Another pirate attack and this one is bad

[CCIP]

Originally Posted by August

I think eventually they're going to have to allow merchant vessels to arm themselves. It's just not right to keep asking civilian crews to travel defenseless through pirate infested waters without adequate naval protection.

As far as I know, that's not an eventuality but something that's been happening for a while. It's far from universal, but from what I understand a lot of merchants in hot piracy areas already have armed guards on board.