> The root causes are probably unrelated. But how easy is to obtain a gun definitely correlates with relative increase in muggings with a gun. That's true. I

> The root causes are probably unrelated. But how easy is to obtain a gun definitely correlates with relative increase in muggings with a gun. That's true. I also think that it's likely that a gun is a better defence against mugging than is, say, a knife or one's fists. A small woman can shoot a large attacker, when her fists aren't going to be much use and a knife wound may not stop him until after he's already killed her. Having a gun doesn't mean that one will be able to draw and use it, of course; indeed, one may just end up giving one's attackers another weapon. But I think the odds are better armed than unarmed.