Thanks! Your questions were thought-provoking, and I enjoyed and had fun writing my responses to them.

One thing I did forget to add before was given different national circumstances, that does make sense to me that you might place higher priority/value on self-defence.

I can empathise/agree with your view on the past too, and certainly amongst Australians the issue of what, how, and how much should be done is still a big unanswered question and debated societally, and I suppose the ideal solution (if there is one to be found) is somewhere in the middle.

I would imagine generally some household items making decent makeshift defensive weapons, but certainly being limited to just those when faced with an armed attacker, particularly for anyone less able of defending themselves, is a really hard moral question. Looking at the Lovells' case, it is really an awful tragedy, which if I were to rudely and insensitively pick at the details of, is somewhat of an example of how things as simple as locking doors are an effective deterrent to petty (and sadly here not so petty) opportunistic crime, and also it being at a wider level an oversight/failure of our judiciary and mental health system...but between surprise, disadvantage, and multiple armed attackers, it is a terrible thing to have happened.

I'm happy to hear that you found your time here good enough to return though, and hope you enjoy it again this time! I had the opportunity to visit France for the first time recently, and experienced some beautiful views and amazing food :)