WilddBill45 said:
It seems that bad guys like .38 special, with the mouse calibers ... .25 and .32 ... beating out .357 mags, and other calibers...
I don't believe that. At least in my corner of the universe, bad guys carry whatever they can steal, or buy on the street, but as a general rule they are NOT carrying 38 Special revolvers. Most are carrying Glocks, predominantly in 9mm and secondarily in .40 S&W.
But they'll take what they can get. Several years ago the owner of a gun shop in "the city" (not New York City, but what passes for "city" around here) told me (and several other hangers on) the sorry sage of one bad guy who was dumber than the average bear.
One day a gentleman of color entered the shop, and asked for a box of 9mm "bullets." The gunshop guy (hereinafter GSG) sold him a box of 9mm hollow points.
Later the same afternoon, the gentleman returned, accompanied by another gentleman of color. "These bullets don't fit my gun," with which he displayed a Beretta 92. GSG said, "They have to, that's what the Beretta shoots." The customer insisted the bullets wouldn't fit, so GSG took the pistol and the bullets with the intention of showing the young gentleman how to load his firearm.
But ... the bullets wouldn't fit into the magazine. GSG was getting increasingly puzzled, until he happened to glance at the slide of the pistol, which read "8mm blank." Sure enough, closer examination proved that the barrel was blocked off and it was indeed a blank-firing replica.
When GSG explained this to the customer, the companion started laughing hysterically and came out with "You dumb n*****, you done bought yo'sef a TOY gun, [mf]er." GSG said, "Hey, you can't call him names like that." The companion said, "Sure I can, because I'm black too. But YOU can't call him that."
But wait ... we're not done yet. The two gentlemen departed the shop, with the companion berating the would-be shootist incessantly. That should have been the end of the story, except that a couple of months later another young gentleman of color walked in and asked for a box of 9mm bullets for his new Beretta ...
This was several years ago. We still wonder just how many suckers have bought that thing, thinking it was a real Beretta 92.
My point being that the bad guys aren't interested in .38 Special revolvers, unless that's all they can get. They want "automatics," preferably Glocks or Berettas, in that order. They get them on street corners or in back alleys, wherever they can find a seller.