[kQq9oHeAz6wLLS]

This will be unpopular, but have you ever heard the phrase "an armed society is a polite society"? Just as you're afraid to stop someone committing a crime because they might be armed (wait, I thought there were strict gun control laws, how can they be armed?! You mean criminals don't obey laws?! /s), an attacker will be hesitant to assault you if they think you are armed.

[adrianN]

The statistics about death-by-gun for the US that I've heard seem to indicate that this theory doesn't translate very well to practice.

[kQq9oHeAz6wLLS]

Oh, I dunno. 330+ million people, over that many guns in the US, and what percentage are gun deaths?