If I was down by the southern border, I'd be rolling heavy too. Here in MT, it's a little different.
Don't get me wrong, if I'm schit kicking in the woods or mountains I carry a healthy amount of ammo.
But for day in and day out just going to store or whatever, I just don't see where Joe Schit the Ragman is going to be well served by engaging anything with 50 rounds of ammo. If anything it will just get you shot by the po-po.
I think a "fire and flee" approach makes more sense.
The decision is almost always situational.
I'm sure most of us do a conscious or subconscious threat assessment every time we are heading out the door.
you pretty much got it down, it is situational. overlooking the issue with semiautomatics, and a jam or malfunction, most likely rare, is the issue of multiple targets with various degrees of threat. We were practicing that clear back in the 70's, when everyone was using six shot revolvers.
i did have a situation one time with about ten or so armed very drunk bikers, that another guy and i had to arrest. I would have liked to have had a MP5. And i do live near the border, which is everywhere these days in arizona, with phoenix being one of the major transit points for narco's.
and i have come across large groups of illegals with coyotes on the desert.
Given that situation i always had some kind of black rifle in the truck, and both extra mags for it and the sidearm.
There was a local situation in prescott just last weekend where a man and wife, unarmed, got jumped by four people described as hispanics.
The man got the snot kicked out of him.
whatever makes you comfortable.
I felt comfortable for years with a model 19 and some speed loaders, still do to some extent. But those high cap mags are there for a reason.
I had to go to a court proceeding a few years ago, one of the armed guys in the courthouse was packing a mag holder for four spare mags.
i was kind of snickering at that, but not so much anymore.
i shouldd add it is much different shooting paper targets than having a firearm pointed at somebody knowing that somebody might be meeting eternity shortly. You get pretty wired up. Which is the reason you hear of some cops dumping a whole magazine out of that glock 17.
