<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Therapydude:
... the recent tragedy in Florida would seem to dispute this ...[/quote]There is a difference between "stopping" and "killing". Let me illustrate what I mean with the following story which happened to a sheriff's deputy that I knew (I didn't actually know him but I knew who he was as we frequently would nod "hello" to each other in the locker room).
He frequently worked the evening shift and because he knew first hand what the crime was like, he felt uncomfortable having his wife home alone and unarmed. So he bought her a Raven .25 pistol. His wife was a small woman, less than 5 feet tall and weighing under 100 pounds which is why I guess they went for such a small gun instead of something with more stopping power.
One night she heard someone breaking into her home. She grabbed her gun. Loaded the magazine, locked her bedroom door and called the police.
From what I understand, the police were at the house in under five minutes (especially since it involved the wife of a fellow deputy). When they got there, they found the intrudor dead a few feet from the front door and they also found the woman dead in her bedroom.
Nobody knows what really happened because the two people involved were dead but from the physical evidence, the investigators were able to put together the following ...
The intrudor kicked in the bedroom door and the woman starting firing. We don't know the order of bullet placement but one shot missed, two landed in the chest, one in the stomach, one in the shoulder and one in the leg. When the woman stopped shooting (because her gun was empty), the intrudor strangled her and tried to make his way out of the house.
Interesting enough, it was the shot in the leg that caused his death since it hit a vein or something causing him to pass out from the drop in blood pressure and caused his heart to stop. The .25 killed him and killed him quickly (in under 5 minutes) but it was not able to stop him.
ANY caliber gun can "kill" and it can kill QUICKLY but not every caliber can "stop". They are not the same thing. You can "stop" someone but not kill them and (as the above story illustrated) you can kill someone but not stop them.
When shooting for self defense purposes, your goal is to "stop" your attacker. Check out
Marshall & Sanow Stopping Power Stats to see how different calibers compare against each other in real world situations. After looking at that, pick a caliber that gives stopping power percentages that you feel comfortable with.
My personal recommendation is the
Kahr MK9 ...
... It is no bigger than a PPK but instead of shooting a .32 or .380, it fires the full power 9mm Parabellum and when the proper load is used, the 9mm has demostrated 90%+ stopping capability in the real world. If you can carry a Berretta Tomcat, then you can also conceal a MK9.
Living in the hot & humid Florida swamps, the MK9 is my CCW most of the year. Tucked away in an
Action-Direct Defender Belly Band, it completely disappears from sight even when I wearing a dress shirt & tie without a jacket (tight jeans are also no problem) and I can carry it in complete comfort ...
... I recognize the age old saying "
... a 25 (or 32) in the pocket is better than a 45 in the safe ..." is very true, but in the one moment when your life might be on the line, may the caliber you carry not be found lacking.
Share what you know, learn what you don't -- FUD