Guns versus Knives during a Zombie Apocalypse

In a Zombie Apocalypse scenario, do you choose a gun or a knife for your primary weapon?  It's a big decision and it's a topic for vigorous debate.

The Knife Argument

If you use a knife, hatchet or tomahawk for a primary weapon during a zombie apocalypse, you are choosing to fight zombies on an up close and personal basis.  But, you'll never run out of ammunition, you'll never experience a failure-to-fire (or jam), and you'll be fighting far more quietly than someone armed with a firearm.  When you fight, you won't be alerting and attracting zombies for miles around.  These are powerful advantages.

Bowie Knife by Tim Lively - photo by Tim Lively [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]

However, the knife has some disadvantages.  If you are fighting zombies up close and personal, you are going to get zombie blood on your hands and in your face.  In the movies and lore, it's the bite of the zombie that turns you into a zombie.  But, if there were ever a real life zombie apocalypse, the germs, viruses, or bacteria that turn people into zombies would likely get all over you if you were fighting zombies with a knife, bat, or hatchet.  Plus, zombies don't get tired and living people do.  That leads us to the gun argument.

The Gun Argument

If you want to fight zombies from a distance, you'll need something that can reach out and touch them at range.  In modern times, ranged weapons include bows, crossbows, slingshots, and firearms.  Bows and crossbows offer the opportunity to engage zombies from a distance and make less noise. However, they are limited in range, slow to reload, and to some extent depend on human strength.  Firearms come in a variety of styles, calibers, and ammunition capacities.  However, most modern semiautomatic rifles can be reloaded quickly when compared to a bow or crossbow.

A lever-action Henry .22 caliber rifle

The drawbacks to firearms are that they make noise and require expensive ammunition.  Some people believe that gunshots would attract the attention of zombies and draw them towards the shooters.  Others believe that the threat of attracting zombies is overstated and that the sounds of shots will echo off of buildings and confuse listeners.  Sounds suppressors are also an option for firearms, but they require special background checks and tax stamps for use.  Personally, I like the firearm option and would love to have a stockpile of reloading supplies so that I could reload ammunition.