Obviously I'm not going to reveal the fact that I have a gun to a mugger until he's distracted. They're always scared and ready to get the hell away from you. Give them what they want, they may or may not cut you because they feel like it (disarm them at this point if it looks ugly), they turn away, out comes the pistol ... freeze jack-ass.

As for defending in a knife on gun fight, you put your non-shooting arm across your chest, elbow to guts fist to neck. This can help absorb any slashes from getting to your good stuff. (better an arm than a gut I always say). For your shooting arm, you drop it into a "speed rock" position. Your forearm should be level with the pavement and your elbow locked all the way back underneath your shoulder as far as it will go. This keeps the pistol close to your waste and body, harder to knock around. Recoil really isn't an issue since your shooting arm really can't move except side to side with your waist. This is ideal position for point-blank shooting. This speed-rock position looks gay, but it works to keep those precious guts inside your gut hole.

Greg