I’ve thought about this a LOT recently. For the past 10 years I lived in a place where I could not legally carry, but that once a eeek or more I wished I had a firearm. I never actually NEEDED one but I had to cross the street, or communicate appropriately with someone to avoid a quite risky situation pretty much every week. Then I moved to where I *could.* carry, but felt like I didn’t need to do much, and was mainly carrying to exercise my right similar to how I feel about voting. But then just last week my wife and I were lifting weights in my garage with the garage door open due to 100 degree temps, and we had a really sketchy dude come up to us. I was super glad I was armed. That just reinforced to me I will always be armed when legal with at least a pocket gun. (And generally something more when away from the house)
At the same time, we travel probably 14 weeks a year and I am completely comfortable being armed with whatever is legal during that time. I avoid traveling to places I view as dangerous, but I do not let the lack of ability to carry a pistol deter me from any vacation.