Waiting on CPL, just got punched by a person around my block and thinking of how to respond in the future.

(ramble incoming, relative newbie to CCW, lot of thoughts rushing through my head on this)I just got my first firearm in today, still waiting on my CPL, so I don't currently carry. I walked around the block to get food (well lit area around a college-like campus), and ironically, ended up getting socked by one person out of a group of around 10. They ran off. I wasn't seriously hurt at all, just a reddish mark on the side of my head and a flesh wound on my hand from stopping myself.What really really really bothers me, though, is that I didn't think at all about my other defensive implements (mace/emerson-opening knife) until I fully hit the floor and was able to see whether they were going to continue (they did not). If they continued to wail on me, I think I would have taken at least two to three more shots to the head before I would think to present anything (ofc including a CCW). This isn't something I think is learned in a controlled defensive handgun class, where you're running drills on the buzzer, how do you learn how to respond to sudden encounters at close range?I do realize that the #1 rule I broke in this scenario was getting myself into a bad situation to begin with, i.e. walking around alone at night (funnily enough, I caught security walking by a few moments later. This area is actually decently well lit, and still have a lot of signs of life at night with security patrol, but still, I was walking around alone at night). What I'm wondering is if one gets themselves into this scenario anyways, what kind of preparation gets you ready to respond to the real thing? via /r/CCW http://ift.tt/2p2OpDQ