> In the end, are WE safer with or without armed citizens, given that:
>
> 1: Criminals, by definition, do not obey laws, so making something
> illegal will not stop a criminal from doing it.
>
> 2: Making citizen ownership of guns illegal does not prevent their use
> by criminals. (or seem to make much of a dent in it at all imho)
>
> 3: If the criminal can make the assumption that you aren't armed, and he
> is, his odds of success would seem to be better.
>
> You also have to factor in the irrational person, who won't think about
> laws, odds of success, or risk/benefit, when he's plotting his crime.

I think it's more a cultural thing, rather than a factual thing. I
definitely feel safer in most places in Europe, and I never even saw a live
gun until I went to the US for the first time. There it didn't take two
days until I had a few of them pointed at me :)

Burglars in Germany are known to not take firearms with them on purpose --
because if they get caught with one, the penalty is severely higher than
without one, according to the perceived violence that's inherent in having
a gun with you. I'd rather confront an unarmed burglar without a gun than
an armed one with a gun...

This is not to say that I think gun bans would change anything, on either
side. But a culture that is less focussed on guns probably is a safer one.
But then again, guns are only a part of the story.

Gerhard

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