When I was a kid I had my bike stolen from the backyard. Oddly enough the thieves left a different bike in its stead. Alas, the stolen bike was nicer then the bike they left behind.

There was an interesting study done at Boston University in the early 70's. They had two groups of people, one group watched TV the normal amount and the other group didn't own televisions.

The results were: The group that watched TV was convinced their lives were in danger whenever they ventured outside. They didn't go out at night unless they had too and basically lived a perilous life in a dangerous city. Many of them had bad experiences on the street, muggings etc.

The other group didn't know their lives were in peril, went out at night, went for long walks and lived very calm uneventful lives. There were no muggings among that group for the two year period of the study. They actually thought Boston was a wonderful place to live...

Police in Oz carry guns.....we have shootings...just like any place, but no-where near the rate in the US....because we have gun-control, and it works.
Fact of life, which is irrefutable....less guns means less shooters means less shootings.
Don't argue....every single gun that gets destroyed is one less gun to kill with.
It's nothing to do with defence/offence ....protection ....it's all about escalation/intimidation....

I hate gun-control threads....it all comes down to two 'ways'...
The RIGHT way...
Or...
The American way.....

well another option is turn to a good can of killer mace and a hard kick between the legs?

Or

Run really really fast???

What's wrong with the :

'I say! That's not very sporting. You're not paying cricket old chap.'

approach?

'Most young ruffians will run away in fright after a good stiff talking to.'

/me goes back to the 20's where you could leave your house open at night without a care.