Thanks all, every reply is valuable to me. The handgun doesn't have to be a Beretta, it's just that when I began to research small handguns, someone suggested a .38 snub nose and all reviews found those terribly heavy for a woman to easily operate, so I thought that practically speaking, the Beretta suggestion held more promise?

Then I saw one and really liked it, superficially for how it looked.

So--back to the story: if the Beretta Model 1934, produced in 1966, is a .380 caliber, could a shot to the head of the rapist kill him or is that .380 caliber more for target practice/small mammals? (Forgive my ignorance about calibers and guns, learning on the fly.)