Well, the idea that the Wild West was a period of peace is simply wrong. You have to understand that law enforcement at the time was largely ineffective and in many places nonexistent. Many small rural communities in the Wild West were more or less self-contained so they had to take care of themselves. In contrast, today you can at least dial 911 and expect some assistance. Instead of going after a bunch of hardcore bad guys myself I much prefer having a SWAT team in town. They're pros and can do the job much better than me and my neighbors...

This has happened time and again throughout history - if the state cannot guarantee the safety of the civilian population it has to allow the people to own weapons for their own protection. As history teaches us, that's by and large a stopgap measure that doesn't work nearly as well as a professional police force.

I don't think owning a gun makes anybody any safer. If you look at Africa and many other third-world countries, there are places where just about everyone owns a gun (and more often than not an AK, which is a helluva better weapon than any handgun). Crime rate is still extremely high. Why? Because even an armed population will not be able to do much against organized, heavily armed gangs. That is, unless they can get sufficiently organized themselves to form a standing armed/police force. In which case the civilian population will not really need weapons any longer.

Oh, and I'm actually pro-gun.