planefag@planefag
This is also a common point and deserves a good answer. The fundamental principle of American gun ownership is that it's better for both criminal and defender to be armed than both unarmed, because criminals tend to be males in their prime and they usually target weak people like women, the elderly, children, etc. A 300 pound sumo wrestler and your grandmother are on equal footing if they both have a revolver, because bullets don't care about muscles. This applies even in extreme situations, such as a gang of multiple thugs with clubs chasing a lone woman in an alley - once she pulls out that double-stack 9mm things change fast, because bullets cannot count, aren't intimidated by high numbers, and the average 9mm holds 17 cartridges; more than enough lead to go around.
This is the accepted common wisdom. However, there is an additional factor that is not as talked about that I wish to stress: criminals are incredibly stupid, and the worst ones are very, very often chuuni as hell. This combines to make them catastrophically incompetent with firearms.
Criminals being stupid and poor already do a lot of work here. There's a brand of pistol named "Hi-Point" that are dirt-cheap ($200 brand new,) as they use simple blowback actions (i.e. incredibly heavy and unreliable) and are frequently called "ghetto blasters" with how often they show up in the hands of criminals. Many a video of these clowns getting "lit up like a Christmas tree" exist as they try to make these heavy boat anchors properly cycle.
But then you add the chuuni factor, and you get these idiots buying Turkish shotguns that are infamous for how they break within ten shots, or trying to load up Chinese-made 100 round drum magazines (a type of magazine infamously unreliable even when made by expensive, reputable manufacturers) and walking around in cheap, obnoxious black tactical gear that may as well be a flashing neon sign, "I am not just a tool, but the entire hardware store, please blast me." Naturally, as you might expect, the vast majority of criminals also are very bad shots. It is commonly supposed that your average gangster could not hit a flock of barns if they were standing inside the middle barn.
My friends will be by shortly to share pictures and videos of the Common American Criminal attempting to use firearms. They are highly amusing, but the second-hand embarrassment you'll feel for them is tangible, so please scroll through these replies with caution!
