If you absolutely have to carry against the law, please make sure to remember that that $600 gun doesn't settle arguments, and won't get you out of trouble faster than a good pair of runnin shoes. I hate to advocate "turnin tail", but in your location you'll set back gun ownership/carry back 20 years if you illegally use a gun now.
The carry of the pistol is a misdemeanor. Using it is borderline premeditated murder, or at least assault with a deadly weapon and attempted murder, among other charges. You need to be absolutely sure you need to use it before you do, or you'll be better off dead anyway. I've spent a little stay in the concrete motel before, and I couldn't imagine having to stay there my entire life, or even 10 years straight for that matter.
Stab wounds heal, even in multiples. The emotional scar of the stay in a real penitentiary, like the one you'll be visiting if you use a gun illegally in your state, will not. It doesn't matter if you're "the man" in your cellblock, or how many friends you might have in that hellhole, it is still like some kinda hazy nightmare with no end. Everyday you'll wake up to loud sound of the bars unlocking, to the sight of the aquamarine ceiling, to feel of a thousand men's grimey paws' sweat build-up on your steel bunk, on the floor, on the bars, on the doors. You can't escape it, it's a total depression that you have to live through, by yourself and on your own, every - single - day. Every night you'll get to be lulled asleep by screaming men who refuse to sleep so that they might sleep all day, everyday, when you're not chipping layers of paint off the bars, you get to spend your every waking moment avoiding eye contact for the fear that you'll look at the wrong man in the eye, and he might decide to pluck them out with a sharpened stolen fork for ya. Well, at least you won't have to worry then, because you'll be in the infirmary. At least in the infirmary you can sleep. Sleep is always nice. It lets you forget where you really are.
This is an awful thing to say, but your life isn't worth it. If a man pulls a knife, grab the knifeblade, he won't expect that, and gouge out his right eyeball with your fingernails. What are you risking, a few cuts? Believe me, this ain't like TV tells ya, people don't die in 2 seconds from a knife wound. Hell, I once walked right into an emergency room with a 5" Buck knife stuck in my right side. They made me have a seat and fill out the paperwork before they'd see me, if that tells you how much to worry about a knife wound. Still got that knife as a matter of fact.
But at least that'd be considered self-defense in most communist courts. I hope you understand what I'm trying to say.
