Genetic counsellor Claude Mordan, an early Heinlein character, waxes enthusiastic about the real point of an armed society—ot improve the breed by killing off the unalert, the weak, the stupid, those who are not quick with their hands, and those who are not quick with their wits, and so improve the breed.
Note that early Heinlein's authorial stand-in Hamilton Felix does not think much of this argument:
Robert A. Heinlein (1948): Beyond This Horizon https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1625793146: "'An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life. For me, politeness is a sine qua non of civilization. That’s a personal evaluation only. But gun-fighting has a strong biological use. We do not have enough things that kill off the weak and the stupid these days. But to stay alive as an armed citizen a man has to be either quick with his wits or with his hands, preferably both. It’s a good thing...
...“Maybe so,” Felix answered slowly, “but it does seem like there ought to be a better way to do it. This way is pretty sloppy. Sometimes the bystanders get burned.”
“The alert ones don’t,” Mordan pointed out...
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