via www.youtube.com
Is a gun a defensive weapon?
I think there's a difference between a police officer's sidearm, conspicuously carried in a holster, and the weapon of a law-abiding homeowner or CCW citizen.
A conspicuous sidearm provides deterrence (i.e. it discourages attacks), but not much defense against an actual attack. Once an attack has begun, deterrence has failed.
The officer's sidearm would be effective for stopping a crazed or drugged attacker armed with a club or knife; but a rational attacker who wants to harm the officer will have his own gun and will make sure that he has the advantage over the officer with cover, concealment, and surprise. A thug who wants to take down a cop will shoot from an alley or a building or a car. The officer's sidearm will only provide "defense" if the attacker's opening shot misses, and if the officer is able to successfully shoot back and hit the attacker. Those odds aren't good for the officer, and that's why "we [lost] 55 officers nationwide last year to gun violence".
For a homeowner facing an intruder, it's entirely different. The attack is already in progress - it began when the intruder began breaking and entering. The defending homeowner who keeps a gun handy can use it to stop the intruder. That's a gun being used as a defensive weapon.
I can understand how, viewed from the officer's perspective, a gun is used "to intimidate and show power" because that's the purpose of the officer's gun - deterrence.
But to ignore the role of a gun as a legitimate defensive weapon for the citizen is to ignore the basic reality of civilian life: that law officers cannot be everywhere (nor would we want them to be), and ultimately we must rely on our own courage and ingenuity to defend ourselves and our families.
