>All this kind of came to a head with the paper when my then-editor
>managed to piss off both the Town Council and the leadership of
>the (then not-quite-defunct) paper mill's biggest union, and through
>them a fairly large percentage of the town's aforementioned
>strapped-and-desperate contingent—this was more to do with his raw
>personal charisma than his reportage, but nevertheless, we started
>getting threatening notes at the office, and a couple of folks told
>Mr. Editor that "you and your people" should, I believe the phrase
>was, "watch yourselves after dark."

IOW, you nicely slotted into the situation where I actually think getting/carrying a gun "for safety" is at least a reasonable idea: You had a specific threat that you had to deal with.

>It's the old Good Guy with a Gun
>premise and, unlike a lot of the rhetoric, most of the time I believe
>it's sincerely meant when people espouse it.

They certainly believe it, they're generally wrong but at least they are honestly wrong.

(For each attempted defensive gun use in the US, there are about 10 accidental shootings and 100 guns stolen.)