Originally Posted by Samurai Jack
I'm not all that certain that a gun represents the best defensive value for most self-defense situations. In cases where your opponent isn't threatening lethal force i.e. armed with a knife or gun, then YOUR weapon represents a serious liability.
For example, if you draw your weapon against an unarmed assailant and the moron dosen't back down (seen this happen in my youth), what the hell do you do? Shoot him? What if you shoot him accidentally? It's happened before. Either way, that's murder in the eyes of any court. And if he starts fighting you and you haven't drawn your weapon, how much harder is it to fight him while keeping him from taking your gun? Not to mention what happens if he succeeds in grabbing it.
The only time you'd want your gun IMO, is if your opponent has one. In which case you're pretty screwed anyway because you stand a very good chance of being killed or accidentally killing a bystander should you choose to deploy your weapon rather than just meet his demands.
Just playing devil's advocate...