You miss my point that there is little or no difference in what I want/need handgun ammo to do and what a cop needs handgun ammo to do. Performance reliability requirements are the same. I suspect that over-penetration concerns are higher on a cop's list than on mine, since chances are pretty good that there won't be many bystanders when thugs jump me.Crapshoot wrote: Reliability isn't the concern brought up in the video. Those paying close attention would have understood that the idea is for CIVILIANS to recognize they are not cops and would most likely use their weapon in an environments highly populated or in close proximity to innocent bystanders. Your job as a CHL holder requires you to be more responsible than not only the bad guys but also the common man. And as somebody with experience regarding home invasions, most the time a bad guys gets wind he's found out he turns and runs. As with most cowards, homes invaders don't like to stick around and take the chance they go to jail. That normally only happens in the movies. And if you do some research, personal defense shotshell rounds and smaller tactical rounds( i.e. .223 or 5.56) are less likely to over penetrate through obstacles like walls than your standard 9 mm rnd. Please reference Shooting Times Personal Defense Edition Dec/09 Issue Article titled Three Judges by Eric Poole. Your concern for the well being and defense(as in not offense) of others in supposed to be as important if not more so than the defense of your self.
There are(thank God) several brands and types of ammo made for us(personal/home defense). Take Hornaday Critical Defense ammo for example. Perfect for going through clothing and still expanding well, not walls. Remember Rambo was cool but his job was to take lives not save them. I consider myself a fair shot. So taking in acount that I probably won't miss how bad would I feel if the little girl I was trying to save is hit by the same bullet that took down her assailant. Again just some food for thought....
Setting that aside, I prefer the performance measures found at The Box O' Truth, which teaches (among other things) that while there are some small differences in performance between handgun calibers (of typically acceptable calibers - e.g. between .357 and .45), there is a much larger difference (huge, even) between the performance of handguns and the performance of rifle/shotgun rounds. I especially liked their penetration testing in the "Original Chapters." It isn't as fancy as some testing, but its definitely real-world. Their testing shows that rifle rounds (even "small caliber" rounds like the .223/5.56mm) pretty commonly penetrate significantly further than handgun rounds.
Since I don't have the article (Shooting Times Personal Defense Edition Dec/09 Issue Article titled Three Judges by Eric Poole) that you reference, I can't comment on what (if any) change in opinion I may have after reading the article. Perhaps you could give us an excerpt from it that supports your position that I have a responsibility to defend others?
Without that article, my concern for the defense of others is quite limited. I have no responsibility to defend others (excepting my family) at all. I do have a responsibility to ensure that my bullets don't cause injury to bystanders, but they are on their own as far as their personal defense goes. They have just as much opportunity to acquire and learn to use handguns as I do. It's not MY job to protect them from the thugs.
