Couple points. Impact weapons, tire irons, bats etc, have very limited range and nearly impossible to use once actual contact has been made and someone has you pinned against a vehicle or wall or has hold of your arm and such. They arent entirely useless, but much less useful than proponents seem to think. Someone with much real experience or training can also likely take them from you, in which case you just gave them a deadly weapon. Theres techniques that deal with contact and entangled situations, it often involves retention techniques for a firearm and compact knives carried easily available to disengage from someone thats grappling with you.
Some states dont require any permit to carry concealed, most dont require any sort of permit to own, most western states dont require any permit to have one loaded in a vehicle so long as its not concealed, or some say something like "2 steps" to be able to use if loaded and concealed in the vehicle but not on a person, such as in a holster or glove box, locked glove box or variations on that theme. It can vary by state. Utah has some truly weird laws in regards to non-concealed carry permitted persons, like an auto pistol can be carried openly with an empty chamber, or a revolver can be carried openly if the chamber under the hammer AND the next one up in rotation is also empty. So, some that say they carry and dont have a concealed carry permit arent necessarily violating any laws. Local state laws vary considerably.
A 45 isnt necessarily heavier than other similar guns, yes the ammo weighs more, but in the greater scheme of things, theres not often a large overall difference in weight. if one isnt carrying it long or far, the weight is much less of an issue, except that many are simply lazy and dont want to deal with it. Also a factor, despite whatever financial investment they may have in the gun, few people with carry permits carry full time or even regularly from what I understand. In years past, many police felt any officer that actually carried off duty were gun freaks. Many involved with law enforcement have only rudimentary training or interest or knowledge of guns or even the laws about them. For some reason many people think if someone is a police officer they much know a lot about guns and are good with them.
"Good area" "Bad area" have some bearing, but not as much as most seem to think, in the chance one may need their firearm for defense. Crooks are mobile, they also often go where theres more plunder, meaning not in poorer neighborhoods. The so-called good areas are what, a few minutes walk or drive from the so-called bad areas, not really much of a hurdle. Less likely? Yes, but certainly not enough to completely disregard the chances of anything happening.
