Self-defense against unarmed thugs

[MechAg94]

IMO, if you are justified to draw, draw with the intent to shoot. If the attacker is going to stop, he had better do it convincingly before you get the point of shooting. I think if you plan on drawing and pausing to see what happens, you are putting yourself at a severe disadvantage. Distance from the attacker always affects this, but I think it is dangerous to plan to draw and do nothing even if only for a moment. I think the time to evaluate the situation is before you drawr. I am sure there are numerous scenarios both ways, but I think one should be very careful about setting your mind up for NOT shooting. The situation may end up requiring that very thing.

[jmra]

IMO, if you are justified to draw, draw with the intent to shoot. If the attacker is going to stop, he had better do it convincingly before you get the point of shooting. I think if you plan on drawing and pausing to see what happens, you are putting yourself at a severe disadvantage. Distance from the attacker always affects this, but I think it is dangerous to plan to draw and do nothing even if only for a moment. I think the time to evaluate the situation is before you drawr. I am sure there are numerous scenarios both ways, but I think one should be very careful about setting your mind up for NOT shooting. The situation may end up requiring that very thing.

NRA statistics would disagree strongly as the number of instances in a gun being used in self defense each year is many many times the instances of shots fired in self defense.
The NRA estimates that guns are used in self defense 800,000 to 2.5 million times annually. Only a small fraction of those instances result in actual firing of a weapon.
There have been many instances of BGs shooting people and turning their own gun on themselves at the first sign of armed resistance without a shoot fired by that resistance. The simple fact is that the mere presence of a firearm often stops an aggressor in their tracks.

[Bitter Clinger]

"Don't pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you". John Steinbeck.