*chuckle*

I promise you if your mugger / assailant / whatever learns you have no means to trump their advantage over you, they will not play fair and put their advantage away. Be it numbers, skill, strength, or a weapon.

Those numbers are also predicated on a single assumption:

That someone who has a weapon pointed at them will curl up into a little ball on the ground while chanting the " Take anything you want, just don't hurt me " mantra.

If you decide you're not going to be the easy victim and decide to go on the offensive ( odds be damned ) then you're just as likely to be shot as you would if you were armed.

Unless you're the baddest ass bad-ass to walk this planet, you need something to tip the odds in your favor because it's likely you're going to be taken by surprise when something happens.

These days, folks will kill you just because they want the shoes you have on, the phone you're carrying, or the car you're driving. They might target your home, your family, or even your neighbors.

Father is ex-police, brother is active duty US Marshall. I get a better than average insight as to just how shitty the world can really be. All you have to do is watch the US News and you'll see story after story of:

X persons were raped
X persons were murdered
X folks have gone missing
X folks were robbed / assaulted / homeinvasion / carjacked
X drug smugglers in a shootout at the border

I'll take my chances with being 4x more likely of being shot during an assault. Because with that risk, the assailant also runs a MUCH larger risk to their own life. Odds of their survival go way down if they pick a target who carries a weapon and knows how to use it.

Ever hear of your typical thug trying to rob a police station ? You know why right ? Because GUNS live there. Thugs typically prey on those they think they can bend to their will. If everyone carried a weapon, a criminal career would be nigh-suicidal.