I'm sure that the same is true for most of us here.
There is NO reason for these people to NOT have a firearm for their protection
No VALID reason, absolutely. The most likely invalid reason is that they were sissified, pantywaist liberals who thought that guns are evil and should only be used by the police.
Possible. But, knowing most kids that age nowadays, more likely they just were too ignorant of the reality of things. As frightened as they were, they probably still couldn't grasp the concept of what they really faced and what would be necessary to deal with it.
The television generation has an extremely unrealistic view of what cops can do. Ditto for life and death situations.