You also need to consider that a firearm may de-escalate the situation in the moment, but only temporarily. Pride is a big deal to many people, especially violent street criminals IME. I’ve seen a many shootings happen after one guy got his pride hurt and came back shooting an hour or day later. It also tells people you’ve got guns and whether it’s perceived correctly or incorrectly, you didn’t use it the first time and the criminal may think you won’t use it a second time.

Gray man is the way for a lot of this stuff. Lay low, look unassuming, and have a plan for when it all goes tits up.