Very well said, Collin! I endorse everything you've written, except the recommendation to think about getting a gun. I'm with Robert Heinlein in thinking that carrying a gun usually make people less safe because it makes them apt to take risks they wouldn't otherwise take. And also because deadly force isn't needed when less than lethal force would do the job.

Tasers and mace do the job, so do martial arts if people have time to devote to mastering that. In the story you linked about the original Pink Panthers, I think my friend Herman neatly expresses my own thoughts on the subject of guns – namely that you can defend yourself with violence very effectively without killing.