Organization like the Pink Pistols have it right: the best way to defend your rights is to defend yourself, your family, and innocent third parties. You cannot wait on the State to do the job for you.
Furthermore, the firearm is the only weapon that will give a single person a change against a group and especially if members of the group are armed. Karate is useless in those situations, even for the young and athletic. Improvised weapons, even with training, are little better. Armed combat beats unarmed combat any day.
Those in doubt need to look at the role of firearms in defending the rights of freed slaves after the Civil War, the role of gun control in trying to prevent freed slaves from defending themselves, and the role that firearms played in defending people during the Civil Rights era.
Concerning bars: while using a firearm while intoxicated is a very bad idea, all patrons should be throughly sobered up at the end of the night, else they could be arrested for DUI or public intoxication. The designated driver is also the designated body guard. My state allows firearms in bars because the Law demands that people be responsible for their actions. And it prevents patrons from getting attacked on the way home. What is interesting is to observe bar fights with armed patrons. They fight with fists and chairs – not guns. You can’t pull a gun in a bar where too many other people are armed. If you do, your going to get shot.
