ElVee

Defense of myself or others aside, I'll go the pussy route if it means I don't develop a permanent limp or risk death or incapacitation. I'm a grown man who hasn't had training or a history of fighting or being hit. I shouldn't start now. For those with training and/or history, more props to you, you do what you want. Because of my lack of training and experience, weird things can and do happen, either what I take or what I give (for instance adrenaline blackout causing my to take a beating too far and get into legal trouble that changes my life).

For guns, I get the drawing of a weapon in a situation. But what I don't agree with are those who say a gun is a way to diffuse a situation. I won't argue that it will have that effect, but drawing a weapon is really a situation escalator. You've escalated the encounter by including a weapon, and as such if the other person has a gun, they can choose to meet that escalation. It's a subtle thing that usually gets lost in text-based discussions.

Besides, you could be the one who was completely in the wrong, and you pull a gun and suddenly you feel in the right. And you're not. There's no way to define it or enforce it, but when guns are in the hands of decent, rational people, I feel much better.