I want to address this one seperately: Do you remember in Seattle, a year or so ago, this hardened criminal walked into a coffee shop and just shot four LEO's?
Now, do you think this same guy would have bothered me, if I was sitting in that same coffee shop, with my openly carried weapon, but I was at a completely different table?
I don't. I think that guy shot those officers specifically because they were officers. He didn't even stop to collect the weapons, he just shot them and left. It was his retaliation for the law putting him in jail, it had nothing to do with guns.
Now, if I had been there and pulled my weapon, I might have been shot, or I might have gotten off a shot, or I might have delayed him enough that one of teh officers could get off a shot at him....never know, wasn't there, but if you were there concealed and pulled your weapon, don't you think the various senario's would be the same....ya think?
In my 42+ years of OC (mostly unlicensed) I know for sure of one case my holster pistol stopped something bad for me, and my pistol never left it's holster...and I have never had any other confrontations. Your "hardened criminal" senario may have happened somewhere, but I've never heard of one that was verifiable,,,,and i do know I have read verifiable stories of CC persons being robbed, of their carry too.
Oh, may I add: When the Newton CT shoot first came out, I was in a small retail store, at the checkout. I said..."and that is exactly why I carry"...The owner of the stores answer to that statement? EXACTLY!
I'm having a real hard time following your logic. So somehow OC in a coffee shop with a bunch of cops makes you what...a distraction? Bad guy comes in looking to target the cops, sees you with a gun and changes his mind? Makes no sense. This guy had serious bad intentions; he was willing to take on 4 armed LEOs. What on earth makes you think he wouldn't have taken you on as well? You think bad guys are incapable of threat assessment?
You want a more likely scenario? How about a smart CC who while the bad guy is focused on shooting at the cops pulls his weapon under the table, comes up and puts a couple of rounds into the bad guy before he even knows that someone else in the coffee shop had a weapon?
You keep intimating that CC is for criminals, I'd counter that by saying that OC is for "cowboys" and I don't mean the guys that ride horses and rope steers.