bring enough gun

One thing that bugs me about Buffy is her habit of going under-armed. In The Prom (3:20), why did she take itty-bitty arrows rather than a dwarvish axe to hunt the hell-hounds? In Shadow (5:8), why didn’t Giles bring a couple of sabers, or a shotgun? Did he expect Buffy to pummel the cobra-monster to death? (That she did pummel it to death is beside the point.)