I had an encounter with a couple jackazzes around here a couple years back. Up in the Avalanche Gulch for those familiar with the area.
Passed a couple dudes in a parked pickup at the mouth of the gulch as we drove in. We went in a mile or two then went hiking up the road a few miles. On the way back out, these two had stopped their truck on a culvert where the creek flowed under the road. One of each of them was on either side of the truck. It was a choke point.
I summed up the situation from about 100 yards out. I could tell by their body language that something wasn't cool.
That day I didn't have the typical Glock on my strong side. I appeared unarmed from the front, from a distance. But I wasn't unarmed. I had an AR carbine slung on one shoulder, riding along my back. They couldn't see it.
When we got to about 50 yards, they were just watching us, with tense body language. I slipped the AR carbine off my shoulder and held it in my hand just ahead of the receiver letting it swing naturally as we continued toward them.
When they saw the hardware, and my eyes on them, their demeanor changed instantly. They got in the truck, started it up and slowly came our direction looking sheepish, and they continued up the road, while we continued down.
I gave them eye contact and a little head nod as we passed.
I've had a couple of similar incidents.
One of them was at a remote gas station in southern Arizona... I recognized a robbery/kidnapping/murder in progress with myself and my ex-wife as the intended prey. Instead of displaying my firearm, though, I simply pulled the spare Glock 23 magazine from my pocket and held it up as though checking to see if it was fully loaded. Funny thing, the 3 guys advancing on me stopped in their tracks, paused, and without a word turned around and got back into their truck and drove away.
I guess they figured that if a guy has a Glock magazine on him, he probably has a Glock pistol on him, too.
This sort of thing happens MILLIONS of times annually in America. It's got a name in the criminology literature: a DUG (Defensive Use of a Gun). Armed citizens rarely fire upon would-be perpetrators of crimes, because they can avert the criminal activity simply by showing themselves to be armed.
you can feel their wheels start to spin.