You obviously felt safe without one for the best part of 20 years so what changed?
Feeling is one thing. Knowing is another...
One day in 198x, I read about two guys breaking into a home with a family of four. They raped the girls and murdered the parents. I also learned that this was not a rare case.
That was enough to catch my attention and pose the question what I would do in such a situation. The answer: Kill them. Then call the police.
I answered your question. Your turn to answer mine:
What would you do in a situation I described...Step by step...no alterations...and no statistics, either...
Old age, to old to fist fight and to old to run so get a gun.
A father and a husband doesn't run. Only Euro slime is told to retreat and call the cops in the dead of night using the phone in the kitchen where the perps are raping his wife.