Dude , wtf am i gonna train in ? Gumming my food ? Im 63 & ready for water aerobics,learning gun saftey is 1,000 times easier than becomming a competent fighter for most people .
Firstly, no disrespect intended. Just sharing my opinions.
But fwiw, easier is not always better.
I live in a way worse neighborhood than you do and dont need a gun or attack dogs.
A few years ago I was robbed at gun point, totally random. Didnt know these guys or how they even knew I had weed on me. I was walking down the street alone when I saw to guys coming my way.I paid them no mind.
The next thing I knew there was a gun pointed at my stomach. I tried to tell them I didnt have anything, but they wanted to see what I had anyway. At this point I have been training in self defense for about 2 years and was sure that in a 1 vs 1 I could handle either one of these guys, but the gun.
The dude with the gun in his left hand takes him right hand and sticks it deep into my pocket looking for loot. That is when it all kicked in, I realized that one hand was busy and the gun hand was not pointed at me and that I could control the gun dude easily with his hand trapped in my pocket.
When the other dude found the little 14 grams of Pineapple express I had he screamed "yes".It wasnt a hit, it was a robbery and the best way out was to just give it up.
When I got back home to my wife I was broken. I felt like crap, I mean all this training and when the time is right I cant even use it. While explaining the situation to her in a reenactment she discovered that the only way out of that situation was the way it happened or with at least one casualty.
I say all that to say this, even tho those guys were "thugs" that were robbing me, I dont want them to die.
I look at robberies as an "occupational hazard".