An ax was the death weapon of choice in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Before gun ownership became widespread, just about every family had at least one ax for chopping wood. This tool, retrieved from a shed or next to the back door, easily became a lethal weapon against those inside.
Today, most homicides are committed with firearms. FBI homicide statistics in 2018 show that of 14,123 homicides that year, 73% were by firearm. Deaths by ax aren’t broken out but are included with “blunt instruments,” and there were 443 of those. Notorious ax killings in the 1800s and early 1900s have prompted countless books, behavioral studies, tourist attractions, and alternate theories about the identity of the killers.
The psychological horror of death by ax continues to eclipse that of death by many other means.