I favour a small efficient government

[theweatherman]

Hobbes is famous for saying that life outside of society is "nasty, brutish and short." The idea being that humans form societies so that they dont have to always watch their backs. It creates a situation where people can live in peace without the fear of violence always hanging over them.

This is not the wild west of the 1870's. Its time to put away our six shooters and find a more civil answer to our problems then living by the barrel of a gun.

While i agree that most muggers will not turn to killing they will turn to harsher treatment of victims if they suspect that they are armed. Suddenly the old lady goes from losing her purse with 50 dollars in it to hanving a concussion and a hospital stay after being cracked in the skull with a bat. A lot of good that gun did her.

As I said before my dad is a cop. He always told me that ther are certain things you just dont do, like carry around a weapon you dont know how to use. The problem with this is that if i pull out a kinfe, gun, chain etc. to defend myself with then the criminal will put out his own weapon. I'll be willing to bet that a couple of days at the firing range is no match for years of life on the street when it come to weapon handling. If the mugger is ten yards off then the old lady does have an equalizing tool in the gun, but most muggings are up close events. Even with a gun the lady will be overpowered and may even end up arming an otherwise unarmed attacker.