If I had my way, public carrying of sidearms would not exist for civilians. As I mentioned earlier, I think the vast majority of carry permit holders have not thought through the ramifications of carrying their sidearm. I would rather extend the right to all than to have the haphazard and abused system we have now, but realistically, a gun is a considerable liability to its owner in a physical confrontation, especially within grappling range. Simple logic is if an attacker closes with you and manages to wrest the gun from your grip, you're dead, even if you might not have shot the attacker. All academic arguments aside, if self-preservation is your goal, I would highly discourage carrying a gun in favor of simple street smarts coupled with hand to hand self defense training.

That said, I accept that bearing arms is a protected right. But I still think it's a dumb thing to do in practice.