Besides, did astronauts really carry hand-guns when they went to the moon? Do they carry them now? If they have handguns on the Space Shuttle then the space program is even more fucked up than I thought it was and I already think it's deeply fucked up.
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As far as I know, there's no evidence that American astronauts carried weapons to Luna or that they carry them onboard the shuttle and the ever growing ISS.
Russian cosmonauts however, are reportedly issued weapons. The weapons are explained as a precaution in case an off-course re-entry lands a returning Salyut crew in sketchy territory (also, if the stranded cosmonauts need to hunt for food).
Regarding space program en-fuckedness...
Opinions differ.
As for me and my friends at JPL; we believe the human space flight program to be seriously flawed in both design and execution, serving mostly as a revenue stream for Lockheed and allied firms.
The robotic exploration program, on the other hand, which has brought us such wonders as a deep look at the methane lakes of Titan, is a thing of beauty.
.d.