What a nation of laws does not need is vigilantism. A bunch of untrained, armed citizens wandering the streets looking for perps would have inevitably resulted in a lot of dead people. Hell, they'd have been shooting each other -- "Look a guy with an AK, git'im!"

I'll bet a yankee dime that everybody who had a gun and was hunkered down at home had that gun nearby. No ferking politician would need to tell me that!