It was a combination of survival: killing to eat, killing to continue living, to defend oneself, to survive, overcoming one's enemies; and the need to conquer: conquer another's lands, to impose your will over another-survival of the fittest. As man became more sophisticated so did his self defense weaponry.

War only complicated things and speeded up the weapon development process. Instead of an individual defending himself now it was a community, a tribe, a nation trying to survive. At the root of almost all war are ideological differences; religion perhaps the biggest culprit. The proliferation of war and the development of self defense weapons are intertwined. The development of the atomic bomb at Los Alamos National Lab was in the interest of stopping the war and defending our country.

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We cannot detail the extensive history of war but to see how self defense weapons developed over the years we need to take a peek at an overview of that history. At the root are two types of self defense weapons: lethal and non-lethal. Let's briefly look at lethal self defense weapons.

No one knows for sure when warfare actually began. The first known use of weapons was around 35,000 BC when weaponry consisted of clubs and spears. Around 12,000 BC with the development of the bow groups of people started having armed conflict because there was actually less risk than in hand to hand conflicts. Warfare had begun. There are cave paintings showing bows and maces being used as the weapons of the day.

Around 5,000 BC on the Nile River in Egypt there appear to be the first archeological record of an armed conflict between two groups. As agriculture advanced and animals became more domesticated it appears that armed conflict increased.
There are records of warfare and self defense in the Old Testament. As a matter of fact the Torah calls for self defense. The Old Testament is filled with bloodshed, war and self defense.
When Abram's nephew was captured, he ordered his army to rescue Lot and his companions. They attacked at night without warning and succeeded in the rescue. This was the first mention of armies in the bible Old Testament of organized state violence-warfare.
Interestingly Rabbienu Bachya, a fourteenth-century author who wrote on Jewish ethics, uses the story of the escape from Egypt as an illustration of the appropriate Jewish attitude toward weapons: people must fight and defend themselves before expecting a miracle. Throughout the history of man a slave is characterized by not having any weapons, a free man as bearing arms.

"The possession of arms is the distinction between a freeman and a slave. He, who has nothing, and who himself belongs to another, must be defended by him, whose property he is, and needs no arms. But he, who thinks he is his own master, and has what he can call his own, ought to have arms to defend himself, and what he possesses; else he lives precariously, and at discretion." - James Burgh

Wikipedia has a list of wars that is as long as your arm, from wars starting in prehistoric times 35,000 BC to the famous mythological Trojan wars in 1200 BC, from 2300 BC - conquests of Sargon of Akkad up to the present where regrettably there are now 24 wars going on in the world. Wars of course, like any other conflict, have two sides and one side is inevitably defending themselves. Self defense has a long standing tradition in the wonderful world of wars.

In 1232 the Chinese who invented gunpowder used it first in a weapon-a rocket. The development of firearms over the next 700 years is well documented from the Gatling gun to the Kalashnikov rifle, the Colt 45, to the first automatic rifle in 1903, the Winchester.

Today in the United States, the second amendment to the Constitution gives citizens the right to bear arms. The NRA and its four million members are ardent supporters of that right. Our closest ally in the world Great Britain recently passed a law prohibiting most people from possessing firearms.

"When the world is at peace, a gentleman keeps his sword by his side." - Ho Yen-hsi

The liberals finally got their way in Great Britain. Since the law was passed in 2001, the US Department of Justice reports that English citizens are twice as likely to be robbed, assaulted, or have your car stolen than Americans.
 

	.:.	Robberies-rose 81% in GB, fell28% in the US
	.:.	Assaults-rose 53% in GB, fell 27% in the US
	.:.	Burglaries-doubled in GB, cut in half in the US

By the age of 40 one in three men in Great Britain has a criminal record. Great Britain has now become a land of opportunity for criminals all thanks to the ban on firearms. Day burglaries are commonplace because criminals know they won't get shot. In the US most burglaries occur at night and when homeowners are away. Why? Criminals don't want to risk getting shot.

Self Defense is a God given right. The right to bear arms is a sign of a free society.

"The first right of every human being is the right of self-defense. Without that right, all other rights are meaningless. The right of self-defense is not something the government bestows upon its citizens. It is an inalienable right, older than the Constitution itself. It existed prior to government and prior to the social contract of our Constitution." - Larry Craig, Senator (R-Idaho), 2000

What does the future hold for self-defense weapons? Maybe Captain Kirk of the "Starship Enterprise" in the TV show "Star Trek" wasn't so far off

There are still some legal issues one must consider in using self defense.