Obviously, guns, knives, and pepper sprays are the most common defensive tools that most people carry. There are some alternatives.

Concealable blunt-force weapons have been around for a while, some with a long history in law enforcement and in less than legal uses, but there is a history of alternative or slightly less lethal weapons.

Their legality is mixed, so consult your state and local laws to see if prohibitions might affect you.

Conspicuous But Efficacious

Concealed weapons have been part of the human experience for millennia; concealed pistols are just a modern one. Knives and other weapons were being hidden in garments long before gunpowder was even an idea.

Why consider one? Knives don’t work that quickly, and pepper spray can be just as hazardous to the user in close quarters or enclosed spaces.

There’s also something to the idea of an intermediate weapon, something that’s not as potentially lethal as a firearm but with more oomph than merely punching someone. If you’re going to carry tools to defend yourself with, they’re an option that fits a use case.

Saps And Blackjacks

Saps and blackjacks are flexible clubs typically made of leather. They have a weighted (striking) end.

Classical blackjacks have a woven shaft (sometimes wrapped around a flexible bit of wood), almost like a riding crop, with a ball weight at the top. Some were made longer for use as a policeman’s baton, but shorter and more concealable blackjacks were certainly around.

Saps are flatter and classically better for concealment. A sap is essentially a leather paddle enclosing a flat lead weight and sometimes something like a spring steel shank for concealment. Like a blackjack, it’s flexible, so it can accelerate and strike with more force.

Saps can be over a foot long for the largest examples, but many were and still are made short enough to fit into a pocket.

Both were known to be effective but fell out of favor in police use. State laws vary, as a number of state legislatures consider them deadly weapons as they cause blunt-force trauma. Roughly half of the US prohibits carrying them, and several states – such as Washington, Nevada, Virginia, and Vermont, for instance – prohibit possession outright.

Epic Flail: Slungshots And Monkey’s Paws

Monkey’s paws and slungshots were formerly maritime tools, essentially a bit of rope with weights at one of both ends. What you’d do is tie a line – such as a mooring line – to the slungshot or monkey’s paw and throw it. Someone on the other end would pick it up and pull in the line.

They were commonly carried by sailors and eventually by other people and were commonplace as concealed weapons for decades.

A monkey’s paw or monkey’s fist is a type of knot, tying cords around each other to form a large knot with a tail that often includes an eye splice or bowline. It can be tied around an object like a walnut or small weight.

Both are used as a flail, accelerating as they’re directed toward the target and striking with centrifugal force.

Much like blackjacks and saps, legality varies; some states forbid possession – it may even be a felony – but others don’t prohibit them. Make sure to check your state and local laws.

With that said, these weapons occupy a niche. They’re not quite as potentially lethal as a firearm, but they can come darn close. Whether that niche applies to you is at least worth thinking about.