[ctdonath]

Preserving innocent life against those who would take or subjugate it is very valuable.

Per the rhetoric I regularly encounter, the value of cars should be irrelevant to the discussion due to the loss of life thereto.

[hga]

The minimum generally accepted death toll of subjects (not citizens because, some how, some way they were disarmed first) killed by their own government is 100 million in the 20th Century. My personal guess is a quarter billion, based on different scoring of the Communists who took over China (that's an additional 60 million minimum) and how much worse it turns out to be when one of these regimes is overturned enough that people are able to poke around.

With stakes that great, a well armed citizenry is cheap insurance.