I respect all opinions and the following are mine. I have very strong beliefs. Nothing here is meant to offend anyone or cause any unhappiness.
I think having a gun available if it is really needed is very important. In the USA your chances of needing a gun for defense are slim but still possible. Unless you are a police officer you probably do not encounter the need to go face to face with dangerous people very often. Then there is the random encounters. At home in any neighborhood in America a person can run from the cops. He may go into your neighborhood. He may run down the side yard of your house or jump the fence into your yard. He may then try a door to see if he can come in to hide or take a hostage. If this happens you may want to be able to defend yourself. Now in the "wild" such as off-roading or hiking the same thing could happen, meaning you could randomly encounter a person who is hostile for a variety of reasons. Drugs, alcohol, mental issues etc... It is very common in the desert South-West to have a large percentage of meth users or meth makers in rural areas. Could you drive by them or unknowingly camp near them? Yes that could happen. So maybe the strong ability to defend yourself is a good thing. I think another part of the discussion is what do you have to do different to have a gun on you or close by while on an offroad trip? Will it change the experience, weigh you down, cause you to pack more gear, need to install heavy duty suspension? No, none of those things. If you get dressed and put on a typical, medium sized handgun like a Glock 19, mid size 9mm and put a shirt over it then no one will ever know and your experience and the experience of all of your fellow travelers will be exactly the same. The difference is now you could employ an extremely high level of force for self protection if needed. If you don't bring a gun then you are left to find some kind of self defense solution. This will be based on your physical ability, training, circumstances, ease of access to weapons or tools used for this purpose. A gun gives the average person the ability to protect themselves from a superior attacker with very little effort or training. (that last statements assumes you have a cool, calm demeanor and reasonable, minimum weapon handling ability for this.) And finally I would comment on part of a statement from above: "Because I live in the West, I may also be lucky to only frequent places where few nefarious people congregate." I think that there are bad people everywhere. It varies how bad they are and how often they do bad things. Those of us who are never intentionally bad or looking to victimize others may see most people as a similar reflection of ourselves and therefor think we are all pretty ok. To that I would say that people who do bad thing like abuse kids or beat there wives or even rob banks "look normal" when not doing horrible things. So we cannot walk by a crowd of people and just because we were not assaulted or victimized think, "that was a fine group of citizens and none of them would do me harm..." I think that much of what happens in life is unpredictable. Sometimes life is wonderful and filled with amazing experience. Sometimes there are terrible hazards we face without notice. In my life I have had one person die while driving and two other co-workers require me to call paramedics and rush them to the hospital in the last 6 months. All of that was unexpected. If I could have taken some simple, convenient precaution to prevent what happen I absolutely have done it. That is why almost 100% of people have insurance, because you might need it and it will be too late if you don't when something happens. We must all do what we can live with whether it is self defense or knowing that we choose another way. I respect that. I will always try to help anyone in need. Good luck to all and be safe.
