I recently had an experience that reenforced my view that it's wise to have a gun handy.

My girlfriend confessed she had a brother who was in prison. The GF wasn't the type you'd suspect to have a family member in prison, but there you go. You can't always judge by appearances.

She didn't tell me her brother was in prison until he was out of prison. She didn't tell me earlier because she was afraid I'd think less of her. But her brother's a serious dope fiend. He'll do anything for drugs. Including armed robbery, arson, and attempted murder. Which is what landed him in prison in the first place. She hoped prison might have changed him. It didn't really, unless you count joining a prison gang "change." When he got out, she saw he was no better than when he went in and then felt she had to tell me about him. Because I was a potential target.

She didn't know who he'd try to kill, but it'd be anyone he thought had enough money to get him his next fix. And while I'm not Warren Buffet or Donald Trump, I'm a moderately successful businessman.

I slept better those few months between his release and his inevitable screw-up that put him back into the system with my buckshot charged Remington 11-87 and my AR-15 within easy reach.

I'm not ashamed to say I simply won't go mano a mano against some hopped up Aryan Brotherhood member, given a better alternative. There are drugs out there that makes the user incredibly death resistant.

Fortunately, a solid hit with some 12 gauge buck or a couple of rounds to the chest from a rifle will normally quiet down a druggie even when fists, feet, knees, elbows, and knives no longer suffice.

As far as I'm concerned, it's a matter of decency for the law to acknowledge my right to possess the tools I decide (not some agency, not some bureaucrat pondering if he/she should give me permission) I need to sleep well, having been informed the odds I'll be rudely awakened have increased dramatically.