From a retired cop's point of view. That concealed handgun is for the protection of life, not stopping looters if you want to stay alive or out of prison.
It is a last resort to protect you or your family, sometimes other innocent person, from severe injury or death. REMEMBER your decision to use deadly force will be judge by the standard of that being a REASONABLE person will agree with you that it was REASONABLE to believe that your life or the life of a innocent person was in fact in danger of severe injury or death. If they do not agree, off to prison you go. You are given more leeway in the protection of yourself and other while in your home then you are given out in public. A lot of states have a "Castle Doctrine" that does not require you to retreat before using deadly force while in your home.
The carrying of a semi auto with the chamber empty is a fool's decision. You may not be given the time to rack the slide and chamber a round to fire.
Maybe I should not tell this story. During my college courses in criminal justice we had a local sheriff's dept. Lt. state his worse nightmare was that he had to shoot a black criminal and the only witness to the shooting was 5 black friends of the criminal and he knew they would lie in court and claim it was not a justifiable shooting. A low voice from in back of the class stated, "you have 5 more rounds in that revolver". This was back in the 70's when the Black Panthers were doing their rampage.
RELH