“if you have to pull your weapon in order to defend yourself or others”
When I carry, I often carry some pepper spray in my pocket too. I don’t want my only option to be a gun.
Only pulled in self-defense once. 8 of them. 1 of me, and many miles from help. When they started to surround me, I pulled my 22 revolver and waited. I would only have had time to get off one shot, but no one volunteered to be #1 - so I arced off and around them and left in one piece.
If someone intends violence against you, there aren’t a lot of good answers. Having options improves the odds of finding a ‘good enough’ answer.
Having been in a similar situation on the job, I can empathize. The problem is in some jurisdictions, chemical devices (Mace) are also illegal. In our municipality it was covered under our long-gun ordinance. So you have to be careful no matter what happens.
In your scenario, I could see a defense attorney argue that just because you were surrounded by 8 subjects, it may not justify the use of deadly force. Especially, if none of the 8 were armed with a weapon. As hard as that is to believe, a good defense attorney will argue that the other 7 were there by “happenstance” and were only there to “watch”.
There are no easy cut and dried answers which is why pulling a weapon should only be a last resort response.