My thought is that the barriers that would be problematic would probably affect the bullets more than that permagel stuff. Certainly that was the case in the two shootings in which the .380 JHPs slowed too much in barriers; in the Hydra-shok shooting, it slowed too much in flesh and rib cage or on the skull. (I don't think the shot in the hip/butt was a real "stopper," all things considered.)

As far as the .38 Special from a snub goes, I think it's really better to open another thread (and there've been many in the past on that subject) instead of moving this one to a completely different subject. We don't want to mess with the head of a hypothetical reader who reads the subject line, skips to the last page, and starts shopping for 135-gr .380s!