I read all the stuff about the come back of the 9mm in the police departments who are getting away from the 45's and 40's. That makes sense to me and I love my 9mm pistols. I am think of buying my daughter a 380acp Taurus Spectrum for personal protection. She has to close a business late at night and sometimes walks out with a money folder with the days receipt. Is the 380 actually enough gun for her to protect herself from a couple thugs?. I am not real familiar with the caliber and would appreciate opinions of folks that use them or have used them and know something about the 380. Thanks in advance.
Yes, 380 is
more than adequate for self defense.
I've been in law enforcement for over four decades, and have been an avid handgun hunter for even longer. In terms of typical self defense use, there is almost no practical difference between any of the common calibers in actual living things.
People will argue otherwise, usually based on feelings, anecdotes, gel 'tests', etc. Don't believe the rhetoric, you don't even have to take my word for it, get out there and do some handgun hunting to see for yourself.
More important than anything else will be her comfort with the firearm, as in > 99% of it.
With comfort comes confidence, with confidence comes practice, with practice comes experience. To this end the best thing you could do is stop asking for opinions here, and take her to a range that rents firearms and/or find someone with a proper selection she can try. Caliber is one of the least important factors.
One of the worst things you can do is buy something and say "here ya go", especially if it involves compact firearms as they tend to turn people off. In fact, if this was for home defense I would actually avoid a small firearm and suggest a PPC as they are fun as heck, easy to use, and make new shooters feel like experts.
Given that this sounds like it would be for CCW, then a pistol or revolver would obviously be more realistic. But be careful and don't fall into the trap that most seem to, and that is force something on someone for their own needs/feelings, Versus the other person.
Does she truly want to CCW?
Does she have experience shooting?
Does she have
proper training from a
proper instructor?
The answers to those questions are more important than caliber.