I don't intentionally put myself in harm's way just because I'm carrying. My current line of work has put me in a bad area a few times, as did my previous one. When your job is to go to a call in a high-crime neighborhood, in the middle of the night, and work on something, you're crazy if you go unarmed - in my personal opinion.

I've survived several attempted muggings and one attempted carjacking without a scratch. The main reason is that I was aware of my surroundings and saw what was happening in enough time to react. The second reason is that once I saw what was going down, I had the necessary tools to meet force with opposite and greater force.

There are times when bad stuff is going to happen whether you are careful about where you go or not. There's no magical "safe" place where crime isn't allowed, where criminals can't go. All the situational awareness in the world isn't going to mean that nothing bad can happen to you, it just lessens the odds. This whole forum is devoted to handling situations that rarely happen to your average person.

If carrying a gun and knowing how to use it didn't deter crime, the cops would show up with a puppy and maybe some balloons instead of guns.