The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - An honest debate on why our carry cartridge needs power

threegun · July 2, 2008, 05:50 AM

This is not intended to be a traditional "caliber war" as much as a "whats the minimum" to reliably end a confrontation. More specifically the very weakest vs the 38's and up.

Considering our foes are going to be armed over 60 percent of the time with some type of weapon and a third of those will be armed with a gun.

I was lead to believe that the chances of facing an armed attacker was "rare" which 1 in 280 isn't IMO. Now considering my 1 in 933 chance of having to face down a gun toting assailant and understanding how valuable good hits are to my survival and further understanding the dynamics of a gunfight, how can I voluntarily choose the tiniest of calibers to carry primary?

I fully understand that most attackers will run at the sight of your gun or after a round buzzes their tower but that still leaves an awful lot of folks who will exchange gunfire while retreating or press the attack. This IMO disqualifies any of the tiny calibers from performing primary carry duty unless they are the ONLY option.

July 2, 2008, 05:50 AM	#9
threegun Junior member Join Date: March 1, 2006 Location: Tampa,Fl Posts: 4,000	This is not intended to be a traditional "caliber war" as much as a "whats the minimum" to reliably end a confrontation. More specifically the very weakest vs the 38's and up. Considering our foes are going to be armed over 60 percent of the time with some type of weapon and a third of those will be armed with a gun. I was lead to believe that the chances of facing an armed attacker was "rare" which 1 in 280 isn't IMO. Now considering my 1 in 933 chance of having to face down a gun toting assailant and understanding how valuable good hits are to my survival and further understanding the dynamics of a gunfight, how can I voluntarily choose the tiniest of calibers to carry primary? I fully understand that most attackers will run at the sight of your gun or after a round buzzes their tower but that still leaves an awful lot of folks who will exchange gunfire while retreating or press the attack. This IMO disqualifies any of the tiny calibers from performing primary carry duty unless they are the ONLY option.