There is no going back to a time before people owned guns.
True but irrelevant.
Before guns the only way to stop a man with a sword was with another weapon.
It would be more accurate to say that the only way to stop violence is with more violence. Weapons are only incidental to the question.
It’s essential to a civil society to teach that peace is a valuable thing and to be prized. But it is also right to teach that there are situations in which it is better to fight than acquiesce.