For the armed civilian, I think the snub revolver makes a lot of sense. No one has yet been able to convince me otherwise. My current personal favorite is the S&W 642 factoring in all considerations(price, weight, shoot-ability, frame style, rust resistance etc.) although any of the enclosed hammer models would be pretty good choices IMO.

Police & Military have different needs than I when it comes to firearms although the same could be said about gang members, terrorists and active-shooters. I'm none of those. Proactive longer range engagement simply doesn't realistically apply to me. It's pretty much all about reactive close-quarters for the most part when it comes to civilian self-defense and the snub revolver excels there.

There's plenty of stats and studies on civilian self-defense encounters available and enough video footage to watch that you could pretty much spend all day, every day doing so with active self-protection being an excellent source. And one thing I'm not seeing is civilians being involved in high round count ranged gunfights. They are virtually non-existent and since they are so improbable, why would I choose a tool geared for them instead of one that's better suited for what I'm most likely to be involved in while at the same time being easier and less of a burden to carry.