"After thousands and thousands of years of civilized life, you would think at least one society would figure out that if the average citizen is able to properly defend themselves, then the risk of violent crime would be greatly diminished."

Society may have it figured out, but the politicians haven't. Bureaucrats live in a fantasy land where they think that if they pass enough laws, everyone will obey them.

But there are a couple of laws that should have been passed, and haven't been. And I think the most likely reason is that politicians and criminals have waaaaaaay too much in common. Politicians don't want to pass laws that they might disoby, and have to pay a serious price.

Here are two examples:

1) Drunk driving. There are people out there driving drunk after many, many similar violations. A local woman killed someone in this area, and she had over 35 previous drunk driving violations, but she was still driving drunk. Politicians drive drunk. They aren't going to pass a real law, like immediate and permanent confiscation of the drunk driver's vehicle (their own or borrowed), and being put on a database that prevents him/her from ever being able to buy a car again. If you loan your car to your alkie buddy and it gets confiscated, tough luck.

2) If you're injured during the commission of a crime, you can't sue anybody for anything. The burglar who falls though the skylight of a bank or private home and breaks his neck should be just SOL. But no, we have to pay them for injuries suffered while they're burglarizing our homes. How stupid is that?

It isn't the society, it's the people who want to control everything.

Sue