(I)

Context: I lived in Germany for somewhere around a year and a half, and have lived in Japan for the better part of a decade.

Gun ownership is effectively banned in Japan, and the Japanese have an amazingly competent, well-trained, and effective police force. Seriously -- they do policing right in so many ways. Germany, too.

I share this so you really understand where I am coming from when I say that I think every citizen that so desires should be armed. Moreover, I find the attitude of "nobody needs a gun" to be hopelessly privileged and naïve.

To give you some sense of why:

(II)

A friend of mine had an issue with an ex-boyfriend, here in Japan. He kept banging on her front door in the middle of the night, threatening her, the whole bit. He was an amateur athlete, and although I can handle myself in a fight, he would probably beat me into a pulp. She wouldn't stand a chance.

The cops put out a restraining order, and kept bringing him into the police station every time he violated it, but legally, they could do nothing until he actually hurt her. Moreover, he was Japanese, and she was not, which meant that the police were... less incentivized to help her.

This kind of thing happens everywhere. That's life as a minority for you.

She had no other option than to flee the country. No joke.

(III)

One day, I woke up to a massive banging sound. It was a bad neighborhood, and it sounded like people trying to kick their way through the outer mesh security door. My apartment was on the ground floor, in the back of my building

I called the police, but nobody would be able to show up for about half an hour. That's reality in a lot of the US. So I grabbed my Remington, walked to the door, and chambered a round -- the sound of a pump-action is very distinctive.

All of the sudden, the kicking stopped, and I saw through the side window what looked like about five people sprinting away from my porch. I was pretty shaken, honestly, and the cops never showed up.

The apartment owner had to replace the security mesh. Maybe another five minutes and they would have gotten through.

Don't know what they wanted, but I do know that they'd get whatever it was, because no way I could take on three people, let alone five.

I upgraded to a semi-auto after that.

(IV)

A gun is like a fire extinguisher. You don't buy one hoping you have to use it.

But if you need it, you need it, and nothing else will do.