LOL...in a fight or flight situation most people couldn't hit the side of a barn from inside the barn and if the bad guy gets the jump on you your brand new expensive hand gun is going away with him and into the blackmarket.
Valid point, but most people I know who have a CCW are very experienced with firearms. Some of them are even former law enforcement. They won't draw their weapon unless they are absolutely sure the situation warrants it, and they can make a difference by doing so.
I'm with Tom Gallagher!
When I was a cop I remember reading about a national police shotgun champion who responded to a call of an armed robbery in progress. Upon arrival he exchanged shots with the offenders and fired at their getaway car, with the shotgun. Not only did he not hit any of the offenders but he missed the car as well. WITH A SHOTGUN!
Point is, to be proficient with a handgun, a person must make practice an obsession. Any shooting situation, whether shots are fired or not, creates tremendous stress in the mind and body which results in things like shaking hands, tunnel vision, and others.....all of which affect the ability to place shots on target. If you look at the amount of practicing that people in the military or law enforcement do to become and remain proficient with firearms, the average person doesn't have the time, money, or desire to achieve that level of proficiency. As an ex-cop, IMO, if a person does not have the ability or the desire to make themselves into that type of shooter there's no way that they will be anything but trouble in a hot situation. He/she is just one more person with a gun that the cops have to deal with. This is particularly true in urban settings, like what I come from, where there are always other unintended targets in the background and lots of unfortunate places for errant shots to make impact. This is something that is real easy to remember when it's time to test for a CCW because it makes sense. But when a mofo is trying to shoot you or slash you because you, as a CCW holder, have made a decision to intercede in someone else's troubles, and your whole world comes down to you and that person and their desire to make you become dead all your classroom bu!!sh*t goes right out the window because the situation that you now find yourself embroiled in doesn't make sense.
Most of the time in shooting situations the biggest difference that an honest, upright, taxpayer-type person will make, even when they are 100% right in what they've done, is to find themselves on the receiving end of a Violation of Due Process lawsuit. What this means is when the no account, dope dealing, drive-by shooting gang-banger makes it "necessary" for the civilian holder of a CCW (or a cop, for that matter) to put the required punch in his ticket, that the alienated family of the aforementioned scumbag will now sue your a$$ for depriving their baby of his Constitutional right to a fair trial with a jury of his peers. And the legal fees incurred will be the only thing that you have to show for your well intentioned efforts when it is all over. That, and the memory of what it felt like to kill somebody.
I'm not saying that people should not be allowed to own and legally cary firearms. What I AM saying is that before I get any fantasies in my head about being the subject of a movie about what a hero I am because I chose to involve myself in gunplay in public that I damn well better understand what lays in store for me once I pull the trigger. Because that's not the end of the situation, it's just the beginning.
Sorry if I offended anyone.