Sword and Gun

"A blade in my left, a gun in my right

To beat you within, an inch of your life"
—Anthrax, "Armed and Dangerous"

The child of Guns Akimbo and Dual-Wielding - a character simultaneously wielding a gun in one hand and a sword in another, or another combination of projectile and melee weapon. This would generally be impractical, as you might want that other hand free to help you steady or something, but it is much, much easier to handle a weapon with one hand in fiction. Thank the Rule of Cool for that one.

The Sword and Gun combo is strongly favored by pirates, traditional or otherwise, and highwaymen. As such, it's a classic for any sort of swashbuckling type. With pirate characters, the trope is actually somewhat accurate. Many pirates in real life would carry a pistol in one hand and a cutlass in the other. When their opponent attacked with his sword, the pirate would block the slash, put his pistol in the enemy's stomach, and shoot him. Nowadays the pirates carry AK-47s and machetes, but the effect is the same.

The sword and gun combo was also considered the preferred combination for cavalry. There is even a specific kind of pistol holster called a Cavalry Holster that is worn to facilitate an easy cross draw for your off hand. The saber was considered the primary weapon and the pistol a secondary. The general idea was the pistol allowed the cavalryman to engage threats beyond the reach of their saber.

Somewhat justified in historical settings, since old-fashioned pistols were almost entirely single-shot and inaccurate enough to make it essentially pointless to use both hands. And once you'd "had your shot", a single-shot pistol became nothing more than an elaborate club or a tool for parrying blades, until you got the thirty-plus second respite required to reload. Most folk, being fairly Genre Savvy, would often carry a whole brace of guns as a result (assuming they could afford it) so that they could have more than just one shot. Often seen with Samurai Cowboy.

Replace this with a rifle and a pike, then mash them together for handling purposes, and you have the concept behind the bayonet.

For guns that shoot swords, see Abnormal Ammo. For swords which turn into guns see Swiss Army Weapon.

Compare Bow and Sword in Accord, which substitutes guns for a different kind of projectile weapon.

Not to be confused with the show Gun X Sword, gunblades, or The Musketeer (a person proficient in both sword and gun, but who doesn't generally dual-wield them).

Examples of Sword and Gun include:

Anime and Manga

  • As Teana Lanster of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha dual-wields a pair of Devices that can switch from guns to daggers and back, this trope was inevitable. She employs this during her final confrontation with the Numbers cyborgs.
  • Gandolfini, the dark-skinned mage teacher in Mahou Sensei Negima. While most mages are shown using staves or wands, his weapons of choice are a 9mm handgun and combat knife that he dual wields.
    • Chachamaru turned one arm into a sword, and the other into a gun.
  • If it's a pirate trope, One Piece will have it (not counting eyepatches... yet). In this case, it appears to be the fighting style of none other than Gold Roger, according to a canon chapter promoting the tenth movie.
  • In the final episode of Ga-Rei Zero, Yomi uses this style. Bonus points for having a katana and a P-90.
  • In the Fullmetal Alchemist manga Action Girl and Hot Amazon Olivier Armstrong wears this trope when she takes part in Roy's rebellion against Central, using her sword and a gun she snagged from one of the generals. She easily took down a whole floor of soldiers with only these two weapons. Too bad Sloth came too early to end the festivities.
  • It seems to be quite popular in Mobile Suit Gundam 00. Such as when Alejandro's Alvaaron exited its base mobile armor he carried two guns only to toss one away and draw a beam sword. Ribbons' Gundam in the Grand Finale also does this, but mostly it seems to be because the rifle is mounted on the arm rather than being purely hand-carried. Also two Trinities, Graham, Exia, and Dynames near the end of season 1.
    • Crossbone Gundam, being about Space Pirate Humongous Mecha, naturally does it, but with a special twist. Their pistol and sword (modeled on the flintlock and cutlass) can combine into a standard beam rifle that can fire rifle grenades, meaning both weapons are always right at hand.
    • Gundam in general is this, carrying beam rifle for shooting and beam saber for melee.
  • In Kämpfer, Sakura wields a katana in one hand and a modified Beretta 92G Elite II pistol in the other post-reveal
  • In Bleach, Stark and Lilinette end up fighting with this combination.
    • Not simultaneously, as it's one sword for Starrk alone, and Guns Akimbo with Lilynette.
  • Captain Harlock and his Distaff Counterpart Emeraldas carry use gun and sword, but they usually avoid it for two reasons: the guns are ludicrously powerful (Emeraldas once shot down a starfighter with it, and Harlock's the same model) and the sword can also fire laser beams.


