People with knives are not a threat to a political despot guarded by armed protectors. But although *
in 2014 barely 2% of homicides were committed with rifles of all types, including so-called “assault weapons”* such a despot views them as more of a threat than those knife-driven homicides; why?
Those armed bodyguards can't protect their charge from an enraged and active hostile public...if they're armed. And especially not if he and his political base are placed against a wall by that opposition.
And that's not all....