David,
I am not interested in any sort of arguments. Facts always remain facts no matter if one agrees or disagrees.
1) It is a fact that stopping power of legally permissible airguns available in India is very poor. Crossbows are a very powerful weapons and for this are banned in some states in U.S.A. Even MARCOS commandos of Indian navy were provided with crossbows for silent killings.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MARCOS_%28India%29
2)Question of "handiness" is very subjective. Even a glass bottle used properly can act as a deadly weapon. It all depends how comfortable a person is, in using "a weapon". Compared with air-gun, crossbow appears to be a better choice as a home defense weapon.
Example: It is a fact that Lee-Enfield rifles are very accurate rifles, they have been a standard issue to armed forces of British Empire. It is also a fact that Mumbai Police was not able to shoot a SINGLE terrorist with these very rifles. Well known excuse of police is .303 are not "handy" and no match for AK 47. Agreed, but nobody prevented the police to take defensive positions and fire accurate shots. But these jokers were simply not capable. Whereas the British troops were able to repel German troops with these very .303 rifles with such a rapid fire that Germans thought they are been fired upon with machine guns. They have also been instances in rural Punjab where people armed with 12 bore guns or bolt action rifles(after taking defensive positions behind walls, doors, windows etc.) were able to shoot/repel AK 47 armed terrorists.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee-Enfield
"First World War accounts tell of British troops repelling German attackers who subsequently reported that they had encountered machine guns, when in fact it was simply a group of trained riflemen armed with SMLE Mk III rifles."
If one wants to learn from his personal experience only and keep an air-gun as a self defense weapon, who on earth can stop him
.
Regards
goodboy_mentor