From a purely tactical point of view, carry a knife.
While I honor and respect both CC and open carry guns, they have their limitations, gaps in situations where a knife is clearly better.
A good way of thinking about it is, of all things, trench warfare, where infantrymen quickly learned that it was best to have a pistol in one hand and a knife in the other. Between the two, an individual had the optimal ability to move quickly and inflict the most harm before other armed men could react.
The #1 problem for ordinary people is that a gun conveys a suicidal sense of omnipotence and control in a situation that does not actually exist. Many people have been shot multiple times and still been functional for as long as an hour, more than enough time to harm the person who shot them.
Second is that gun play is prone to having extended moments when bullets are not flying. This is a good example, when the gunman was exchanging magazines. Within range, there are no pauses with a knife, and people can rapidly close on a gunman, 15 to 25 feet in a few seconds.
Third, knife injuries are relatively far deadlier and disabling than are gunshot wounds. Psychologically as well, gunshots often feel like a hard punch, especially to a person who is inebriated, but knives slash across many capillaries, with a resultant gush of blood that penetrates even the dimmest of awareness.
Just read your post...interesting...I tend to agree but I have no knowlege in weapons.
If you were a woman, seeking to protect herself, would your advice be the same? And what type of knife as most require you open them...by then someone could be all over you!