...while it works.
But has the potential to go very very wrong.
Sure, nobody is going to try crime in that cop & gun-filled neighbourhood, when there is a less gun-happy one down the street. But what about when the next neighbourhood gets an equal number of cops & prison guards? (stupid example, I know)
Are the criminals going to just go away? Sure, some will. Not all. And the ones that *don't* will carry guns as well, you can bet.
Your parents neighbourhood sounds much safer, but I can bet that if the situation happens where someone *does* break into a house, once that point has been passed, it's suddenly much less safe. The criminal is going to carry a gun, and assume the owners have and will use a gun. Which means the criminal will shoot first and ask questions later, rather than risk getting shot himself.
Here in Sydney, we don't have guns. People don't need nor particularly want them. I'm not saying that this makes for more or less crime, but I *am* saying that when a criminal breaks into your house, you can be pretty sure that they aren't carrying a pistol. And they can be pretty sure that you aren't. So if they get startled, the first response is (usually) to run out the door. Even if they have a gun, they only need to worry if you can actually run up to them and get your hands on them, wheras in a gun society they need to assume that *anyone* cathing them there is potentially going to shoot them.
Both options offer safety in different ways, I'm not sure which is better.
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