Whew, the campfire is getting kinda hot!

The way I see it, there are two approaches being considered here, let someone else (namely law enforcement) take care of the problem, or handle it yourself.

I would reckon that for either group, what the law actually says probably doesn't make much difference to their decision. For those who would arm themselves and defend their property and person, I figure they would do it with whatever they deemed was suitable for the task, whether that was going to result in an illegal action on their part or not. Conversely, for those who would insist that criminal behavior is best handled by law enforcement agents, in whatever form, are not likely to stand and fight when it comes to something like armed robbery or worse, but will choose either escape or appeasement until the authorities arrive to take control of the situation. In any case, neither side is going to base their decision on whether owning and using a weapon for self-defense is legal or not. I know for darned sure I never would. Not really much to debate I say.