Just my .02 Rootball .... I'd stay with the S&W revolver ... even if it were a .38 Special. I 've never been too impressed with the ..32 ACP cartridge when other alternatives were usable.

My experience with the Tomcat goes back to the early days following its release .... I bought a small number of them for my Narcotics folks as a "back-up/pocket gun" ..... reliability was OK if the gun was kept perfectly clean ..... unless they've changed the design, the Tomcat lacks a manual extractor. If the gun fails to fire or extract (for whatever reason) there's no remedy for clearing the round besides tilting open the flip-up barrel and removing the rounds manually. I personally would not rely on any weapon design that lack features such as a manual extractor .... slide lock devices (Walther PP/PPK designs) ... if other alternatives were available.

Another issue was the rudimentary sights and point-of-aim results - not much to brag about, which in all fairness is typical of most, if not all small semi-auto pistols.

As to concealed & accessible carry while wearing a backpack - the Safepacker is the only thing I've found to work well at all.

http://store.thewilderness.com/product_i...2c8c9c4f6b51558

Good luck with your endeavor .......