There's a concept in law called the "calculus of negligence".
Burden = Probability x Severity
So, if I leave a car parked on a steep hill without engaging the emergency brake, and it rolls away and hits a pedestrian, the courts will use this equation to determine my level of negligence. If the
burden (of engaging the parking brake) is less than the product of
probability (of the car rolling downhill) times the
severity (of harm caused if the runaway car hits someone), then I violated a "duty of care"; I'm negligent.
If you think about it, we sorta do this intuitively in everyday life. Why don't we wear a flak jacket and kevlar when we're out getting groceries with our family? Because in this case, the burden of wearing body armor (pretty darn annoying/high) is greater than the probability we will get into an actual firefight (very very very small) x severity of harm if we don't have our body armor on (true, it would suck to get shot without it). There's a fine line between preparedness and outright paranoia.
In contrast, why do we wear seat belts? The burden of buckling up (very low) is far less than the probability we will get into a car accident (very small) x severity of harm if we don't wear our seatbelts (high).
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So we get to concealed carry. Why don't most of us carry around full-sized semi-automatic service weapons (e.g. Glock 17, Sig 226) OWB with a cover garment, with two extra 17-round magazines on our weakside and a small BUG in an ankle holster? Because the burden is slightly too big (even for those who CCW), and thus burden > probability x severity.
In contrast, a small single stack 9mm tips the scale in the other direction. A weapon like this makes most of us forget we're even carrying, so the burden < probability x severity.
Life is all about balancing choices against one another. (Heck, sometimes I want to go to the range and gently remind some of these fatter shooters that they're far far far more likely to die of eating cheeseburgers [i.e. heart attack] than eating bullets [i.e. gun battle], so maybe less time shooting, and more time exercising?) Given my lifestyle (suburban dad), it's extremely unlikely that I'll need a gun, let alone actually fire it. And even if I do fire it, it's also unlikely I'll need more than four rounds:
Thus, since the burden of CCWing a single stack isn't too bad, I'll carry. It seems unproductive to go down the rabbit hole of statistically improbable scenarios like a shootout with multiple attackers that necessitate a large capacity pistol. At least for me, the burden outweighs the probability x severity.
Your equation may look different, of course (depends on your lifestyle, your environment, your comfort with risk, etc).
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