[RyanJ]

To Jedburgh, that is one HELL of a post! I obivously don't know as much as you do as far as physics and what not, but I do disagree with one thing. You stated that "The force a bullet will impact your adversary is equal to (or less than) the recoil you felt when you fired the round. It’s physics." OK. BUT if a bullet is traveling at say 1,000 f.p.s., that works out to be oh, about 681.81 m.p.h.. Now I don't know about you, but my guns all have a nice little pop to them, but it sure as hell doesn't feel like something was hitting me at 600+ m.p.h. I understand that there are other determining factors involved here, but truth be told, the latter hurts alot more. Keep in mind that the cup pressure on a .40 can exceed 20,000 p.s.i..
I would like to thank you for your service, and for keeping us out of harms way. Thank you, and best of luck to you.
To Okiefarmer, LOL I have the same picture in my office. It scares off the new guys pretty well.
In a nutshell, if you can't hit your intended target with a good shot, then start going to the range. I'm confident that I could defend myself with a .22 caliber wheel gun, but I carry a Colt Defender 1911 .45 with night sights and a laser, in hopes that just the sight of it will make some idiot think twice.