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If survival is the end game -- and it is, I think -- you could probably make a case that wearing concealed body armor is statistically more likely to keep you safe than 5 or 10 or 500 rounds of ammunition in any caliber. It may sound silly (of course, carrying a gun sounds silly to a large number of people), but I guess I'd rather be armed with 5 rounds in a snubby while wearing armor, than 50 rounds and two Glocks while not.
Carrying "too few" rounds really means...what? The risk is that you run out of ammo before you've stopped the threat, right? Possibly multiple threats (likely, if you need that much ammo). I agree with all who say that training and vigilance are the most important parts to survival. If I have only 5 rounds and there's still another bad guy left, I'm screwed. If I have a 30 round magazine but lack the skill to engage two targets, I'm screwed. If I'm careless enough to walk into a blind alley where muggers are likely to hang out, I'm screwed.
Since everyone seems to come down on the answer "there is no answer, so carry what you believe keeps you prepared," why do we continue to perpetuate these threads?
I've chosen a compact semi-auto with a 15 round magazine. A spare magazine is easy to carry, and honestly it balances the load on the front of my belt and is actually more comfortable. I've chosen that particular gun because I shoot much better with it than I do with single stack guns. I shoot single stack 9's better than pocket .380s, so my "backup" is a single-stack 9. I tried out a .357 revolver with a 2" barrel, couldn't hit crap with it, and my hand and forearm were tingling after 20 rounds.
So through reasons having nothing to do with needing lots of ammo, my setup ends up being a normal sized 9mm with 30 rounds of ammunition. Does that make me any more prepared than the guy who does carry the 5-rd .357? There's no way to answer that. If we both are accurate, and both only manage to get off one shot, his one .357 may well save him faster than my one 9mm. But even that is unanswerable. There's always the guy who was dropped by a single round, and always the guy on meth who took a dozen rounds to the chest and still ran a mile before dropping.
So there's my answer. Carry what you're comfortable with, and wear body armor everywhere :-P
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