Thank you, I appreciate your responses. I feel that CC should be allowed & that it is Constitutionally rightful. However I see the reality of how gun ownership by law abiding citizens are viewed by politicians & mains stream media. After learning what can & can't be done with a gun in even the most justified of situations I see CC as just another way for the government to make money from people who are being falsely deceived into believing that they can legally defend themselves with deadly force. In fact it appears that in reality anyone that uses a gun in any situation is going to be prosecuted as a dangerous person to society. We (and by we I mean all law abiding citizens) live in very dangerous times because we are the enemies of the very powerful anti-gun groups & while they may not be Constitutionally or even morally correct but they are considered by mainstream media & the general public as being politically correct.
The media ain't as powerful as people think it is and frankly their reputation is in the toilet right along with Congress critters and conmen. Same with anti-gun groups which have funds but surprisingly few foot soldiers that are not bought and paid for by Bloomberg cash, and if you look, despite the recent media onslaught, polls consistently have show majority support for firearm ownership. Despite the media arguments, places like New Jersey, New York, Illinois, and California are the exception to the rule while advances in state laws promoting firearm ownership such as constitutional carry are downplayed by that same media. Notably most of the media hysteria recently has been not over defensive handguns, but AR type rifles (which ironically represent very few firearms deaths per year). The media had decades long campaigns to demonize handguns but they have pretty much lost that battle so much so that Handgun Control Inc. had to change its name (BTW, its former spokesperson in that era was CNN's Jake Tapper who curiously fails to note his start when reporting.)
Notice that as much as the media tried to put Zimmerman in prison through misleading stories, the jury saw through the smoke and did not convict. Tom Givens, the Rangemaster trainer I mentioned, had over 60 of his students go through having to defend themselves with a firearm successfully with none of his students going to jail. He taught them in one of the most violent cities in the U.S., Memphis, TN, and the only two that lost in a gunfight were not carrying a firearm at the time (cannot remember whether they were seriously injured or dead as a result).
However, the media purposefully downplays these incidents of people using firearms to legally defend themselves and instead plays up the few incidents where a person acts stupidly with a firearm (like the recent St. Louis case where the victim and idiot shooter got into a bar fight over how much German Shepherd dogs can weigh.) They also conflate issues of self defense with the claims by drug dealers and the like for self defense during drug deals gone bad which are generally regarded skeptically by prosecutors and lawmen.
For a change, take a look at any American Rifleman which has a long running column of average people using firearms and not being charged with anything. In that column, you will see every month about 10-15 stories of people using firearms to stop criminal assaults, burglaries, rape, etc. None of these will you see in the national media because essentially the national media apparently wants people to be helpless and subject to criminals because gun ownership is bad to them. However, even in blue states such as Chicago, you see periodically the one to two day story of some good guy with a gun stopping criminal behavior and not being charged with anything.
Ultimately you have to make the decision to carry or not but relying on mass media to do so when they systematically misinform you on a daily basis is not wise. They do not have your best wishes at heart. The internet too is not necessarily the best place to start unless you already have a good handle on facts. Search algorithms etc. by all of the major search engine providers are essentially black boxes and folks like Google have been caught manipulating these on purpose to push ideas Google likes and bury ideas they don't.
Instead, talk to some of your local law enforcement, talk to a local attorney that deals with criminal defense or a local firearms trainer about your concerns. You might find that a surprising number of local attorneys carry firearms because often their clients are not exactly the most upright of citizens and sometimes they are dealing with some emotional clients and families that get rather upset at the legal process and blame the attorney. You will also find quite a few rank and file cops that support private citizens owning firearms and they will tell you how they deal with them.
Firearms trainers, often have past LEO experience and contacts, will also be pretty straight with you about their students (avoid the tacticool folks promising a military special forces experience). If available, NRA trainers in your area should have a decent handle on the issue in their basic courses on avoiding being a victim of crime and these classes are usually pretty inexpensive. Regardless of whether you chose to get a firearm, their basic Refuse to Be a Victim class can give you pointers on identifying and avoiding criminals and their actions.
https://rtbav.nra.org/
Last but not least, regarding your anecdote, one of the problem that people often do wind up in a jam, regardless of whether a firearm is involved, is in domestic disputes. Emotions are involved and family members often quarrel in rather heated arguments. Sometimes a family member will call the cops because they are afraid it will get out of hand but once the police are there, they have to take notice of what is going on and file reports on what was said, done, etc.
Once again, avoidance is the best strategy--if you have a conflict with someone in your family, don't have them in your house or be around them. Folks often have a family member doing shady stuff, using drugs, and basically living a criminal lifestyle. Sometimes these folks come in via marriage or divorce. The worst thing to do is get into a confrontation with them with no way to escape--thus keep them at arms length and only meet in public places etc. where a dispute will get attention quick and objective witnesses are around. You cannot rely on even close family members for such things as their heart and feelings often overcome sound reasoning--thus avoidance and ground rules for interactions. I know couples with bad divorces basically go to police stations to exchange custody of kids. Others have to call the cops for trespassing, even on their own kids, but do not let the troubled yutes in the house at all. Meetings are at places like food courts at the mall, churches, or some other neutral ground. Occasionally, families have to deal with violent stalker type behavior which its own special circumstance and outside the scope. However, the problem was not the firearm in the confrontation mentioned by you but the fact that the confrontation resulted in an apparently illegal use of the firearm which means a lack of training and common sense in a confrontation. Without more information, it is difficult to tell just went on, but if the firearm was not used appropriately within the law, then you face charges and the result would have been the same with a baseball bat employed inappropriately.
The biggest error that people make with firearms is that they are not a magic talisman that can be presented and troubles will flee. One needs training, both for the firearm and legal, in order to judge when their use is appropriate and how then to use it. People unwilling spend on basic training, which is often much less than a new model of Iphone or some jumbo tv, should consider then not buying one.