Comic Books

  • Deadpool usually has a gun in one hand, a sword in the other, a gun in the other and a sword in the other.
  • X-Men: Corsair, Space Pirate and father of Scott Summers (aka Cyclops).
  • Seen in the pirate flashback in The secret of the Unicorn
  • Blade
  • Grimjack, seen above, carries both for a simple reason. His home city of Cynosure is a multi-dimensional nexus where the laws of reality can change with the crossing of a street. Magic works some place, guns in others, but swords work everywhere.
  • Travis Morgan, The Warlord. The gun is a .44 AutoMag.
  • In the climax to Sin City: Hell and Back, the main character has Guns Akimbo and a machete.


Fan Work

  • The second Spirits Of The Force film, featured Kyle Motherf'ckin Katarn shooting mooks with his blaster in one hand while deflecting shots and cutting up sentry droids with his lightsaber in the other.
  • The Firefly fanfic Forward has both River and Book fighting in this style.


Film

Literature

  • Solomon Kane is the embodiment of the trope, for all the reasons noted above. Plus he has a nifty hat.
  • The Three Musketeers tend to feature this trope in their various incarnation.
  • CIAPHAS CAIN, HERO OF THE IMPERIUM uses a Laspistol and a Chainsword.
  • A humorous example: In a letter purported to have been written during the Irish Revolution, the anonymous writer says "Whilst I write this, I hold a sword in each hand and a pistol in the other."
  • In the Courts of The Crimson Kings. As the biotech weapons of the Martians take a few seconds to reload, swordwork is still important.
  • Common in the Dresden Files with notable examples being Sanya, a black Russian who wields a cavalry saber with a nail from the true cross in the hilt and an AK-47 and Thomas Raith, a vampire who weilds a saber and a sawed off shotgun. Harry carries a sword and a pistol on occasion, but rarely pulls both out as per this trope. Murphy counts as this when she borrows one of the three Swords of the Cross for the assault on the Red Court in New Mexico. Young, savvy Wardens tend to be this, including Carlos, who has a Desert Eagle and his Warden Sword.
  • Lieutenant Walter Hamilton VC charges into his last fight with revolver and sabre in M.M. Kaye's The Far Pavilions. Essentially Truth in Television, as this is a historical novel dealing with events spanning the Indian Mutiny and the Second Afghan War.


Live Action TV

  • In one episode of Power Rangers RPM, Summer takes on Tenaya with a Nitro Blaster in one hand and a Nitro Sword in the other. Given how nearly every ranger team has the core rangers carrying identical weapons, it's quite frankly surprising that this sort of thing doesn't show up more often.
  • Played straight in Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger - each ranger carries a sword and gun. Apparently someone at Toei was keeping tabs on the RPM example above, because they start swapping weapons from the first episode - Green and Pink are better with guns, apparently, while Blue and Yellow like swords. Red favors one of each.
  • Several characters in A&E's Horatio Hornblower series.
  • As the characters prepare for the Headless Monks to attack in the Doctor Who 2011 mid-series finale, Rory can be seen dual-wielding a gladius and pulse pistol combo.


