“Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.”
This quote has relevance in self-defense applications. Controlling an attacker is more feasible the closer he/she is to you. If confronted by and individual with a hand gun, I would much rather have it placed by my body or head than a long range threat.
The untrained cynic who questions a person who trains in a martial art asks “So what are you going to do against a gun?” My response is … “ A lot more than you can do!!”
The only hope against a long range gun threat is to reason with the person or close the gap so that there is an opportunity to control the weapon.
Being attacked by someone with a weapon is certainly a scary situation but at least the trained individual has a chance while the untrained person would most likely succumb to the attacker.