Once returned to his own home, Anders wondered whether the rifle actually made him safer, for he felt he was all alone, and it was better to be non-confrontational than to stand up to trouble, and he imagined that somehow people were more likely to come for him if they found out he was armed, even though they would not find out, even though so many folks were armed, he just had this sense that it was essential not to be seen as a threat, for to be seen as a threat, as dark as he was, was to risk one day being obliterated.
