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12/11/2018 5:01:47 PM
 
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Section 10: Defense Weapons/Ammo Subject: Walther PPK/Carry Guns Msg# 1030369
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To expand on what you said, let me hang on the edge of a rant for minute...
First and foremost, when I hear someone describe a gun they plan on carrying for self defense as, "Well, it's better than nothing!" I have to wonder if that person even understands the concept of self defense. "Better than nothing" does not appear anywhere in my personal self defense plan. The planning stage is the only part of a self defense event you get to control. The idea is to set yourself up to succeed, not to fail, during the most important seconds of your life. "The .22 you carry is better than the .45 you leave at home." Who on earth would be stupid enough when faced with that choice to leave the wrong gun at home? If a .380 came close enough to being adequate for stopping the range of attacks we have to expect, then police departments would be issuing them to officers. They are lighter, easier to shoot and the ammo would probably be cheaper when bought in police department quantities. The fact that no cops in this country carry duty .380s means that the caliber is not considered capable of defending police officers, and departments won't risk the moral and legal problems that under-gunning their officers would cause. And please, don't give me the, "But we're not police officers, our needs are different and we don't need the capabilities they need." In fact, we need guns like police officers carry because we face exactly the same people police officers face, and we face them first. Then, ASAP, we call 911. We may need more compact versions of service weapons and our holsters don't require the same level of retention, but we most certainly do need the same minimum caliber and quite possibly the same capacity magazines... If a person has a physical disability and can't handle the recoil of a 9mm or a .38 Special, then I'd recommend that they triple their situational awareness and base their self-defense plan on avoiding, evading, or escaping, and carrying the largest caliber they can handle. If they can shoot a larger caliber but don't have the strength to rack the slide on a 9mm pistol, I'd recommend a service caliber revolver (.38 Special - plus P if possible - with good bullets). Anyway, that's my two cents worth! |
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For reference, the above message is a reply to a message where: There is some discussion about the efficacy of the .380 for self-defense, including comments that it beats pepper spray or a whistle. This is true, of course, but really misses the point. One can choose the gun they carry in this country, and thus the caliber as well. If you choose the .380, you may say you are choosing it instead of pepper spray, but in fact you are choosing it instead of a 9mm or something equally capable of taking down a bad guy with more authority than the 100gr or lighter .380 bullet, with its feeble, less-than-200-pound-feet of energy. In the meantime you should be smacking yourself in the forehead...  ...yeah, like that, because you could have had a 9mm, and not necessarily in large, heavy pistols.
The 9mm is, of course, the poster child for small and yet shootable semi-automatics these days. While I'd be the first to suggest that gun makers have gone a little far with the downsizing, making some of these pistols less shootable than need be, if you are comfortable with the old, first generation .380 auto pistol, there are any number of same-sized 9mm that should make you very happy. In fact, happier, as they are more effective on bad guys than any .380 of old. Won't a judiciously aimed and fired .380 work in combat? Yes, so will a .22 rimfire up the left nostril, but it's a matter of putting the bullet where you want it ALL THE TIME EVERY TIME. While we should all strive for the best marksmanship possible, we are ALL fooling ourselves if we think we will experience a personal shooting without our skills being somewhat downgraded. If you have not experienced a life and death situation you can't imagine the stress--and more. This is simply science and has been studied and studied and studied again. Anyone that doubts this might start by reading forum article Altered Perceptions by retired police officer Jerry Webb, who killed two men in the course of his career. Bottom line? For me, carrying a .380 as one's chosen concealment pistol is simply a poor decision. Too many things can go wrong in a gunfight already, I don't want to be limited to a gun that requires absolute precision and a target that will down with minimal energy delivered. Nope, poor choice indeed. |
