Is the not arming civilian policy stupid or....?

in the realm of small arms/ anti personal weapons it seems to be that if someone knows they are going  into a dangerous area they do seem to be prepared in that regard, includin the AI. but my issue is ship to ship weapons and anti fighter weapons. your assault rifle doesnt do anything when your target is miles away in space. 

I always assumed it was because it’s hard to target a ship and damage it just enough to kill the crew but not destroy the goods, especially when the crew and passengers are the goods. So you kind of have to board while they are still alive at some point.

Also given that pirate ships probably aren’t military dreadnoughts or something even lightly armed vessels might be able to defend themselves against them while not being a threat to citadel forces. So I’m not sure why people wouldn’t want their ship armed.

Yeah without some kind of economy it’s hard to guess if it is logical or not to arm/shield a ship. I suspect yes in council space it’s safe enough where you don’t bother.

Out of council space where it’s not just your cargo but slaver assholes to worry about I can’t fathom being unarmed. Hell I’d expect you’d be reasonably well armed. Now the pirate ships as you say might be stronger out there as well. But there is a point of diminishing returns. Cost of maintenance/purchase to expected haul. Also there comes a point where why bother being a pirate sell the ship and retire.

Maybe the missions we do are all about the people who gambled and lost by not being armed so they became more tempting targets.

They don’t really detail how risky it is or any of the others details you’d need to make s good guess on what people would do. My impression was it was dangerous enough that civilian ships would be armed outside council space. But we have a fairly narrow perspective on it.

fair with an operation where you are infiltrating or sabotaging a ship in dock to make it an easier target the guns the ship has become meaningless. but that is a very well planned out deal. in a ambush of a random cargo ship i feel the ship have some sort of counter measure or anti ship armament would play a larger key role.