From the author: Thanks to all of you who took the time to write and post on my first article "Practical Weapons" although admittedly I should have titled it "Practical Firearms" since I didn't really address anything beyond firearms but, oh well, hindsight is like 20/20. Anyhow since most of the posts didn't really address anything that I wrote about, and more on the whole firearms vs anything else you want to have on Z-day I decided to make a second article addressed to specificially just that. If you are going to post, please, try to keep it relevant and the flaming to a minimum. Everyone here is entitled to their own opinions....even if their opinions are bound to get themselves and others around them dead or infected in the first few hours of Z-pocalypse but, oh well. Survival of the fittest. Enjoy and comment as you see fit. -Paladinlord06

From reading many of the posts and articles here on the "Zombie Survival Wiki" I've found that most on here seem less concerned on what exact make/model of weapon or item they should carry or have in their posession, versus what manner of item or items would prove most useful in the time on and after Z-day. In particular, the big argument is the whole, guns vs. archery vs melee, and which one would be best suited to survive. I'll be taking a look at all three and will be attempting a fairly unbiased compilation of my thoughts on the pro's and con's of each, while also taking the stand that this is advice you should not only consider in the unlikely event of Z-Day, but in the far more likely and common events of today's world of terrorism, natural and man-made disasters.

Firstly, we'll take a look at firearms, the author's favorite and also his choice item in any emergency kit. Having existed and been perfected in the past several centuries, projectile firearms are an icon to everyone and means something different to everyone else. To a hunter, it's the tool that puts food on the table. To the soldier and police officer, it stands between them and harm. For the recreational shooter, it's a means to bond with friends and enjoy a hobby that takes their mind of the daily grind. For many, it's a mixture of these things, but for our purposes firearms most often are the shield and the sword in the unfortunate event of disaster and Z-Day. There are literally thousands of different types made in hundreds of different calibers, each with their own advantages and purposes and it's a very personalized choice as to what any person wants to get. The main question is, however, just how practical are they? In a nutshell, very. With firearms, you don't necessarily have to have to spend a massive amount of cash for some basic protection, and stockpiling ammunition is not especially expensive either. Compared to other weapons such as blades and bows, firearms are much more consistent in terms of their accuracy and damage delivered. Most people have handled a gun or two in their life, some more than others, and most know it's fairly intuitive to operate and takes minimal training to be fairly proficient unlike other types of weapons, yet they are just as reliable. The main advantage of firearms in combat over bows and arrows and blades are that you do not have to get close to someone to use them, you can fire much faster than you can slash or draw a bow, they are comparitavely speaking more accurate and cause greater damage, and against a potential human adversay that doesn't have one, can make even the smallest and most petite person fight on a level field than a musclebound punk with a crowbar....and win.

Unlike bows and blades there is no minimum strength requirement or if you are a person of small stature, rest assured there is a gun for you, and the best news is you get to keep them if it ever went bad. Thanks to recent changes in United States federal law and the Vitter Amendment, the government is not allowed to confiscate legally owned firearms in times of emergency, a necessary law that was traumatically demonstrated in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina then when social order breaks down, just how easily it is for many perceived liberties and rights to be violated in the name of security.

Firearms are not without their drawbacks, however. Like bows and archery, they are dependent on ammunition and unless you have a sizeable stockpile and/or are familiar with reloading spent shells and cartridges, depending on the length, severity, and how much ammunition you expend could greatly affect how long your reserves go. Some areas in the country are more friendly to gun-owners than others, and procuring a firearm may be extremely difficult if not outright impossible in certain areas, and more often than not these are major cities where resources are consumed the most quickly but have little capacity for resupply in terms of food and water, and therefore where social unrest and panic would occur first. Like any piece of machinery, firearms do require maintenance in the form of lubrication and cleaning, so in addition to ammunition a user must also ensure that they have stockpiled a sufficient supply of spare and replacement parts and cleaning supplies, although a properly built firearm will go into the thousands of rounds, if not far more, before requiring any cleaning or maintenance work completed, and many guns have survived multiple generations in families with heavy use with minimal repair work due to periodic and proper maintenance and treatment. The final aspect of firearm ownership considered should be safe and secure storage, and also with that does one feel that they have the emotional and mental maturity to handle firearm ownership? Are they prepared to use it in defense without second-guess? Are they prepared to keep their firearm(s) stored safely and securely? Are they prepared to take them out regularly for maintenance and every so often to use them to keep their skills polished? Do you live in an area that legally allows firearms? If any of these questions are no, then perhaps a gun isn't for you.

