I travel to the most crime-ridden parts of some of the most violent crime ridden cities in the US. I have done so for twenty years and never carried a pistol for protection. My rationale is that most violent crime has a context. If you aren’t a part of that context, you are not likely to be victimized. Recently though, the mass shootings have no context but the destruction of random innocent people. I carry a pistol everywhere now, laws be damned. I refuse to die cowering at the hand of some mentally ill assailant with body armor, a rifle, and a death wish.