What you wrote is ridiculous. The vast majority of successful defensive uses of guns do not involve shots being fired.
One should not pull a gun unless one is PREPARED to fire it, if necessary, but it is often not necessary. Assuming that pulling the gun will end the threat is foolish, but so is assuming it won’t.
From a legal perspective one should never pull a gun unless he/she reasonably believes he may need to fire it in defense of self or others, though.
Agree...you not only have to think about your situation, but the backstop and the ramifications afterwards, too...Hollywood has polluted many minds with misinformation. My fav is when Mel Gibson gets shot numerous times in the Lethal Weapon films yet amazing, has not even a limp in the next movies...