Db, I've had the unmitigated misery of having to use a gun to defend myself, in the past. I've never had to shoot it; merely brandishing it was enough.

30 years ago, I was followed home one late night, by a gang of drunken ruffians who apparently felt I was driving too slowly for their taste. I pulled into my driveway, and they poured out of their car with baseball bats. I managed to retrieve an M1 Carbine from the tirewell of my old buick Sportwagon, jacked in a 30-round magazine, and they scattered like a bunch of jackrabbits! No one was hurt, but I'm sure I
saved myself from a serious beating.

Whilst putting myself through college for my degree in Criminal Justice, I worked at local YMCA which was beset with pediophiles. After consulting with the local PD, whose only advice was "Why don't you beat the schitt out of 'em?", I knew I was on my own. I confronted them, told them to get lost, and never come back.

They did come back, with some of the biggest, enforcer bruisers I've ever had the displeasure to meet. When they lunged over the counter for me, I grabbed "Emmy", (which by this time I was lovingly referring to her as!), pointed her square at them and smiled! Funny, they never came back after that. Wonder why? ;\)
"I think, that all right-thinking people, are sick and tired of being told that they are sick and tired of being sick and tired. I, for one, am not. And I'm sick and tired of being told that I am!"