[Frank Ettin]

Another thing to consider about the gun is that one's possession of same can serve to level the playing field. We can have some idea of how the world might work without guns by considering our history and the time before there were such things. One's ability to project force, for either aggression or defense, was then largely proportional to one's strength, fitness, skill at arms and/or ability to act in concert with others.

A group of strong, young men with malevolent intent would have an enormous advantage over one or even several old, infirm, frail and innocent people. A gun, however, gives the innocent who can't reasonably rely solely on muscle a chance to protect himself against the young, strong and malicious.