Our second category is bows and archery tackle. Used in warfare and hunting for thousands of years, the bow and arrow has been planet earth many times longer than firearms ever have. compared to a fair number of firearms they shoot far slower, the user must be far stronger to draw a bow, range is reduced and overall are not as accurate. Also the amount of arrows or bolts a user can carry is far reduced for the same size and weight of bullets a survivor could carry. With these disadvantages in mind, using a bow and arrow versus a gun in battle is probably not the best move, and should probably be considered for use mainly as a means to take wild game for food.

However, they do have their purposes and one big advantage over firearms, stealth. In a survival situation, sometimes it is best to remain unseen and unheard, not only to avoid attracting undead but also the very real fact that just perhaps you do not want the wrong kind of people knowing where you are, and there are few sounds more identifying and distinctive than the crack of a gun firing. Bows and arrows are comparitavely silent and stealthy, you leave a minimal footprint of your presence due to not having left a pile of spent shell casings from either a firefight or a missed shot attempting to take game, and with some feathers, wood and metal scraps making spare arrows or bolts as a fletcher depending on if you are using a regular bow or crossbow is far simpler and easier than using an ammunition press, not to mention the lack of precision equipment, volatile and dangerous gunpowder do make for some advantages. In most cases arrows can even be reused and with careful use, one could have a virtually limitless supply of arrows and bolts if proper care as taken. Overall, however, the fact that you cannot shoot nearly as fast or as far with a bow and arrow, and comparitavely speaking training to learn how to shoot accurately and consistently takes far longer than firearm training. This consideration plus the fact someone lacking upper-body strength only compounds the problem keeps archery takle from being the ideal means of self-defense in any disaster or emergency, although the advantage of the standoff does give the shooter an edge over someone carrying a melee weapon. Nevertheless as an ammunition-saving game-taking method that is reliable and stealthy, the value of the bow or crossbow cannot be overstated.

The final topic of discussion tonight is the melee weapon. When shooting a target until it is swiss cheese and filling it with arrows like a pin cushion isn't enough, there's always the good ol' hack n' slash approach. The problem is, for personal defense it's a very bad approach. With a knife, sword, axe, club or pretty much any other melee weapon, if you're close enough to hit your opponent, they're probably close enough to hit back. You must be burly and brawny to be effective with melee weapons, and unlike what you've seen in the movies, making a clean kill with a melee weapon is seldom and most often a slow process that attracts much attention, expending an enormous amount of energy in the process over other methods of defense, and very rarely will you come out completely unscathed. In this instance even moreso with firearms and archery, if the other person is bigger, stronger, faster and more skilled than you are, your chances of victory drop exponentially, and in the proverbial "bringing a knife to a gun fight" if they're packing anything else, your odds are more or less ground to nothing. In a sentence, melee is a bad plan for any means of self-defense of any other method and should strictly be considered a last-resort option, and especially talking in regards to the undead, they don't even have to beat you up, all they have to do is simply bite or get some manner of bodily fluid in an open cavity or wound and you're one of them. Even larger blades like katanas, while quite lethal is not something just anyone can pick up and hope to use with any level of proficienty and a considerable amount of training, moreso than either firearms or archery tackle, must be taken to become proficient and even then a considerable amount of time also must be spent to keep those same skills sharp. Even thrown weapons like throwing knives or stars require considerable training to use and once thrown, don't expect to get it back and unlike most other weapons, are nowhere near as effective as a bullet or arrow against a target. Their only redeeming quality is that it's much easier to legally own than firearms and unlike the former two categories, they are not dependent on ammunition, but a quality blade is hardly maintenance-free, requiring sharpening and lubrication based on the amount of usage.

Knives and melee weapons, like archery gear, however, do have their purposes, although you will find them more in the aspect of utility. A good survival knife does have a menacing appearance much like a firearm and carrying one openly may deter some attackers, although not to the same extent that a firearm might. They are indespensable, however, in terms of certain methods of fire-making, cutting up meat, shelter-building, especially so in the case of axes and hatchets. Even a multi-tool type knife or swiss army knife is an indespensable tool for accomplishing work, and some survival knives do offer waterproof cavities on the hilts that may have a simple magnetic compass on the butt of the hilt that unscrews and inside one could store matches, fishing line or all manners of useful materials. Again, in most situations relying on a knife or some manner of melee weapon for defense should be very much last-resort, but their utility in performing most survival-related tasks, be it preparing caught game to building fires and shelter makes them an absolute necessity in any survival kit.