Erie County here. People here are a bit more fascist than in counties like Warren. Without my connection, I don’t think I would be able to get an unrestricted permit (ie, one not restricted to only target and hunting). I’m surprised that Warren County, being a rural county, was not willing to give you an unrestricted permit. I have many friends in the North Country in St. Lawrence County, and they had no problems getting their permits unrestricted. The more urban Upstate counties(ie Erie, Onondaga, Monroe) seem to give you more crap about an unrestricted permit.
Thanks to everyone! I will reply more later
Your assailant will not shout out to you from 50 yards away to prepare yourself because he intends to approach you, rob and commit greivous bodily harm to you. Were this the case, I would recommend a very different type of gun. My advice to you has been based on an assumption that from a distance, your assailant will appear unremarkable. It will not be until your assailant is in close quarters that you realize you are in a life or death situation.
So, a few other points about the benefits of an encosed hammer (hamerless) revolver is that when wearing a raincoat or overcoat, you can have your hand on the pistol while in the coat pocket or even pants pocket (if you don't wear tight pants). You will appear perfectly normal walking in this manner.
If the hammerless revoler is in your coat pocket, you can even fire your first and subsequent shots from within the pocket without fear of fouling. Withdrawing the gun from your pocket for more shots or reloading will be as smooth of an operation as withdrawing just your hand.
This technique is more problematic with an exposed hammer revolver because the hammer can become fouled in your clothing causing it to fail to fire even the first round.
Quickly withdrawing an exposed hammer revolver can be problematic because the hammer tends to snag on clothing.
Firing from the coat pocket is more risky with a semiauto because if held in your coat pocket and the hammer is exposed, when you pull the trigger, clothing may interfere with the hammer and the gun won't fire. Not good. Then, when you attempt to withdraw the gun from your coat pocket, you may not be able to because the hammer is closed and snagged on your clothing. Not a fun situation to find yourself in at all.
Assuming you have an enclosed hammer semiauto, you can fire the first shot from within your coat pocket and be reasonably confident that the gun will fire. You can never have the same confidence in your semiauto firing as your revolver. Another problem is that as the slide cycles on your enclosed hammer semiauto, the spent cartridge may be prevented from ejecting by your clothing resulting in the slide closing on the spent cartridge resulting in the gun being inoperable until you withdraw it and manually clear the jam. Again, not a happy situation to find yourself in. With the slide not closed, the gun may also snag on your clothing as you attempt to withdraw it.
Another risk is that you fire the first shot from within your coat pocket, the empty shell safely ejects but the slide closes on your clothing. Once again, you will have to withdraw the gun and manually clear the condition before making another shot. Not something you want to be doing in a life or death situation.
Yet another thing to be concerned with is that when firing a semiauto from odd angles such as within a coat pocket, the slide opens with considerable force and if your hand or wrist is in the way, ouch! They can get torn up pretty badly.
Keep in mind, all of what I have mentioned is with defensive use in mind when the other person(s) have the jump on you such as seemingly just another pedestrian on a nighttime sidewalk who suddenly turns into an armed assailant. Your ability to react quickly and instinctively will determine the outcome. If in your instantaneous analysis you decide to use your gun, you cannot accept any risk that the gun will not function properly. This is again why I strongy urge you to consider an enclosed hammer revolver as a defensive carry gun.
Finally, I see from your profile that you are Jewish. Given the history of persecution suffered by your fine people, no Jew should be unarmed and no Jew should be untrained in the use of arms. What a nasty surprise the Nazi Einsatzkommando's would have gotten had every Jew carried just a pocket pistol.
The saying "Never again" used by Jews in reference to the Holocaust is a similar frame of mind our founding fathers were in when they penned the 2nd Amendment. It reflects their understanding that predators and tyrants only attack the weak. But of course, you know all of this which is why you are preparing yourself.
Congratulations. Let us know what you finally decide on. This may be your first purchase but it probably won't be your last. We look forward to answering your questions down the road about the best target rifle to get and the best sporting clays shotgun and the best reloading equipment etc, etc, etc.