Good Persons have the right to protect themselves and their families because nobody else in this world bears responsibility for their safety. Criminal attacks are unpredictable. A woman has a 50% chance of being attacked by age 301. If you are attacked, only you can protect yourself. Nobody else, not even the Police, can be responsible for ensuring that a criminal will not attack you. Most people go about life assuming that they live in a generally safe society and therefore make no preparations for their own defense. This is like a game of Russian Roulette and each year nearly 1 million Americans become losers - victims of violent criminals. The one factor common to nearly every single "victim" of violent crime is the victim's inability to adequately protect themselves. It was true at Wendy's in New York, it was true at Columbine, and it was true in Wakefield, Massachusetts. Will it be true for you? Are guns the answer to violent crime? A gun in the hands of a law-abiding citizen represents a substantial deterrent to a would-be attacker. Orlando, Florida had a long-standing rape problem. Then the police offered a highly publicized gun training program for women. The result was a 76 percent decrease in rapes. In 1982, Kennesaw, Georgia passed an ordinance requiring every homeowner to keep a gun. The number of residential burglaries in the town immediately took a plunge. Kansas City's grocers were the victims of an epidemic of robberies. The grocers were reluctant to beat back the robbers with boxes of corn flakes because if any of them died, the grocers would be called "cereal killers." So the police began a gun training program for grocers which caused an immediate drop in this kind of crime. Interestingly, there was during this period an increase in similar kinds of crimes in the areas around Kansas City. It is a well-established fact that car hijackers in the Miami area targeted vehicles with license plates indicating out-of-town drivers, since these people would not be allowed gun ownership as it is limited to people with Florida drivers' licenses. More recently, Florida has made allowances for out of state travelers to also carry concealed firearms thereby reducing the opportunities for predatory criminals. The circumstantial, measurable evidence is inarguably in favor of firearms in the hands of lawful citizens as an effective crime deterrent and crime-reducing influence. America currently has 33 States with a "shall issue" policy for concealed weapons permits! These States have followed Florida's lead in respecting the right of lawful citizens to protect themselves and not one State has found cause to repeal this policy. An armed victim is, according to prison inmates, the one thing a criminal attacker fears most. Even the police do not instill as much fear. Imagine the dread that a career criminal experiences when, immediately after he threatens a person's life, that person is pointing a gun at him. In over 90% of defensive gun uses, approximately 2.5 million cases annually, a shot is never fired. The criminal simply turns and flees. No other self defense tool produces this life-saving result. If the defender must shoot it is to save his or her own life. Certainly we should have no moral qualms about a situation in which a good person's life was threatened, but instead the attacker is injured or killed. If one or the other is to be hurt, it is only morally conscientious of us to prefer that it be the attacker. Guns are not the end-all solution to violent crime. We must also address other influences that increase violence in our society such as media violence and lax sentencing of violent criminals. But, a firearm is an indispensable tool for self defense when the random attacker does appear. 1) Paxton Quigley - "Armed and Female"