MaxTheReaper said:
Also: Pony gun. (DO WANT!)
It fires ponies.
But seriously, they do have a huge advantage over a baseball bat: Range.
I'm not shy about close-up fighting, but there are plenty of situations where it's not an option.
That's it Max, I'm going to have to go out a build a Baseball Bat launcher, just to prove you wrong!
I always wonder how many mugging situations could be solved with a toy gun with a laser pointer on it, or in homes a broom handle with tape recorder attached that goes click click like a shotgun. In either case I think a taser would work best, not least because it puts the victim down, where guns don't always manage that.
(I'm actually quite interested in guns, mostly from an engineering perspective but the psychology of them is good too)
A lot of what people carry for self defense are of such a small caliber that unless you shoot someone right in the face they probably aren't going to take a whole lot of notice. It's the same problem facing soldiers firing .223 rounds in Iraq/Afghanistan/Vietnam. Their reports are full instances where they hit the enemy two, three, four times and the victim just ignores it. Yes they die eventually but not until they start bleeding to death ten minutes after the fact, by which time they've probably done whatever they meant to do to you anyway.