And you sound like the type that has to go over the top on everything.
why not catrry a law rocket?
in the end shot placement counts.
that 3240# cranked up drug addict can be neutralized with a slingshot and a peddle if hit in both eyes. He can't atack what he can't see.
as for the thug with the rifle? machine gun/ tank?
makes little difference if I have a 380 or a 38. your examples are the extremes and only assume the worst.
sure.. might happen.
but if I can't carry my superblackhawk 454 casul under my summer clothes... then i have a problem. given that it's not kosher to have your ccw exposed.. your option of 'only carry the bibbest .. means I'd have to carry nothing.
I'd rather have me 380 I'm WELL trained and comfortable with.. than nothing.
Sure.. I've love to carry my 50AE on a leg holster and my 500SWmag on the other leg, in case a 1000# coked up polar bear attacked me.. but lets face it.
i can conceal the 380.. thus i will carry it more.
the best ccw gun to have in a bad situation is one that you are familiar and proficient with, and one that you actually HAVE on you. at that point.. nothing else matters.
If an army of coked up 300# thugs attacks me.. makes little difference if i have a 380 or a 308.. the army is going to get me.. thus larger is a moot point.
now.. back to reality.
PS.. Yes.. i have been in a situation where I had to draw a carried firearm in a self defense situation.
I can assure you that a 6'6 tall burgler and his 5'6 accomplice were quite willing to lay still and wait for police to arrive after I found them crawled in a window. they didn't ask me what the caliber of my little black gun was.
on another occasion when I came home to find 2 guys unloading a tv into their car, and i steppe dout of mine, and a HUGE mountail of a fellow charged me and I pulle dmy shirt up and laid my hand on my carry weapon.. i didn't even have time to draw it. like in a cartoon, he skidded to a stop on his heels, and backpedled.. uttered some jungle cry to his cohort.. they hopped int heir vwbig and zoomed around my car thru the ditch and down the road.
neither stopepd to ask what caliber my small gun was.
on a 3rd occasion when i heard a screwdriver prying open a window and I walked outside and looked around a corner and saw a guy at the window removing the screen, and i racked the slide on my handgun, the perp dropped his screwdriver and pulled a carl lewis ( maybee it was carl lewis.. had a remarkable resemblemne now that I think about it ) down the street as if he were wearing a gold trimmed red suit with a lightning bolt on it. he also didn't stop to ask what caliber the gun was that I had just chambered a round into. I'd guess he had heard a gun slide action before and was familiar with what usually happened next.. and thus he did the flash impersonation.
so for all of your prostrations of how unskilled and untrained and how unprepaired and delusional i am.. so far.. in my book.. i'm at least 3/0 and not feeling too bad about that.
I don't have any 'size' issues that i have to compensate for.. i'll continue to carry what i'm proficient with and know it's a reliable weapon, and for those that can only feel like a man with a large bore gun.. so be it.
i can hit my target.. without using a cannon.
I have never shot any bad guys with .380 I would never hope to. There have been many documented incidents of bad guys high on methamphetamine who were shot numerous times with a 9mm and even with vital organs being hit, they still were able to attack and harm armed LEO's, esentially being dead with kill hits! I would never want to shoot anyone with a .380 I consider a .380 a backup to a primary conceal carry .38+P, .357 .40, or .45. ,380 to only be used as a last resort. Sure, you may kill someone with a .380 if you have the mental mindset to do the job right under a severe amount of stress with a short reaction time!!! But good luck, you may just piss off the 6'4, 240 pound cranked up instiutionalized Parolee that will take 4 or 5 .380 rounds in the chest and still rip your head off!
Sounds like you do not have much field combat or street experience. I recommend you pack away that .380 and stop living in denial!
IT is funny. for some reason the people who have never been faced with death, never been in combat, never had to use a firearm to defend themselves, never been in a fist fight or had to fight for thier life,,,always seem to think they will some day have to shoot a masked burglar!!!! When in reality you may come up against a drug crazed lunatic that has spent time in prison and already been shot a couple or few times in thier life and survived. You may come up against someone who is combat trained and determined to murder you and they can take a couple .380 rounds and keep fighting. You may want to put a .45 round into that sucker and demolish his vitals!
I would never feel comfortable or confident with a .380! For god sakes, what if you had to go up against a criminal armed with a rifle or a large caliber pistol???? You feel confident your .380 will handle the job?