Music

  • The traditional song "Froggy Went a Courtin'", recorded by hundreds of people including Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, says the title character rides with "a sword and pistol by his side". Alright, I admit, there's no mention in the song of either of these being used much less simultaneously, but still the image of an anthropomorphic frog with a sword and pistol is pretty funny for a song that's Older Than Steam.
  • And then there's "Whiskey in the Jar", an Irish folk ballad recorded by a whole bunch of artists (most notably Thin Lizzy and Metallica), in which the first-person narrator encounters the rich Captain Farrel, whereupon our intrepid highwayman "first produced my pistol/ And then produced my rapier/ And said, stand and deliver/ Or the Devil, he may take ya..." (of course, some versions replace the rapier with an equally rhyming saber).
  • The title character in the Irish ballad "The Highwayman" is described carrying a rapier and a couple of pistols.
  • Keeping with the highwayman theme, another song called "Highwayman" (written by the Highwaymen) mentions the titular highwayman having "sword and pistol by my side."


Tabletop Games

  • This style is prevalent in Warhammer 40,000. Having a pistol nets you the same benefits as wielding another close-combat weapon—usually for the exact same cost—and you can also shoot with it. There are some melee weapons which require a soldier having two of that same weapon for that benefit, though.
    • Oddly enough you have to put quite a few points into the right weapon skills to do this in the RPGs, despite it being an almost universal practice in the setting for anyone carrying a pistol.
      • This is not unusual, as the Tabletop figures that do this are usually leaders, special characters, or specialist assault troops who, in the RPG, would have XP to burn.
    • Where normal chapters can use Bolt Pistols along with a sword, the Grey Hunters and some other units of the Space Wolves chapter can use boltguns instead at the same cost. To elaborate, boltguns are weapons that normally uses both hands to carry, and the Space Wolves use it one-handed at the same efficiency, plus the bonus of also being able to carry a melee weapon in the other hand.
      • To take it to an even greater extreme, the Grey Knights use a storm bolter, which is similar to having two bolters in one hand. To reiterate, a boltgun is the main infantry weapon of the setting's Super Soldiers, and these guys have a double-barreled version of them in one hand, and a goddamn halberd in the other. Up to Eleven indeed.
        • Both the Grey Knights, and all Space Marine Terminators, use storm bolters—which are weapons in their own right. Their traitorous brethren, the Chaos Space Marine Terminators, use the older design—which is two bolters strapped together.
    • A stereotypical Commissar brandishes a chainsword, bolt pistol or both.
  • In Warhammer Fantasy Battle Fantasy Battle the Empire, the Skaven and Dwarfs can do this. For dwarfs it's the only way many of their characters can get "two hand weapons"; Skaven can do this together with a tail weapon.
  • The Master Privateer in The Star Wars Roleplaying Game: Saga Edition has a series of three talents for this. When you have all three of these talents, you have the ability to move and make up to 6 attacks in the same round (three with each weapon). Oh, and the melee weapon can be a two-handed (and thus more powerful) one like a vibro-ax.
  • In the tabletop game War Zone, this is pretty much a standard configuration for heroes, usually with an SMG and a chainsword, and mortificators (McNinja in service of the inquisition), with a one-edged sword and a large pistol.
  • Dungeons & Dragons does not have many settings where guns are common or even exist. It does have the next best thing; the one-handed hand crossbow. Some feats exist that allow a character (typically a ranger or rogue) to fight well using a hand crossbow in conjunction with a melee weapon, particularly in Fourth Edition. This fighting technique seems to be especially favored by Drow for some reason.
    • Drow introduced hand crossbows to the D&D rules way back in 1st edition. Although weak, the Drow poison the bolts.
  • Sister product D20 Modern has surprisingly little support for this. Rules as written, firing a pistol provokes an attack of opportunity from foes in melee (essentially, trying to point-blank someone gives them the opportunity to shove the gun away), and there are very few ways to get around this. That said, if you can manage to overcome that difficulty, the regular two-weapon-fighting Feats are all that you need.
  • Vampire: The Masquerade had no shortage of characters that were designed purely for the purpose of being dangerously awesome, but only a select few lived up to the notoriety of Francisco Domingo de Polonia, Sabbat Archbishop of New York. Appearing in numerous supplements and novels, he was easily one of the company's favorites. One of the supplements he appeared in not only gave him impressive Firearms and Melee stats, but his character description actually pointed out that when in battle - in a modern, American setting, with all the legality that attends - he was always seen with a machine pistol and a shortsword simultaneously drawn.
  • Agent Carr and the second version of Sgt. Drake Alexander in Heroscape.


