Well said, Barnaby. I grew up in a home with guns and I know what you mean. If you have a gun, that’s fine, but are you ready to use it? Some believe that pointing a gun to a bad guy and saying “hands up” is going to work magically as it does on TV. Truth is, before you get to the “S” in “hands up” you may be dead. My point is, if you have a gun, and you intend to use it, then you have to be ready to shoot the mugger before he even knows that you have a gun.
Killing a thug, aside from the traumatic experience that it may be for some, can be very costly (time and money) in legal proceedings. Much easier and cheaper to surrender a few hundred bucks in your purse or wallet; after all, these people are so stupid to begin with, that they will end up in jail, or dead, sooner or later. Think of the money gone as a “random tax” for living in a large metro area… No need to risk your health or life over this.
The above is real life, which of course is different from what we see on TV, or from what some joker with a cowboy complex may tell us in cocktail parties.