Gun owners?

[Crossless2.0]

Stimbo, guns are not only useful to even things up against another gun but in my example above it would have evened the playing field against multiple attackers.

Look I get it, you are English and it's in your blood to be a pussy. Come over here and stay with me for a couple of weeks and I'll make a man out of you. I'll take you shooting and you can experience for the first time the feeling of testosterone in your veins.

I have many military style guns to train you on. We don't even have to go to a range. We can shoot on my own property. If you hang around long enough, I'll teach you how to reload your own ammo. I have several kinds of powders and bullets to choose from and different calibers too.

That's a giant leap of logic.

It's possible if your friend had a gun, since there were 5 attackers, that they could have taken it away from him and shot him with it.

You don't know, and neither do I. Both are possible. Other possibilities include your friend shooting and killing his attackers, and being prosecuted for excessive force, since they only had a stick and he had a gun. I admit it might have prevented any violence, but it might also have caused more violence.

Why do you assume only the positive outcome? Confirmation bias much?

Another possible outcome is his hitting a bystander and incurring criminal charges and civil liability for that.  Gun safety classes and hours spend training at a range are fine as far as it goes, but when the shit hits the fan and people's adrenaline is pumping, all bets are off. A moment's lapse of judgement (e.g., failure to check the background against which one is firing) can result in irreversible tragedy. Hell, one's entire life can be changed by nothing more than a freak ricochet.

As I've said, I own a shotgun whose primary purpose is home protection (though I'm always open to going out for some trap shooting). I stand by that decision. But pulling a fucking weapon should always be the last resort, and there'd better be a damn good reason to do it. If you can't imagine yourself successfully arguing to a judge that your actions were legal and responsible, you went way too far.