Video Games

  • Devil May Cry does this with Nero in the fourth game, who wields the sword Red Queen in his left hand, and switches his double-barreled revolver Blue Rose over to the other (when he's not using the Devil Bringer to grapple and make enemies "GET OVER HERE!") to perform charged shots, in contrast to Dante's Guns Akimbo style.
    • Nero actually shoots with his right hand for said charged shots, as the 'charge' is demonic energy that, oddly enough, comes from his Devil Bringer right arm.
  • Any humanoid character in Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten is capable of wielding both a Magichange sword and a Magichange gun at the same time.
  • Tenchu has done this a few times, having a boss who wields both at the same time. Usually he's a pretty horrible and limited swordsman, but if you don't kill him quickly he can open up some powerful combos on you with both the gun and sword.
  • Julie from Heavy Metal FAKK 2 can wield a melee weapon and a ranged weapon (pistol, UZI, or crossbow). Sadly, it is Awesome but Impractical as for the most time, you need either a shield in the off-hand or dual guns to max out the firepower.
  • Kyle Katarn is occasionally depicted holding both a lightsaber and his Bryar pistol... itself a cut-down rifle.
    • Kyle Katarn is one of the few Jedi seen using a blaster as a regular weapon.
  • In Anno 1701, in the third installment of the Anno Domini series, the militia men wield a pistol and a sabre each (strange thing though, that that those pistols are able to fire after every second sabre thrust - so once every three seconds... in 1701!!)
    • Also, it should be noted, that the militiamen, being armed with sabres and pistols, are, purely theoretically, better armed than any other unit in the game (Grenadiers, for instance, fight with grenades and knives, pikemen with helbards, and Musketeers are nonexistent).
  • Soul Calibur has Cervantes, a zombie pirate, who wields Soul Edge and Nirvana, a dagger with a pistol inside it. He only has a few attacks that use the gun, though.
  • Metal Gear Solid's Naked Snake. CQC is based around holding a gun and a knife at the same time, in particular the knife held in reverse alongside the pistol in a two-handed grip that can easily separate. The Boss, having created CQC, does likewise, albeit with a BFG.
    • Down the line, Old Snake would later use a version where he could carry a knife and rifle at the same time, albeit using an odd two-fingered grip; however, in gameplay the knife is not actually used with the rifle, since the melee attack is a smack with the rifle's stock. (One of the odder Metal Gear-related pictures around is characters from Metal Gear Online using this grip without a knife.)
      • In the final release of Metal Gear Online, the knife is always present. In Guns of the Patriots, Snake makes better use of the knife + rifle combination in cutscenes, although never lethally; it's clear that the intent is the same as with a pistol, just more limited with the rifle's bigger size. In gameplay, Snake can't make a direct attack with the knife while he has a pistol equipped, either. Finally, some of the rifle grips are really bizarre, when having the off-hand in the "traditional" position under the barrel would result in the knife poking the magazine, Snake or online characters resort to a strange claw grip. It should be noted that while all of this is visually awesome, it would be completely ridiculous in reality.
    • Knife + Gun = Knifegun!
  • Gordon Freeman of Half Life is often shown with a gun in one hand and a sword... er, make that crowbar... in the other.
  • Gangplank, the pirate champion in the online game League of Legends, fights with a cutlass and a pistol. As a result, he is rather squishy, but he is capable of a low-cooldown, short-to-mid range blast from his hand cannon that deals incredible damage.
  • Dark Chronicle's characters wield a gun and a wrench, and a magic-zapping armband and a sword, in their left and right hands respectively.
  • Most of the artwork in the online game Gunz: The Duel depicts characters with such weapons. K-style makes this somewhat possible through a combo of close-up sword-slashing and ranged shotgunning or revolver fire. It had the downside of making the shotgun one of the most overused weapons in an online game.
