One of the key elements of being effective with your concealed carry handgun is building the muscle memory you need to automatically function in a high-stress environment.
The other elements include proper mindset and situational awareness, but we will talk about those later. Right now it's all about practice. Those with a cynical view of concealed carry will say you are practicing for something that, in all likelihood will not happen. The chances of you needing to draw your weapon from its holster and engage a hostile target are very slim. But if it does happen, only a handgun will save you and you had better do everything right. So, we practice because of the possibility, not the probability. I can't really teach you to shoot your pistol in this much space, so I expect you to get training from a competent instructor and continue that training with further self-defense education.
Today we are talking about volume. It takes 3000 to 5000 repetitions to build the muscle memory needed to perform a function correctly without thinking it through. The stress of a deadly force encounter will mean that you are focused on the threat, not the action of drawing your weapon, verbalizing (to turn bystanders into witnesses and to make sure you keep breathing), focusing on the front sight and pressing the trigger.
Rather than do that with expensive centerfire ammo. Get a pistol that offers a conversion option and shoot .22 LR ammo. The Advantage Arms conversion kit for my Glock 22 takes my pistol from .40 S&W to .22 LR in 10 seconds drastically reducing my ammo costs. Let's take a look.
Recommended Glock Resources:
The Gun Digest Book of the Glock, 2nd Edition
Glock Disassembly & Reassembly DVD
And don’t forget to use ‘SNAP CAPS’ to ‘dry’ fire so you don’t wreck your firing pin!
Remember, too, that there are NO .22 lr ‘SNAP CAPS’, they are for function feed/eject checks only. If you dry fire them, the rims will become dented and unusable after a few hits…
And don’t forget good dry fire exercises on a regular basis. It’s free and also helps build repeatable draw and aim technique.