I've got such a permit, and so does my wife. Here's why.
Many years ago, I was dining in a popular local restaurant when a serviceman went beserk and started shooting up the place, including its patrons. I was lucky. I got out the side door and dove under a parked car for cover. When the dust settled, the serviceman was dead (shot by police) as were two patrons. Many others were wounded.
I was terrified by this gunman, and by the fact that I had no way to defend myself from this gun wielding lunatic, so shortly thereafter I applied for (and received) a pistol permit. Even that long ago (close to 40 years) the paperwork and background checks were astounding and time consuming, but well worth it, IMO.
Two subsequent incidents over the ensuing years have fortified my belief in taking personal responsibility for my own protection and that of my family. And these instances were 11 years apart.
In one instance, a man with a knife attempted to stab me in order to rob me of the night deposit bag I was carrying. I talked him out of it by sticking a .38 into his mouth, and I held him just like that until the police arrived. The cops told me later that I should have shot him. They apparently knew this guy. I didn't, and they said that I was lucky to be alive.
The other incident involved a personal feud between two individuals who frequented a bar I owned at the time. Some perceived insult or another triggered one individual into going out to his vehicle and coming back into the place with a shotgun. He bashed an older gentleman in the head with the butt of the shotgun as soon as he walked in the door. He then immediately shot another man in the upper leg, resulting in an injury so severe that the leg had to be amputated.
The assailant backed off and went out of the front door when I produced a .357 Magnum pointed at his head. I locked the door behind him, while customers scurried to hide in the bathrooms at the rear of the business for safety until the police arrived.
The assailant, meanwhile, had a change of heart and attempted to get back into the bar. As the doors were just glass, it would not have been hard for him to do so.
He yanked on the doors, unsuccessfully. And that was lucky for him. Had he actually re-entered the premises, I would have shot him, without one moment of regret or twinge of conscience.
In each of these two instances, I was questioned extensively by the police. I was found to be well within my rights to protect not only myself, but others facing grievous personal harm.
So, that's my story, for good or bad. And it's sad for me to say that the only individuals who can obtain and carry weapons easily are those same individuals who should be barred from having them at all, namely, the criminals and the nut cases.
Neither of those groups is affected by any law or regulation whatsoever, and because of that, I carry a piece every day, just like I wear pants.
But at least he saw the errors of his ways and quickly apologized. 