  • A one-handed sword/one-handed gun combo is one of several possible stances in Phantasy Star Universe.
    • It's pretty much mandatory, really. It's the default setup, and for whatever reason one-handed melee weapons (and wands, for casting spells) can only be used in the right hand while one-handed guns can only be used in the left hand. In order to use Guns Akimbo or Dual-Wielding you'd have to go and buy the two-handed weapon which was a pair of guns or swords. As opposed to, say, wielding two one-handed guns. Everyone Is Bi- er... ambidextrous.
  • Reiko from the OneChanbara games favors a sword and a shotgun (or sub-machine gun).
  • The Space Pirates in the various incarnations in Metroid Prime wield both a handheld sythe and mounted blaster.
  • Witch Hunters in Warhammer Fantasy Battle Online use a rapier and a matchlock pistol.
  • Clive Barker's Jericho has Billy Church, a sanguimancer (blood mage) who carries an SMG and a katana. She prefers the katana.
  • A basic "balanced" loadout for Armored Core mecha includes a Laser Blade and some sort of mid-range firearm (either a plasma rifle or SMG).
  • Rayne from BloodRayne is able to Dual Wield a pair of guns and a pair of blades at the same time; her blades are mounted on her forearms, leaving her hands free to wield a pair of submachine guns.
  • Hayden from Dark Sector wields a pistol in one hand and the bladed Glaive in the other hand. Notably, the Glaive is also dual-functioned as it can be used in melee or thrown as a Boomerang Sword.
  • The protagonist of the "Katana" mod for Max Payne can opt to wield his title blade and a Sawed-Off Shotgun together.
  • Nobunaga of Sengoku Basara does this with a Sawn Off Shotgun. He can chain them together for a combo, but it's Awesome but Impractical at best.
  • Hellgate:London allows its Templar classes to do so, with the guns ranging from grenade launchers to chaingun pistols.
  • Red Steel 2 allows you to switch between guns and katana at any time, as opposed to the segregated shooting and dueling segments of its predecessor.
  • In Oniblade/X-Blades, this is taken even further. Ayumi wields the gun and the sword with single hand: she's using a gunblade, which is basically a shortsword with revolver welded into it, and she's carrying two
  • Spark Blade in City of Heroes combines this with electric-charging powers. Since there's no actual way to depict this in the game yet, he has so far only existed in the lore and a couple of promotional trailers.
  • Like in the tabletop version, most close combat units in Dawn of War carry this kind of equipment.
  • Saint Germain from Castlevania: Curse of Darkness does this.
  • Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has the "Tactical Knife" attachment, which increases the speed you can perform melee attacks at while you're holding a gun with it. This can be attached to any pistol - specifically, the USP .45, M9, .44 Magnum, or Desert Eagle.
  • It's possible to do this with every class in Torchlight.
  • Haken Browning of Super Robot Wars OG Saga: Endless Frontier packs the Night Fowl, a Swiss Army Weapon that's basically an assault rifle, pile bunker and bayonet rolled into one. At times, in conjunction with the Night Fowl, Haken will pull out the Longturm Special, a revolver that doubles as a portable Wave Motion Gun. Namco X Capcom import Reiji Arisu carries two katanas and two guns (revolver and shotgun). In both cases, there will be lots of juggling of weapons...among other things...
  • Hubert Ozwell of Tales of Graces is not content with just this trope, so he decides to wield a double-bladed sword. Composed of two short swords. That can turn into double pistols. And a bow.
  • Heaven and Hell stance in Granado Espada.
  • In Mega Man ZX Advent, the titular Model ZX. It's the only form in the game that has both a blade and a gun. This might also apply to the Z-Saber from Mega Man Zero too.
    • And Model OX.
  • Both X and Zero from Mega Man X. Zero, in all his incarnations bar X1, wields the Z-Buster alongside the Z-Saber, while X gains Zero's saber in X6.
  • Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines was supposed to feature this, but it was eventually left out.
