I suspect the whole geographic thing also plays into it.
Where I live, you're never more than 15 minutes from a police station. Maybe half an hour if you live in the middle of nowhere. There are also more than enough cops to go around. I can imagine if you live 4 hours from a police station in the middle of nowhere, or somewhere with 24hr response times, you would want a gun for protection. I certainly would.
I suspect the whole geographic thing also plays into it.
Where I live, you're never more than 15 minutes from a police station. Maybe half an hour if you live in the middle of nowhere. There are also more than enough cops to go around. I can imagine if you live 4 hours from a police station in the middle of nowhere, or somewhere with 24hr response times, you would want a gun for protection. I certainly would.