Though I spend a lot of time with my US-american colleagues who I highly respect, I never understood that passion for guns among other things.
As I never got the idea of a "pre-" and "post-911-world".
It usually doesn´t make sense to discuss these issues, as its just a difference in culture there is perhaps no definite right or wrong.
I certainly don´t want to fuel any anti-american clichés, but there is certainly another perception of some things in the rest of the world.
However, I sincerely dont believe that armed pilots make flying any safer but the opposite.
Talking of armed societies, how many people safed their lifes because of being armed, and how many got killed for no reason?
Call me a scared European butthead, but a Cpt to my left, waving his gun around in the preflight would make me feel VERY uncomfortable for the rest of the flight.
I was trained on handling weapons in my military service (my country still seems to enjoy obliging its boys to play war for some reason), but I´m glad I got rid of them and I can´t think of any place more inappropriate for them than the flight deck of an aircraft.