Again, 'Murrica. How Many More

[Cyberman]

Now ask yourself what makes the difference between a criminal and an armed criminal.

My initial answer was going to be there is none, because at the end of the day, they are still breaking the law.
Then I thought about it and I want to say the difference is that the armed criminal is capable of killing someone, but then again, they don't necessarily need to be armed to do that, do they? Someone who commits a hit and run to a pedestrian with their car becomes a criminal the second they leave the scene of the accident. So, there's that variable to consider too.

A car is not designed for the purpose of causing grievous trauma. A firearm has no other purpose, unless you plan to use it as a backscratcher or something.

Ex-East End villain and now chat circuit pundit Dave Courtney, a man used to being shot at, despises guns and the people who carry them. His view is a pragmatic one for a gangster. Basically, taking a gun on a 'job' implies that at some point you are expecting to use it. One simple choice of inappropriate tool and suddenly you're looking at twenty years inside, at least one dead innocent bystander and dozens of destroyed lives, just because someone got twitchy. The crime could have gone ahead anyway, if it needed to happen, without it ending up just another shower of blood and innocent tears on the six o'clock news and then forgotten until the next one.