"I am reminded of a Heinlein story I read long ago"
First off, defending one's argument with an anecdote from a fictional story is never a great idea, and second, Heinlein was a huge fan of personal armed defense. "An armed society is a polite society". Third, I can speak for myself and many others that have chosen to not be crime victims any longer, that when carrying concealed, if anything, we tend to be more cautious rather than more confident. In the real world, we try to avoid situations that would require using a gun to stay alive. That said, I've stopped at least one crime from occurring when Tweaker-boy, in the process of breaking into my car, saw that I was armed and he decided that cooperating and waiting for the cops to show up and arrest him was in his best interest. No shots fired, no comment from the cops (boy, they showed up quick when I reported a car prowl, and that I had the car prowler held at gunpoint) other than, "good job". Look, it' s just like any other insurance policy, it's better to have it and not need it than the other way round. Anyone who thinks "it can't happen to me" is optimistic to the point of mental incompetence.
