ME: A/N: I think this will be my last Hunger Games fanfic for at least a while, ladies and gentlemen. My thanks to those of you who have read my stories in the past, present, and future.
It is remarkable, truly it is, on how despite the development of firearms, melee combat is still used. In fact, there are ways to use firearms in melee combat.
One way is to simply use the rifle's stock to hit your opponents. That's right, a loaded automatic weapon can be wielded as an improvised club. Rifle butting can easily crack skulls with the right amount of force.
Another is to fix a bayonet-a knife designed to be mounted over the muzzle of a rifle-to your rifle and stab your opponent in either the chest or the blood-vessel rich neck. Additionally, fixed bayonets have the side effect of being more intimidating than a rifle without a bayonet.
There are actually ways to use a rifle's muzzle in CQC without a bayonet, but bayonets and rifle butts are preferred for obvious reasons.
Pistols can also be used as blunt weapons, but rifles are preferred due to both power and durability. That is not to say that pistol whipping is ineffective; on the contrary, one can kill opponents with a pistol whip as surely as a rifle butt.
Swords and combat knives can also be used instead of a bayonet, though the former are not as effective in mass combat as a bayonet. In ancient history, in fact, polearms were equivalent to rifles in that they were the main infantry weapon on the battlefield, with swords functioning as sidearms. A man could become competent with a spear in mass combat in about six weeks, while a half-decent swordsman would require a minimum of six months of training.
Bullets, obviously, are the preferred method of dispatching opponents. Do not, however, underestimate the value of melee combat skills.
ME: A/N: I'm no longer as enthusiastic about the Hunger Games universe (partly because of Mockingjay 2, which was a disappointment), so this could be my last fic. Sorry, fellas.
Anyhow, my ex-friend ForFutureReference said that he views swords as superior to bayonets fixed to bullpup rifles. The funny thing is this, to quote TV Tropes:
"Polearms are extremely effective weapons. They are highly suitable for massed battles, much more so than the sword. This is due to their reach and the fact that they're more effective at mounted combat and penetrating armor. In medieval combat, the sword was more a sidearm, and the polearm used as the main infantry weapon on the battlefield. The reason you may not have heard of the importance of polearms is that our cultural obsession with swords is at least a thousand years old."
I don't doubt my ex-friend's competence as a scientist. However, things like this and his fanfic Contributions, among other things, make me doubt his effective grasp of political and military strategy. He did actually point out how stupid Katniss was to try and assassinate Snow, so he could be a decent tactician but simply not a competent strategist. Oh well, I tried reconnecting with him after a month of no PMs or reviews from me (unless you count anonymous reviews I sent that included tips) but he hasn't responded to my attempts to reconnect. *sigh* At least I have guys like Criosd Pherein who aren't foolish enough to doubt the utility of bayonets (he's an ex-Canadian Army officer who acknowledges the bayonet's usefulness in teaching aggression).