It may have been in the books, but I remember Bond's pistol being referred to as a "Beretta Belle," which has always stuck with me. Compared to the .25 auto, the 7.65 definitely had a delivery like a "brick through a plate glass window." I wouldn't want to soak up either. Being shot is sort of like gambling. That lone bullet MIGHT do no damage, and then again, it MIGHT end you. All the braggadocio in the world can't change that.
I had a patient once who was shot right in the bridge of his nose with a .38 Special at near contact distance. The bullet passed through the ethmoid sinus, glanced off the base of the cranial vault, deflected slightly to the side and exited just below the occipital lobe lateral to the spine. He was conscious on arrival. He was neurologically intact, and after a CT to determine internal damage, he spent the night in ICU and was discharged the next day. He had a band aid on his nose and another covering the exit slit on his neck. But consider this, he only took ONE hit. Had that person unloaded all 5 or 6 into his face, I suspect he and the graveyard would have had a date-certain.
John Hinckley put a single .22 bullet into each of four men. Reagan to the chest just shy of the heart, Brady to the brain case (became a mewling cat), Delahanty took one to the neck and dropped like a sac, and Thomas McCartney took one WELL-PUBLICIZED hit to the stomach and went down hard. Four bullets from a .22 caliber, sub-2-inch barrel, $50 revolver nearly changed a government. (I wonder how many people know that Hinckley's family was back-slapping buddies with the BUSH family?)
I carry small guns because they're EASY to carry and I'm not planning to save the world. I'm planning to save ME and MINE, and my little Beretta will do that, as will it's big brother the Tomcat, or my Seecamp .32, or even my Kahr P380, or one of my more favorite S&W J-frames such as the M43C.
Another "tale from the ER," Had a young man come in shot through the sternum by a homemade "zip gun" because he was arguing with his extremely attractive girlfriend (who worked at the hospital), so he decided to show her and BANG pumped a slug into his own chest. It was a .22LR of course. We spend a good while doing the usual chest compressions before calling it. Don't EVER GET IT TWISTED! A single .22 Long Rifle slug through the sternum - center mass will END YOU! So will a single .25 ACP slug.
