Because you never know when trouble is going to be spurred up against you. Also, that the police may not be there to help you when all hell breaks loose.
One account:
Congregants watched in horror as protestors – many armed with knives, axes and broken bottles – stormed the building. The synagogue’s security guards rushed to keep out the intruders. For a few long moments, they fought alone; five sustained light injuries. Then they were relieved by police.
The battle outside raged for hours. Another nearby synagogue was pelted with stones. “So we closed the synagogue and we asked everybody to stay inside until everything would be okay,†Monsieur Benhaim said. He heard the mob outside “all the time singing ‘Allah Akbar’ and ‘Kill the Jews’ – if you can call that a song.†Congregants were particularly concerned that police secure a nearby metro station, to stop them being attacked as they and their families made their way home at night.
(Emphasis mine)
Whether you support Israel or Hamas in the current conflict, can we agree that looting and burning of people’s homes, businesses, and places of worship is wrong?
Now, compare what happened in France to what happened when Korean business owners took up arms to protect their businesses during the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
By the end of the day storeowners had slain four looters and fended off the mob. It would be 24 more hours until the National Guard arrived and another two days before the riots were completely put down.
This is why I say the right to self-defense, and by extension, the right to own arms to exercise self-defense, is a human right.