  • Thanks to both the versatile costume creator and the equally versatile power system of Champions Online, it is possible to create a character who wears a pistol on one hip and a sword on the other, and to create one who can use a pistol for one attack and a sword (or two) for another. No single power animation uses one in each hand, however.
  • In Neptunia, Neptune herself starts off with a sword and a gun.
  • Mordecai in Borderlands: His close range weapon is a sword. May possibly apply to Brick as well; just change sword to pipe. In the sequel, Zer0 got a skill that advocates using a gun and his sword in tandem.
  • In Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood Ezio can use both a one-handed sword or bludgeon and his hidden gun together in combat, unlike in 2 where they were separate. A variant is using a Short Blade together with throwing knives. Swiss Guards, the most Elite Mook, pack both a pistol and a sword.
    • This trend continues in Revelations with the Janissaries, who won't hesitate to pull out a pistol and shoot you (the trick to beating them is to pull out your pistol and shoot them).
  • Rudy in the original version of Wild ARMs 1 uses a sword for his normal attacks and an ARM for his specials. Picturing him in this fashion is almost irresistible.
  • Mount & Blade encourages the player to act like this in the modules for later weapons, either because (in the case of black powder firearms) the firearms are generally inaccurate and slow, or (even in the case of more modern eras) ammo is limited and a clipping error prevents you from shooting somebody who is too close to you.
    • And if you don't have firearms enabled, pretty much the same effect can be had by equipping a throwing weapon of some sort.
  • During the attract mode of Time Crisis 3, Giorgio Zott can be seen holding a sword and an assault rifle.
  • Armored Core has this.
  • The Pirate class in Fat Princess does this.
  • From Fable 2 onwards, the game mapped each type of combat to a different button. So if one has a pistol as their ranged weapon, they can do this.
  • The protagonist of Luminous Arc equips swords, but uses a rifle for most of his special attacks.
  • In Samurai Warriors Chronicles, your customizable character, if male, gets to use a 2-handed katana and a rifle in tandem during combat. That is: he holds the katana one-handed and fires his rifle one-handed. And can do this while running. Two generally 2-handed weapons being used one-handed. This also applies to Masamune Date, who uses a saber and pistol in certain combos.
  • The titular character in Rising Zan: The Samurai Gunman (for the PS 1).
  • Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine allows you to equip a pistol and a melee weapon simultaneously—see the Tabletop Games example above—but it's also possible to switch between melee and ranged attacks so quickly that this effect can be achieved with, say, a power axe and a grenade launcher.
  • Many Shin Megami Tensei games have the main character wield swords, knives, and guns. Specifically, the protagonists of the first, second, and fourth games, Raidou Kuzunoha, among others.
  • Subject delta of BioShock (series) 2 can wield a projectile plasmid in one hand and a drill in the other.
  • Lightning Farron from Final Fantasy XIII actually uses a gun as a part of her sword attack combo when her ATB gauge reaches level 4, in addition of showing her carry it in cutscenes once in a while.
  • In Mass Effect 3, Shepard gains the Omni-blade for melee attacks. Promotional artwork and cinematic trailers heavily featurd Shepard wielding both a gun and an Omni-blade, cutting down husks with both in rapid succession.
  • In No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle, Skelter Helter has a revolver that is twelve revolvers, and a katana that is three katana.
  • The Buccaneers of Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City use Rapiers and Guns as their weapons of choice. While the player cannot have them equip both,[1] Mastering both weapons is key to unlocking their best skills: Swashbuckling, which lets them strike multiple times with every normal attack, and Pincushion, their ultimate Attack technique which can be used with either a sword or gun.
  • E.Y.E.: Divine Cybermancy allows players to wield certain pistols and swords at the same time. Players can carry the fully automatic .45ACP pistol with a katana, for example. Or the Damocles high-explosive sword with a .444 anti-vehicle revolver


