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dsk · March 25, 2013, 09:04 PM

Did everyone see the raw video of the PA shooting that was caught on tape?:

http://www.usatoday.com/videos/news/...03/22/2007039/

The perp used what looked to be either a full-size .380 or compact 9mm judging by its size, and he hit three of the men inside the building. But as you can see they all got back up and ran out the door after him. I guess they probably didn't even realize they were shot at first. This is the sort of thing that might happen regardless of what you shoot an assailant with. He may go down right away, or he may not even realize you're shooting him. The victims in this case were obviously not struck in any vital areas, which is the key thing to understand here. Those who carry a .45 with the smug confidence that they're going to put the bad guy down with just one or two hits might be in for a shocker if they actually had to use it. My complaint about the small .380 pistols really has nothing to do with the caliber, it's more the fact that they're darn near impossible to hit anything with beyond arm's length. I hear of owners who say they're fired 400-500 rounds through their little pocket gun and trust it every day, when the fact is they likely haven't practiced with it enough to hit the center X of a target except slow fire at 10 feet. Try it again at 21 feet allowing less than .5 second between shots and see how you do. Almost any caliber will do the job if you can reliably reach the CNS of your adversary, but if you can't then caliber discussions are more a matter of pride than anything else.

March 25, 2013, 09:04 PM	#65
dsk Senior Member Join Date: June 19, 2001 Posts: 1,603	Did everyone see the raw video of the PA shooting that was caught on tape?: http://www.usatoday.com/videos/news/...03/22/2007039/ The perp used what looked to be either a full-size .380 or compact 9mm judging by its size, and he hit three of the men inside the building. But as you can see they all got back up and ran out the door after him. I guess they probably didn't even realize they were shot at first. This is the sort of thing that might happen regardless of what you shoot an assailant with. He may go down right away, or he may not even realize you're shooting him. The victims in this case were obviously not struck in any vital areas, which is the key thing to understand here. Those who carry a .45 with the smug confidence that they're going to put the bad guy down with just one or two hits might be in for a shocker if they actually had to use it. My complaint about the small .380 pistols really has nothing to do with the caliber, it's more the fact that they're darn near impossible to hit anything with beyond arm's length. I hear of owners who say they're fired 400-500 rounds through their little pocket gun and trust it every day, when the fact is they likely haven't practiced with it enough to hit the center X of a target except slow fire at 10 feet. Try it again at 21 feet allowing less than .5 second between shots and see how you do. Almost any caliber will do the job if you can reliably reach the CNS of your adversary, but if you can't then caliber discussions are more a matter of pride than anything else.