Guns will protect you from tsunamis.

[Undertoad]

Guns are part of the mix that keeps the US, in personality, a strong, rugged individualist; prepared to address any particular shit that hits the fan, unwilling to automatically cede control to authority, and not falling for the polite fantasy that life can be made perfectly safe.

Addressing problems without calling for help; admitting that we are, in the end, in charge of our own safety and thus our own lives; unwilling to automatically accept any new order thrust upon us. Willing, if need be, to give the federal revenooer an assload of buckshot to keep him off our property. (historical ref: during alcohol prohibition, people fought feds to keep their bathtub distillers running.)

It is this personality that has kept the US entrepreneurial, dynamic, and powerful.

Safe? Most definitely. Safer? Subject to definition. I don't believe I could walk through North Philly at midnight without being in danger. Almost any other part of Pennsylvania, which is about the same size in square miles as England, is absolutely fair game. Since there is nothing that North Philly offers me unless I'm looking for crack rocks at midnight, I am pretty safe.