I have often heard that argument, but I find it unconvincing. Having civilian weapons widely available serves little useful purpose and creates a lot of problems all of its own.
Why would that entitle anyone to use weapons in there?
Is it reasonable to expect people to take martial arts classes and or arm themselves with melee weapons in order to defend themselves?
Civilian registered weapons are a non issue in places that actually takes firearms serious.
We've had 4 cases in the last 20 years where a legally registered firearm was used to harm another person (We've had several cases where they've been used, but they've been within their rights of law, these 4 cases are illegal cases, homocides.)
On the other hand, we've had hundreds of cases in just the last couple of years with illegal firearms (firearms that have never been legally registered, aka brought in from outside the country).
It's largely restricted to gang warfare, but innocents have been harmed, people have been robbed in their house at gunpoint etc.
Even if you did argue that people should defend their home with something other than a firearm, what does an elderly do? What does a mother do? You can't honestly expect them to face off against a ruthless criminal that breaks into your house while you're home.
And before you say: "But there's no guns in Denmark".
Complete utter BS. We have in the ballpark of 800,000 registered firearms, both hunting and sporting arms. And our population is around 6 million. That's a pretty large amount of firearms for such a small country, both in population and size.
Hell we even have ~12,000 fully automatic M16A4 variants in private households, people from the national guard have their guns home with ammo and everything.
It is. It is also a safer place because no one in it has a gun.
For untrained and maybe irresponsible people maybe. That's not the case with me however, but I can see that side of the argument speaking generally though.
I cannot imagine living in such fear. Moreover, when evidence suggests that private guns are more of a danger to their owners than intruders then clinging to their power for comfort seems like a monstrous waste of time.
It's not a question about living in fear. You have a fire extinguisher maybe? An insurance? Wear a condom if you don't want conception during intercourse etc.
It's called a preemptive measure.