Opinions expressed are my own and are not endorsed by management. Or anyone else for that matter. If bad guys wanted to knock someone over the head and take a firearm cops would be going down everywhere. They, the cops, are not immune to a can of tomato soup to the head any more than you or I. And they are open carrying firearm. Ok. I am sure it happens, someone does get cold cocked and their firearm taken but that is the rare exception. More often than not if a bad guy sees you carrying he will by-pass you and go somewhere else. Also a good retention holster makes it very difficult for someone to walk up behind you and take your gun. It is just safer to steal from a store in the middle of the night, preferably when nobody is around.
A friend and I were open carrying and having a discussion at Starbucks in a local Safeway store. Where by the way we are known to the store manager. There is a small bank branch next to the Starbucks. Again all inside the Safeway grocery store. Sometime after we left the bank was robbed. A later review of the surveillance tapes revealed the robbers were there while we were having coffee. They spied our side arms and left, returning a couple of times until they were sure we were gone. Only then did they rob the bank. Since they haven't been caught yet I can not say for sure how much of a deterrent our being armed was. But I think it was significant. Too bad more patrons weren't armed. That said four cops were shot and killed at another local coffee shop a couple of years ago while they were just sitting there before their shift. So bad things do happen. Too bad more patrons weren't armed.
Mike