Originally Posted by
scroca
Just curious. At what point do you determine that it is necessary to draw your gun? Say it starts with yelling and escalates to fisticuffs. Will you have time to fetch your gun? If it will it be clearly visible, like in a holster, then I can see how that will act as a deterrent. But concealed? It seems like there are practical issues with your plan.
Axiom answered your question before you asked it - life in immediate danger. I believe he's wrong to state that he'd 'shoot to kill' - the appropriate mindset is to shoot to 'stop the threat'. It's unfortunate that the most effective method to do that is to shoot center-mass (shooting for legs, weapons, and other such stuff you see in the movies are woefully unrealistic)
I've carried both open and concealed. OC isn't so much a deterrent as it is a political statement. Not that there's anything wrong with political statements, but I prefer concealed.
Drawing from concealment isn't much slower. Plus, you potentially retain the advantage of (at least tactical) surprise.