Bayou is pretty much correct in this regard. The criminal WILL always have the advantage, that's why they're criminals, however, by not bringing your self up to their level, you're just painting a big bullseye on your self saying "please rob, rape, and kill me".

In a perfect world, police forces would be effective enough to root out and stop criminals and gun owners. But this is far from a perfect world, and the police usually only react AFTER a crime has been committed, not before. So even if they "catch the guy" the damage has already been done.

So the only solution is to defend your self. Don't rely on others to do it for you or you'll get burned, plain and simple. Is allowing everyone to carry weapons a good idea? Hell no. There SHOULD be regulations to allow non-lethal weapons (stun guns, pepperspray, etc.) instead of lethal ones by citizens. I believe some US states already allow citizens to legally carry things such as tazers around with them in public. Canada should follow suit. Much like America has tons of nuclear weapons as a deterrent for other countries to attack (Anyone heard of MAD? Mutually assured destruction. It's what keeps nuclear countries from attacking eachother, even if they're political enemies) citizens should be permitted to carry weapons.
Just to give you an idea of how bad things are currenty in (Toronto). In 2005, there has been something like 80 homocides, more than half of which were caused by guns. To put this in perspective. Toronto doesn't even have HALF the population of New York, and yet New York had considerably less in the way of murders.

In Canada, you can't even legally carry a knife concealed in public. And it seems, now adays, all criminals fight like wussies. Whatever happened to the days of men fighting with their fists to settle differences? Everyone carries knives and guns now, what a bunch of wimps. [&o]