When I decided to get a CCW, I thought this through long and carefully. I will call 911 if serious. I will never initiate communication of any sort with a belligerent; I will walk away, change course; give leeway; I will apologize if it seems the thing to do; I will de-escalate in any way I see if personally involved. I would never, ever brandish my weapon unless its use is deemed imminent; it's not meant to be seen until it's used.
So my personal overall view is to flee. This no room for machismo or tough guys here..until I have no way out for myself or some other nearby innocent's life and limb are threatened.
Edited to add: while not always avoidable, some problem people, or areas can be foreseen and skirted with on-going circumstantial awareness.
I will not give another person the power to control my actions. That goes both ways. I will not intentionally avoid people or areas because they "might" be threatening. I do whatever the hell I want to do. At the same time, I will not let someone get me into a mental state where I am not thinking clearly about all possible outcomes of a situation.
Example; Coming home from softball practice, not packing or even carrying my pocket knife, a car full of 16-18 year old Mexican boys pull up next to me, making eye contact while rapping along to the stereo and pointing at me, trying to look menacing. First reaction was to start laughing at them because they were trying SOOOO hard to look tough. Well this apparently pissed them off so they start talking [bleep] and driving erratically next to me, being aggressive morons. I have my softball bat with me and unless they were armed could probably have taken all 4 of them with it and my fists, but I just yelled out to them "sorry guys, I shouldn't have laughed. I know you are a bunch of bad asses" all with a smile on my face. Then proceeded to APPEAR to ignore them. They didn't know what to do so they just moved on.
Not saying that would always work, but just the latest example of how I try to deal with morons on a day to day basis. Usually have a pistol riding with me, and if I did I would have handled the situation the exact same way.
