the person who carries the gun for protection can easily become the person who becomes the aggressor
as easy as the person without a gun can become a victom in the same scenario...
I think a hunter will aproach his gun as a tool first, same with a competition shooter or a police officer, and "weapon" can be anything and it doesn`t apply to the handguns and guns only, hammer used in a homocide is a "weapon" , even a snicker used in the attack in the last case in "Gina 6" was classified as a "weapon", anything you use to cause a bodily harm to somewone will be ,by police, categorized as a "deadly weapon"...A knife is a tool that can be used as a weapon, whereas a gun is ONLY a weapon
by the way, Chicago has a total gun restriction where is impossible for a regular citizen to carry a gun, and at the same time Chicago has the worst crime rate in the country.....
Db