Tragic misreadings of a situation are far too common in this country. If you're in a foreign country, unfamiliar with the customs, not very fluent on the language, the chances of getting it completely wrong in a moment of panic are high. Guns make it too far easy to create a tragedy that can't be undone. In 50,000 miles and 9 years of full time cruising, I never had a gun on board and never once had a situation where I would have wanted one, not even close.