even that's not including the period of 1600 to 1900...