Good points.
However, for anyone who carries a gun, you always have to be in a mental awareness state of at least condition Yellow.
That means if someone approaches you, you notice it and have a plan for if they grab you.
Once you are attacked you have very limited options. So you’re at that time going with the least bad of several bad outcomes.
I do beieve that off duty police officers (a comparison I refer to as they are authorized to use deadly force and well trained but also without their radio and body armor (most likely) most like an ordinary armed citizen) are taught to always fight back if attacked and go down fighting if necessary.
Soldiers are taught not to surrender as long as you have the means to resist. Being outnumbered just means that you try to take out as many of your attackers as you can before you get taken out yourself.
Even the “perfect” outcome of pulling out a gun and hitting some of the attackers who then all run away still is going to mean a trial where their side of the story is that they were minding their own business and you started shooting at them...
Still, I’d rather fight back.
Thank you for your long post stepping me through the scenario. It isn't enough to be armed; you also have to have the total awareness training and know what steps to follow, and be ready to take a thug's life rather than waste your life to a thug.
How many guesses that Mr. Bicycle will be getting some target practice when he recovers? I hope he doesn't have a brain injury.