It's nice to see machetes once again being called "weapons", as in the past few years it seems that they have been looked down upon as a poor relative of the sword and ONLY a tool, while they have been and still are the weapon of choice for the very poor, as recently evidenced in Nigeria in huge quantities, among other African locales.
Likewise, in many "plantation" nations from Central America south, as well as Carribean island nations the machete has always been the common man's sword of the revolution......because of agriculture, they were "tools" and thus not lethal, suitable and often required for the poorest people to work, and who were also the ones most likely to revolt.
Semantics can be so fascinating.
Mike