Mouse gun in pocket is worth more than a Bear gun not available.
Absolutely!
I had my NAA 22m because I "only" ran down to Walmart to get a few things.
My choice was a 642, but the thought process was the same. I was "only" going out to shop in a "safe" grocery.
Then I realized that what I would need to defend myself, should the need arise, would not be influenced at all by the situation as I had perceived it before the fact.
Before GCA '68, my choice, had concealed carry been lawful, would have been a Browning .380--the old 1910 FN. Compact and concealable.
I had never put any thought into tactics, and I did not consider the time it would take to disengage that safety. Today that would be a show-stopper.
When CCW was legalized here, I did what most of the people I knew did--I tried a 642 in the pocket of my jeans and bought one. I carried it most of the time.
After shooting it at the the square range quite a bit and signing up for a defensive pistol course, I realized that the trigger pull, the recoil, and the sight radius made it very difficult for me to use it effectively in defensive scenarios.
The clincher was JohnKSa's enlightening post about ammunition capacity.
Intuitively, six or seven rounds may not
seem that much more than five, but the way statistics work, they really are. Colt, and the police officers who preferred Colts, understood that seven decades ago.
I acquired a compact 9MM semi-auto that I could use much more effectively, and the capacity is much larger.
It is actually about the same size as the 642.
It doesn't make a good "pocket gun", but it is very easy to conceal and carry all day in an OWB holster, and it is much easier to access quickly than a pocket gun. In a lawful defensive use of force incident, that is
extremely important.
Do I "feel comfortable" with it? Not really. Even with training and practice I'm not sure I would get it into action quickly enough and use it effectively enough to successfully defend against two car-jackers coming around the gas pump from opposite directions every time.
Best to know where to refuel and when, and to keep one's head on a swivel.
Might I have used 642 in my pocket successfully in a defensive situation? Sure. But maybe not.
I did stumble into, and stop, a store robbery once when I was carrying it. I didn't actually have to draw. The perp thought better of it when he saw me, and he ran to the getaway car. I still wonder how things might have turned out had he elected to do otherwise.
By the way, for small revolvers, there are now good six-shot models with excellent triggers available. I bought the Kimber, because the Colt was not yet available.