Val the Moofia Boss
Well-known member
I don't think concealment will be a problem like it is today.
Today, you have heavy gun regulation... that is unenforced outside of cities. No one cares if you walk around Barstow California with a gun, and the police certainly aren't going to try to take your guns. Gun culture is pretty strong in the US; if the government passed a law forbidding guns, it wouldn't be enforced outside of the cities, because the police know if they tried to enter your house to take your guns, they would be shot. But people don't really walk around with guns because they aren't fashionable. People don't go around wearing holstered guns for show, unless they are doing a Wild West reenactment or something.
Swords are fashionable to wear even just for show. Even today they are very popular in modern culture., ubiquitous in games and movies and TV and books and comics and art. There is a niche industry that produces and sells swords - real and based on fantasy - to people to just hang on their walls, or treat as toys, or to even try to use practically. And there is the HEMA movement, which has been gaining more popularity.
If personal shields exist, and they were affordable and common enough for regular people to get them, then everyone will try to get one. Which means guns will go out the window as a self defense weapon. The people who practically carried handguns to protect themselves, and had shotguns at home, will switch over to carrying swords. And they will be joined by the sword enthusiasts and sword weebs who already exist. With that large starter population getting the ball rolling, normies will follow suit.
A sword culture might lead to fewer homicides. Today, with guns, it is very easy to be a newb, acquire a gun, pop someone you don't like a few times from a distance until they stop making noise, and then run off and get away. And you won't have any blood on your body.
It's hard to do that with a sword. You have to get up close to them, which means putting yourself in danger, and it makes it hard to get in a surprise attack. Even if you do get in a surprise attack, unless you are really good, your first strike probably won't immediately silence them. It will take more time to silence them, hacking away at them. There is going to be screaming, and there is going to be blood on you, and it's going to be a generally unpleasant affair. And your chances of escape will be slim. Furthermore, people will be hesitant to fight, because they won't know the skill level of the other person. People are hesitant to put their lives on the line for an uncertain outcome, especially if there is a very high risk of dying.
Dueling culture could see a revival as well. It somewhat lives on today in the American South with "fighting word laws", where people would fight to defend their or someone else's honor. It meant that there were consequences for what you said, and thus Southern culture was very polite, and is more polite today than other areas of the US. If a large percentage of the populace owned swords, I'd imagine that would make people less hesitant to just blurt out random crap, and their words would be more calculated.
For those reasons, I don't think there would be much correlation between concealed swords and homicides. Serious assassins and would-be-murderers would prefer to use more efficient weapons. Less time to kill. Less noise. Less blood. Stuff like poison darts, or choking people to death, or gas, or poison in food, etc.
