Most of you are talking as if you had a choice. My first handgun, I didn't. I was going to school in LA during my apprenticeship. If you registered early enough, you could get parking on top of the buildings. If not, there was overflow parking two blocks away under the freeway. All I could afford was a Raven .25 auto. (After the laughter dies down, I'll continue.
) If you were 10 feet away, I don't know if I could hit you or not. But it beat having nothing. I agree with some of the comments above. We went from the .45 to the 9 mil to placate NATO. The real problem isn't with the 9 mil, it's with the ammo. I will guarantee that if I hit someone with a Black Talon out of my 9,
they will cheerfully lay down and die. Now, if we're talking CHOICE here, that's different. I love the .45 auto. Big bullet moving real slow works for me!
I have thought about this many times. Wonder how many people have been killed in the last century by the lowly .38 or even the .22? A deputy I know told me about a bad guy that got shot in the head with a .22. It basically entered the skull and then didn't have enough energy to exit so it just ran round and round inside. The guy's grey matter was turned to Jello. So, choice is one thing, but anything will work in a pinch.