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The first is that guns are a hobby for a lot of people, and the SD aspects are a reason or excuse for indulging the hobby and maintaining a presence of the hobby with them during the day.
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This is a key point I think... and I never really thought of this before. I'll admit I am a gun nut, I love going shooting, I love the equipment. For anyone who hasn't seen Rich Lucibella's Browning - to me - that is a work of art:
http://thefiringline.com/forums/show...&highlight=np3
But it's an expensive hobby. If I tried to tell my wife that I really need to spend $2,000 / year on toy trains - there's no way that's gonna fly. But if I convince her that it's a really dangerous world out there and we need to be prepared... the pistol becomes more like home owner's insurance - or like spending an extra $2,000 on a car to buy a Volvo because it's safer than the Chevy which is $2,000 less
So far I only ran into 1 situation in my life where I wished I'd had a pistol - but I got through it without needing a pistol so I can say that so far I've needed a firearm for 0% of my lifetime.
On the other hand I've gotten into 4 car crashes.
I think my only need for a firearm would be a super accurate pistol to shoot cell phones and PDAs out of the hands of drivers who are screwing around with them instead of paying attention to the road.
My last accident I looked in my rear view mirror just in time to see a lady look up from her cell phone as she was barreling down on me. Her car was nose down, smoke coming off the front tires in a full skid - shocked expression on her face as she held her cell phone in her right hand -
BAM.