>1. The point is that if you take away guns, knifings will become more dominate. The criminals won't stop killing people - they'll just find different ways of doing it.

Killing someone with a knife is harder than with a gun since you have to get close to the victim and he/she might beat you. But we're not only talking about hard core criminals here. We're also talking about someone who can act under high emotions and commit a crime that he wouldn't do normally and that he wouldn't have done if he didn't have quick access to a gun.

>2. why make their jobs easier by taking away my ability to defend myself?

Why do you need to defend yourself? Unless you work for an organized crime group, you shouldn't need to fear for your life. I don't know much criminals that want to kill just for the fun of killing. Normally it's for money or a rape. If it's a robbery, you cooperate and you report the crime to the police. End of the story. No need to put your life into jeopardy just for material things. AFAIK, you're a guy, so the probability that you get rapped is pretty much nil.

IMO having a gun on me just increase the risk that I get killed. A robber knowing that I own a gun would shoot first instead of just threatening to kill me if I don't give him my money.