OK. So you're saying you need to carry guns because there are evil people out there? Huh.
OK, let's say you're walking home one day, and I'm walking behind you. I pull out a gun and point it (from a short distance) at the back of your head, bark "Freeze! Wallet on the ground, NOW!", and you're going to whip around, pull your gun and blow me away before I can react? Surely, there are a few people in this world who CAN, but the likelihood that you, Joe Average, will be able to do it, is a statistical impossibility unless I'm a complete fucktard. The same goes for if I have a nice knife on me. Even a steak knife will do, actually. Grab you from behind, knife to the throat - You're going to shoot me? Pointless endeavour. What are you going to do? Hope that other pedestrians (who actually give enough of a shit to help out), if there were any around, would carry?
It gets a little different when you're defending your home, and honestly, I'm all for it, though I'm a little sceptical that this is actually as big a problem as people make it out to be. Scary, yes, but I'm not totally sure you need to carry a hand cannon and keep it loaded just for the possibility that something like that could happen. If you've got a wide-open enough home, you should keep a shotgun or rifle locked and unloaded for something like that. If you've got a tighter space to move in, then a pistol is probably best, but it's not like you need to sleep with it under your pillow and carry it around with you or anything.
Though honestly, it speaks wonders for the state of the United States and other parts of the world where violent crime rates are high. Really, when you think about it, where is the government that's supposed to be protecting you from these things? Where are the education and social systems that are supposed to be keeping people off the streets and reducing the number of people who are forced/willing to go to such lengths to make a few dollars? Honestly, it seems a lot like a feudal system whenever I think about people talking about the need to defend themselves in this day and age.
I guess I'm really lucky in a way. The area of the world I live in has a very low violent crime rate, and the closest I've come to a real firearm has been my .177 air rifle (not airsoft) and a police revolver during a high school field trip half a decade ago. While I'd love to be able to pick up an AK-47 and go down to a range (we don't have ranges here, to my knowledge), I have a strong sense that no civilian should ever have any right, nor need, to own a working one, or any other automatic weapon.