Would you agree with me that the purpose of a defensive firearm is to STOP an attacker, assailant, or whatever before he/she harms you?
Out of any 100 such scenarios, how many do you suppose would be stopped by pulling out a .25 auto? My guess is about 80% of them. I don't have any stats to support that number and you may not agree, but I think thats about right. I think about 80% of potential threats would mess their pants and haul a$$ forthwith. You use your own numbers, depending on what you think.
So, in my view a .25 auto is about an 80% stopper to begin with. A .45 is bigger and scarier, and 90% of BG's would probably split the moment they saw it, so its a better stopper, even before any shooting is required. Again if you don't agree with my numbers, use your own.
By my numbers you may have to actually shoot in 20% of the potential threatening situations with a .25 auto, but only in 10% of them with a .45.
If it does come down to shooting, how effective will the .25 be? I think we can agree that it will certainly not be as effective as the .45. But I think 8 or 9 rounds of .25 auto at close range would stop at least half of the remaining threats.
I think the 45 would stop almost all of them.
So the way I see it the 25 auto is about a 90% STOPPER. The 45 is about a 100% STOPPER. (Well, maybe just 99.9%. Nothing is 100% effective.)Your numbers may be different, but obviously the .45 is more effective and if you can carry one for SD you should. But you probably can't conceal it, and if you can't, can you carry it? If you can't you'll have to find something you can conceal or go without. This thread is about 22's and 25's and thats what I'm responding to, but these days you can buy 380's that are as small as most .25's. I'd say get one of those; I did when the Kel-Tec P3AT became availiable. But before that I carried a Beretta 950 BS .25 auto for a lot of years, because it was the only gun I could find that was truly concealable.... and it would stop a lot of threats. My numbers say about 90%. What would yours say?