I am one who has had to use a hand gun for self defence where I had to shoot, out side of how it makes people feel when these things happen, there is some serious take away I try and pass on to others when this topic shifts to its current track! Keep in mind here, I was in the Military when this took place, but the experience could have really been a urban city as a civilian. We were issued Beretta M-9 for many many years, a very good pistol with a lot going for it. When ever we were deployed, we would cycle a round into th e chamber and the safety was on. Once we hit the deck, the first thing you did was decock and leave the safety off so that the M-9 was in double action mode, hammer down!
My shoot happend so freaking fast that there was no time what so ever to react, no cycling a slide, no smooth draw, nothing. It was drop my long gun, draw my pistol as fast as my hand could and fire as fast as I could! It was bad breath close, and I took a round of 7.62x39 in the plate for my trouble. Point it, my body reacted instantly before my mind caught up, and all the training went out the window, and muscle memory took over and got the job done! I never saw my pistols sights, I never thumbed a safety off, and I don't know what my draw looked like, but I put 15 rounds center mass exactly where they needed to go! That's why you carry a round in the chamber, and that's why you train and train and train, because a threat can come from any direction and happen in an instant, and you have only that instant to react! If you are fumbling around with your carry piece, you have problems to solve, and you may wanna have a serious look at the piece you are carrying.
This is why I carry a 1911, I can carry in condition 1 and long before I may need to use it, I can thumb the safety off and be fully ready to go, because I train, and I know my piece and I have an awesome holster with a coverd trigger that cannot get plugged up and cause a issue during a reholster!
I dare say only a few on this forum can likely speak with that level of experience. Thanks for making some very important points.