I totally disagree.
Firearms are not complicated.
They are very simple devices.
And "untrained" persons have been using them successfully for decades.
No sane person, with at least Junior High School intelligence, is actually better off without a firearm.
This is just stupid crap the anti-gun establishment pushes.
I'm not in the camp that thinks training should be mandatory for ownership. It is true that untrained people have been successfully using them for a long time. This is in large part due to the fact that so many DGUs are resolved with no shots fired , and also owes a bit to the percentage of DGUs that happen at very short distances.
It is also true that training is very beneficial. Defense of myself and/or my loved ones is not an area where I'm looking for "probably good enough". My goal is to have as many advantages as are reasonably possible. When I care about someone, even enough to simply call them "friend", I want the same for them. Because of this, part of my help in any friend's journey is to strongly encourage that they set themselves up for success by seeking training.
Here is a true story. I've referenced this here before, but it is worth repeating:
One night, an acquaintance we'll call 'K' and one of his coworkers 'C' were leaving work. As they walked out a ways into the dim parking lot, a group of 5 guys walking through the lot started yelling comments relating to C being Hispanic. K and C slowed, since their path was taking them toward the guys. The guys slowed, and made more aggressive remarks. K tried to deescalate the situation. The men moved toward C and K, and quickly got close as K was trying to verbally deescalate things.
This quickly turned into a beating, as the men knocked K and C to the ground and began hitting and kicking them brutally. K eventually worked his ccw out of his pocket while being beaten and got a shot off, apparently hitting an attacker's shoulder. The attackers ran away.
Success? Well, K and C are both alive. That's a good thing, of course. But... K is permanently disabled, and will be suffering from that beating for the rest of his life. His wife and kids nearly lost him.
Had he been trained and better set up for success that situation could likely have ended without violence. The gun should have come out sooner, K or C should have gotten on the line with 9-1-1 immediately (physical force disparity constitutes lethal force in most places, so 5 vs 2 and threatening behavior is deserving of serious response), etc.
I don't want anybody I care about to experience what K did. I want them to be prepared to walk away from situations unharmed. Therefore, I encourage training.