I'm at a bar now, some guy is preaching "every male over 25 should be required to carry a gun". That would of stopped this..... Why god why.
Here's why I have a problem with people carrying guns. Once citizens and cops carry guns, it's inevitable that criminals will realise they need guns in order to increase their chances of surviving any confrontation. Whilst there will always be a percentage of perps would carry a gun anyway, I think it's far lower when they don't feel likely to be confronted by, for example, an armed householder. You then have a vicious circle of gun carrying for offensive/ defensive purposes. Whilst you carrying a gun, therefore, may make you and your family safer, it actually increases the risk to anyone who isn't carrying as the small time mugger will now be equipped in case it's you he runs into.
The balance of power hasn't shifted between the good and the bad, but the likely damage from any encounter has increased.
Of course America isn't going to lose the guns anytime soon, but it's pretty dumb to pretend that large scale gun ownership in a violent society isn't responsible for a large part of that violence.
Comparisons with Switzerland aren't really valid when trying to justify gun ownership. Whilst Switzerland is 31st across all crime, it's 17th for murder with firearms. A pretty law abiding country with a small population (8 million ) has 7 times the murders with firearms that the UK ( 60 million) has. It's not the utopian world of peaceful gun ownership it's often claimed to be.