"Why would someone that's supposed to PROTECT people, rights and the LAW carry a tool that can only be used for UNLAWFUL activity?"
You're touched in the head. Shooting someone, or pointing a gun at someone, is not unlawful (nor is it "UNLAWFUL," Captain Caps Lock), if it's done in self-defense or in defense of others. A gun is the most effective means of protecting yourself and other people, obviously, which is why cops and many law-abiding citizens in general, carry them.
Lt. Columbo has "plot armor" of course, but in real life it would be utterly stupid for a homicide detective, especially a diminutive and out-of-shape one like Columbo, to go around unarmed, questioning murderer suspects on a routine basis. It would be one thing if he only interacted with suspects from the safety of an interrogation room in the police station, but he goes to places like their house or remote locations with no backup and no gun, which is extremely foolhardy from a real-world perspective.
For example, at the end of "Any Old Port in a Storm," Columbo goes out to a remote location on the beach where someone he knows to be a murderer (someone who murdered his own half-brother, no less) is throwing away a bunch of bottles of wine. What's to stop him from smashing one of those wine bottles over Columbo's head and throwing him in the ocean? Realistically, multiple cops would have arrived; their guns would have been drawn and they would have ordered him to get on the ground, face-down, before they approached him. Then they would have placed him in handcuffs while he was on the ground, searched him, and escorted him into the back of a cruiser. That's the best method of ensuring everyone's safety.
"Columbo doesn't need a gun. This is a cerebral show, not a dumb action series."
You + an idiot = 2 idiots.
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