Indeed, that is a nice sentiment, but not borne out by the actual data. It's more like being armed makes not all, but far too many people, think they can be as

Indeed, that is a nice sentiment, but not borne out by the actual data. It's more like being armed makes not all, but far too many people, think they can be as much of an ass as they like at any time. It works fine, right up to the moment it doesn't and they get put down; but they never think of that in advance, so it doesn't stop that subset of the population being asses (or just shooting up the place), and the rest of us having to live life watching our sixes. There's a reason that most civilized societies moved past it.