First I trimmed your post because You are entited to personally held beliefs. But I feel constrained to respond to the view of Every random Joe Blow running out and getting a firearm, and carrying it around, because it is allowed.
Every law permitted Concealed Carry (CCW) mandates training and a permitting process. There are two different languages in the law; one is "shall" issue and the other is "may" issue. In either case the permit is controlled by law enforcement. Certain categories are prohibited in the law. All such laws require training. But all that aside there is only a small percentage of the people that will avail themselves of the right to carry. It is the uncertainty that offers deterrence. Currently there are only two states in the US that do not allow CCW, I happen to live in one and the President comes from the other. Think on this for a moment, while it is illegal to CCW where I live it is perfectly legal to carry a firearm in an open fashion! That means I could strap on a holster, put my 9mm Bersa in it, go out and conduct my daily chores and be perfectly legal!

Quote Originally Posted by MMI View Post
The idea of untrained members of the public carrying weapons in public is horrifying. To allow it is licensing vigilante-ism, which is utterly despicable. The prospect of people pulling a gun on another at the merest suggestion of trouble does not bear contemplation, and any authorities that encourage it are, in my opinion, reckless of the law and order they are supposed to enforce, and complicit in any deaths that result. There are no longer any new frontiers where savages and outlaws are liable to swoop down any second and massacre us for our trinkets. There is no danger of redcoats swooping down from Canada to steal hard-won liberties. There's not even any danger of the elected rulers usurping power and overthrowing the constitution - not even where the ruler is a black moslem-loving communist.