The Law of Averages says 3 seconds, 3 feet, 3 shots.
The problem with that "average" is simply this...what if your fight is at the wrong end of that bell curve?
Personal example;
my 1st shooting, i fired all of 1 shot. Badguy fell. Done. Single shot fired from about 6feet
My next shooting (2 years later) 11rounds fired at a MEASURED distance of 43 YARDS.
So, if we avg the number of shots fired (1+11=12 divide by 2) we come up with 6 rounds. So according to the AVG i would have been ok with a 6 shot pistol.
The PROBLEM is in one of those events i NEEDED 11 rounds on tap RIGHT THE HECK NOW!!!
We dont get to pick our fight. So we need to prepare for the WORST case scenario. Not the avg or BEST case. Heck, if you want to use avg and play the odds....dont carry a gun at all. Statistics say you wont need it PERIOD.
But IF you do need it you need it badly. And if your gunfight is outside the "norm" (more rounds fired, more distance, mtpl attackers) you may want to be prepared for that.
Now, my days of intentially putting myself in harms way (hopefully) are behind me. But, ive experenced enough hostile encounters to know a couple things. The big one is YOU CAN NEVER HAVE ENOUGH TIME OR AMMO in a shooting
Now, obviously, the pistol is an emergency response tool. If we knew there was going to be a fight we would not go..or at least take a longgun. The point is sometimes things clack off right now and we only have the tools at hand to fix the problem. A J frame with no reload MAY not be enough to solve the immediate problem...so whats your plan after those 5shots didnt solve the problem
Someone is going to say "if the 5 shot dont solve the problem, i'll run". Hell, if you could have run you should have done that already. Oh, and i love the "if i can't solve it in 5shots it was my time to go". What HOGWASH. Stay home and bury your head in the sand.