[BlueTrain]

I suppose you're correct. We may go to war with our neighbors. "Someday you may want to kill them."

Is that the way it is these days?

I think there is another trend that goes along with this. It is the gated community mindset. There seems to be the idea that you can wall off yourself from the rest of the world and literally privatize yourself. It means that the law no longer means anything. Private rules are all that matter. The rule of an elected government has been usurped. In fact, the rules of private organizations like home owner's associations tend to be much stricter than public law. I'm not sure this is all a good thing.

There also is the mindset that having a gun makes you a deputized member of the law enforcement community in some way. To be sure, you are enabled and empowered but you are not authorized. You have no police powers no more than you have the power to bring someone back from the dead.