Posted by
45_auto:
Since the odds of an event happening don't matter to you then anytime you go out you should obviously be arming yourself in preparation for the worst possible case, similar to going on patrol in a war zone.
No. That's silly.
In risk management, one decides not only
whether to mitigate a risk, but
how. The decision about how will depend upon such things as effectiveness, cost, weight, convenience, and the impact on other aspects of life (or on other aspects of the performance of a mission).
To mitigate the risks of a violent criminal attack, most of us will assess what kind of tools and training we would likely need in
perhaps the majority of potential incidents, should an incident occur in the first place. That would equip us to face one or two, or perhaps three, assailants at a distance not too far away. That will lead
most informed, trained shooters to choose something that won't go on a watch chain, that can be fired rapidly and with control a sufficient number of times without reloading, and that has sufficient terminal ballistics.
Most of us would dispense with body armor.
But any time I go out I am armed with a handgun, and I carry a walking stick and a cell phone.
What is sufficient? Consider that not every shot will hit anything that will likely effect an immediate physiological stop, and that one might like a reserve or amargin for error.
JohnKSa posted a rather illustrative analysis here some time ago:
http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=494257&highlight=multiple+assailants
If you do not like his input variables, use your own.
Something that should illuminate the subject for many people is a session in a virtual simulation facility such as the kind operated at the several Gander Mountain Academies. I cannot find the video right now, but Rob Pincus took part in a scenario that involved two--two, no-more--gun-armed criminals inside a store. Rob, who has quite a bit of skill with a handgun, ended up using the capacity of a double column semi to end the threat. The problem with it is it is that any hit is scored as a stop, and we all know that that's not the way things work in the real world.