Web Animation

  • This is the primary fighting style of Jebus, the primary antagonist from the Madness Combat series, wielding a sword in one hand and a revolver in the other, particularly in Inundation. Hank has also made use of the style from time to time, particularly in Apotheosis when he gets his hands on his first katana and promptly skewers a mook with it before lifting him up and unloading an MP5K into his face at point blank range.


Web Original

  • Jason Kiehart of League of Intergalactic Cosmic Champions has both a sword and a gun enhanced by alien technology. He can actually change the setting of the gun from firing armor piercing rounds to paintball pellets.
  • Linkara will sometimes wield his Green Dragon Dagger and Magic Gun in combination.
  • Happens all the time in Madness Combat. Most commonly, it's Hank (sword plus MP5, axe plus P90, etc.) or Jebus (sword plus S&W.500)
  • Averted, much to the dismay of Found. During the Serial Killer Arc, he wears a trenchcoat styled after old noir films and Sherlock Holmes. He reasons that dressing the part is crucial to tracking down a serial killer (much to Az's annoyance), but unfortunately, he can't use both his pistol and sword at the same time with the constricting clothing.
  • Tucker, of Red vs. Blue fame, goes armed with an Energy Sword and a Battle Rifle. He's surprisingly effective with both, able to hold off a squad of mercenaries lead by a Freelancer, though one of the least of them. He prefers using his sword. It doesn't stay up for other people.


Web Comics


Real Life

  • Pistol originated as a knightly weapon. The pike formations countered cavalry charges, thus cavalry pistols and carbines became the preferred way of breaking infantry formations. After abandoning the lance in the 16th century, knights took pistol as their primary weapon. The favoured tactics was either caracole (counter-march on horseback) or attacking the enemy in gallop, and shooting two pistols at the enemy without re-loading at close distance and then hitting him with sword.
  • Thirty Years' War Finnish hakkapeliittas, who were armed with two pistols and sword. They attacked the enemy in full gallop, with shooting him at close distance and then drawing the sword.
  • The first revolvers were designed to be held in the left hand, specifically with the cavalry in mind, who would have held their swords in the right. US Army pistol holsters from that era are all designed to be worn on the right for a cross-draw using the left hand. The reason was the pistol was considered secondary to the saber.
  • Golden Age pirates, most famously Blackbeard, would carry both a sword and multiple loaded pistols on their person. Blackbeard tended to carry as many as he could manage, even adding extra pockets to his clothes just to make room for more.
  • During the American Civil War, this was actually very common. Officers, whether actually in the cavalry or not, had the trappings of cavalry due to military history stretching back to the concept of knighthood. As such, while the rank and file had rifles with bayonets, officers were outfitted with revolvers and sabres. To see a cinematic example of how this can be both effective and awesome in the context of warfare that sits at the transition between pitched battles on open fields and WWI trenches, see Glory.
  • Not surprising considering how many songs mention it, but highwaymen often carried both sword and pistol.
  • The French elite warriors, the musketeers were skilled with both muskets and rapiers. It is somewhat humorous that they are now famous for their swordwork, when at the time it was their guns that made them famous (hence they're called musketeers).
    • They were famous for their swordmanship even back in the day. Muskets were something to open the battle with - after that the chances were that you had to rely on your sword for the rest of the fight. The muskets just happened to be more iconic at the time than rapiers that were carried by just about any officer or nobleman.
  • During WW 2 there was a British soldier by the name of Lieutenant Colonel John Malcolm Thorpe Fleming "Mad Jack" Churchill. He was notable for being a total badass who not only carried a pistol and claybeg into battle, but also a longbow. When asked about his bizarre choice of weapons, Mad Jack replied, "In my opinion, sir, any officer who goes into action without his sword is improperly dressed". On one night he took 42 German prisoners, and captured a mortar position single-handedly, using only his broadsword. He often went into battle playing the bagpipes. Some historical accounts make his sword a claymore instead of the basket-hilt claybeg. Let's hope this is true
    • The last cutlass action in the British Navy occurred in 1940, during the Altmark Incident.
  • This was actually pretty damn common well until the 60's. While by no means an everyday occurrence, many, many soldiers - particularly officers - carried swords as well as guns into battle. The Japanese military are the obvious example, but even the Soviets and Germans (who probably did it the least) provide some.
  • During World War I, the Italian officer Gabriele D'Annunzio (in the sense he was actually a poet who had joined the army) charged Austrian trenches with a gun in each hand and a knife in his mouth.
  • Dress swords are still part of the formal dress uniform of the military in many countries.
    • Perhaps one of the more notable examples is the United States Marine Corps.
  1. ↑ unless their primary class is the dual-wielding Shogun
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