Is it worth investing a lot of time and money to protect yourself from well-known potential dangers?

I think this is something that individuals can only judge for themselves based on their own personal circumstances. If you live in the ‘hood where a dozen murders a week happen within 200 yards of your house, then you betcha its worth it. On the other hand my town gets an average of a dozen murders a year, so here, not so much. My local crime scene is more burglary and car theft so the protection I invest in is good locks, a home security system and good security for the car.

Here it’s normal to have firearms, wrestle or box, or basically be tough. It’s a good confidence builder.

The question is too complex to answer effectively.

Urban, suburban and rural all call for different approaches.

The wealth of the person involved is obviously important.

Martial arts have many benefits over and above personal protection. For the majority, guns are for recreation [in the U.S.].

On a global scale, can a woman in India spend too much on personal safety? Apparently not.

I live in the rural Midwestern U.S, yet I have a home security system. Why? Because my house was entered once without my permission and an item removed, and I was broken into on a second occasion. You have to gauge your risks.

There’s a vast difference between ‘well known’ and ‘very likely’ risks.

You are far more likely to be harmed by fairly mundane and not so dramatic causes: slipping in the bathtub, for example, or bending and twisting badly to pick something up, or just picking something up incorrectly, for example. I would guess, even without statistics to back up the guess, that in any given year far more people are injured while working on ladders than are ever “attacked” by any thug or gang of them, from any angle.

It’s more common for people to be felled – even killed – by mosquito bites than by shark bites, would be another way of looking at it.

You’d be better off practicing “cutting and chewing your food properly” than by learning any number of martial arts (if time is so pressing that you have only enough time to do one of those things). In fact, it would be better for you to spend nothing on television and a cable subscription, and dedicate the savings to any kind of exercise program, martial arts or self-preservation regimen you decide upon. That would represent a savings of money (obviously) and time (less obviously) and a redirection of those things into entirely useful pursuits.

On the other hand, if you have an interest in firearms – as many people do, who have zero intent to harm or kill anyone at all! – or martial arts training for its own sake or the sake of the physical exercise and mental discipline that go with that, then by all means, have at it.