But how much safer would they be if people didn't have guns ?
The below is not written to be adversarial or snarky. I wrote it as an effort to help you understand my personal need for a gun and why others need them too. I used to be quite healthy, now, due to an unexpected illness, I had to go on disability, sell my house in Deer Park, and move out to the country where i know I will be safer. (knock on wood).
How much safer would they be if we all have individual force fields surrounding us everywhere we went?
My question is equally as unrealistic as yours.
Guns are here to stay. it is unrealistic to wish them away.
There are no laws or draconian measures that will ever make guns disappear.
This is reality.
You have to deal with this reality and quit posting questions like that.
What if.....nothing. Stay in the real world if you would like your questions to be taken seriously.
My sister-in-law asked me in a recent visit, why I don't just use a mortar for self-defense instead of a shotgun.
That question was equally silly and proved she knew nothing about mortars or shotguns.
But, to give you respect and answer your question, " What if there were not guns"?
OK, if there were no guns, then the strong and the fit, and those that travel in groups will prey on the old, infirm, and weak.
Predators would form groups and prey on everyone else unless the prey also formed groups to fight them, but even those groups would have to be as fit, and better led than the predators.
With a gun, I alone can take on and wipe out any unarmed or armed group of six or less if i have adequate warning.
With a gun it requires just as much skill and swords and axes, but it isa different skill.
With a gun you need to be gentle on the trigger to inflict damage down-range.
So, in short, it is guns that keep the weak, old, infirm, and not-so-skilled safe from predators.
ie...I have a five shot revolver in my desk drawer as i write this that I call my " 90 year old gun ", because when i am 90 years old, I will still be able to fire it because it is very light but shoots a .44 Special round. If i am weak at 90, it does not have any slides to rack back, no springs to get weakened over time. it is a revolver and is ready 100%of the time with all its parts at rest.
One day when you are very old and weak, and your neighbor gets beaten to a pulp and robbed by young, healthy and fit teenagers, I hope you will remember my words here.