[matheusmoreira]

> A lot less people would be willing to loot if they had a friend who died after getting shot by a store owner with a shotgun.

Criminals are likely to organize in order to increase their chances of success and survival. Individuals will be quickly overwhelmed if they don't form their own organized defense forces. There's always a lot of extremely violent people protecting the "normal" ones.

[JPKab]

Yes people could organize their own protective forces. The shopkeepers could even pool their money and require that you pay in to be protected. We could call this a police force.....