Very good point

When I was working Law Enforcement/Security, I always said to the guys I was training, if you ever have to draw your gun, somewhere you have screwed up. Your weapon is the LAST resort. You need to do everything in your power to keep from getting t the point here you have to draw your weapon. And I am extremely proud of the fact that in 10 years of doing LE/Security I only drew my pistol 7 times in the line of duty. And the only time I ever fired it in the line of duty other than practice on the range was to put down a dog that had been run over by a train and cut if half.

Yes a weapon is an equalizer. No you don't have to pull it and show everyone what a big bad person you are. I spent 45 minutes talking to a young black man armed with a rusty knife, who was coming down off of crack. Department policy for a knife wielding subject is tell them to put it down, if they don't shoot them, as someone with a knife can hurt you real bad in less time than you think. We had training videos showing a knife armed perp 30 feet away from an officer, suddenly charging the officer and stabbing them multiple time before the officer could draw his weapon. How long did it take for the perp to mortally wound the officer? 5 seconds. If it had been a real encounter instead of training, the officer would have died. They used a 3 inch rubber knife coated with colored chalk. The officer had 7 wounds to his torso and 2 on his neck. One right on his jugular. The trainer said all but 1 of the wounds would have been fatal. So policy saying if they have a knife and don't drop it when instructed to, shooting them is a reasonable policy. The young man I referenced above? The one I talked down? Well I had something the other officers didn't have. I am a former army medic and EMT. I could tell that physically he could barely even sit up where he was leaning against the wall. He was severely dehydrated, it was very hot that day in St. Louis, over 90 with a heat index over 102. I knew that he couldn't really threaten me, so I talked, instead of pulling my weapon and shooting him which according to department policy I could have done. And he and I talked, and talked for almost 45 minutes when he finally just threw the knife in the grass and fell over. The full time officers wanted to just lock him up, I called for an ambulance as I knew the kid was messed up. I wound up being his escort at the hospital, it allowed me to do the paperwork on the call.

That is how you need to try to be. Unless you are a police officer you do not need to be drawing your weapon and engaging anyone. You need to try to slide away, talk cute, anything you have to do, even if it makes your guts crawl, avoid the situation. Unless the other person makes it you don't have ANY choice. I think that is what happened to George Zimmerman. I think he was walking away to de-escalate the situation, and Trayvon Martin came up and got physical. I don't know that that is what happened. But according to Mr. Zimmerman's statements, that is what happened. If you carry a weapon, you need to do that to. Do anything you possibly can to avoid having to draw your weapon. Don't "Bluff" by flashing your weapon or drawing it. It can actually make the situation worse. Do everything to avoid the problem, but if you need to because the person or persons won't back down. Well rely on your training and your gut.

Keep it in your holster until you absolutely need it.