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Improvised weapons
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Improvised weapons are devices that were not designed to be used as weapons but can be put to that use. They are generally used for self-defence or where the person is otherwise unarmed. In some cases improvised weapons are commonly used by attackers in street fights, muggings, murders, or during riots, usually when conventional weapons such as firearms are unavailable or inappropriate.
Examples
Any object that can be picked up and used by one to cause bodily harm to another can be considered an improvised weapon.
Discussion
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Encyclopedia
Improvised weapons are devices that were not designed to be used as weapons but can be put to that use. They are generally used for self-defence or where the person is otherwise unarmed. In some cases improvised weapons are commonly used by attackers in street fights, muggings, murders, or during riots, usually when conventional weapons such as firearms are unavailable or inappropriate.
Examples
Any object that can be picked up and used by one to cause bodily harm to another can be considered an improvised weapon. For common, ready-at-hand weapons, they can include:
- Common sports equipment (baseball bats, golf clubs, pool cues)
- Any object made of glass with a grip (beer mugs and bottles)
- Clothing accessories (walking sticks, umbrellas, belts )
- Jewelry/high end products Self-defense jewellery
- Keys
- Tools (hammers, wrenches, crowbars, nail guns)
- Construction materials (rebars, bricks, pipes, 2x4s)
- Kitchen utensils (knives, forks, meat cleavers, icepicks, frying pans, rolling pins)
- Farming and gardening tools (pitchforks, shovels, chainsaws, axes)
- Household accessories and decorations (fireplace poker, candlestick, curtain rod)
- Medical equipment (scalpels, syringes, defibrillators)
- Any liquid that causes pain upon contact with skin (Hot coffee, boiling water, battery acid)
- Natural debris (tree/bush branches, rocks).
Some tools are designed with the secondary function of being used as weapons for self-defense or for use by law enforcement or security personnel. Examples include certain pocket knives and some club-type flashlights such as those popularly sold by the Mag-lite brand.
Improvised weapons in martial arts
Throughout history, common tools were used so often as weapons in self-defense that many of them have evolved specifically into weapons or were adapted with the secondary purpose of being used in self-defense, usually by adding modifications to its design. Well-known examples include the Irish shillelagh, the Japanese Bo and hanbo, which were originally used as walking canes and the Buddhist Monk's spade, a shovel monks used for burying corpses which often had sharpened edges to defend against bandits with more ease.
Thus, many martial arts throughout employ the use of common objects as weapons; Okinawan karate features items of farming equipment that were later used as weapons by Okinawan peasants due the prohibition of weapons imposed by the shogun regime during feudal times; Filipino martial arts such as Eskrima include practice with machetes, canes, bamboo spears, and knives as a result of the 400 year Spanish colonization that took place in the Philippines which prohibited the ownership and use of standard swords and bladed weapons; Chinese martial arts and some Korean martial arts commonly feature the use of improvised weapons such as fans, hammers and staves; and native North American martial arts such as Okichitaw employ gunstocks that were originally salvaged from captured muskets during the European colonization of the Americas. There are even some western martial arts that are based on improvised weapons such as British quarterstaff fighting and Irish stick fighting.
Legal issues
Because of the use of common objects as weapons in violent crimes, many countries have made laws to prevent the use of some tools and other non-weapon objects to be used to cause harm. It is possible for a person to be detained, or even arrested, by a law enforcement official or security personnel for carrying a potentially-harmful object in a situation where there is no reasonable use for it. For example, while it is legal and perfectly understandable for someone to possess a kitchen knife or a hammer and keep it for use in one's domicile, it would seem highly suspicious for someone to carry a kitchen knife or a hammer concealed in his/her person or in plain sight when walking down a city street.
Many areas even prohibit people from entering with objects that may used as weapons. Most public schools in North America will not allow their students to bring pocket knives or wallet-chains, sometimes with harsh zero tolerance policies. Airports typically prohibit objects that could be used as weapons from being carried onto planes, with restrictions widely extended after the September 11 Terrorist Attacks to cover even objects like nail clippers and spiked wristbands. (see Airport security repercussions due to the September 11, 2001 attacks).
Makeshift weapons
Improvised offensive weapons are often used by criminals and insurgents, and are far more lethal. Examples are:
The improvised Molotov cocktail was used with great success by the heavily outnumbered Finns in the Winter War against the Soviet Union. The mixture of flammable petroleum, often thickened with soap or tar, was so effective against the Soviet tanks that the Finns began mass producing Molotov cocktails, and issuing them to their troops. While the first documented use of such improvised incendiary devices was in the Spanish Civil War, their use in the Winter War was much more prevalent, and it was at that time they were named Molotov cocktails, after the Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov.
See also
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