Stopped reading about half way through the page when the arguments started.
Rather an argue or take sides I'm just going to give my perspective for what ever it is worth.
1) A few years ago the FBI amended its qualification course after looking at agent involved shoots over the last 12 years or so. It found that about 75% of all agent involved shoots involved ranges of 3 yards or less and involved 3 shots or less fired by the agent in just a couple seconds.
Nationally the data for armed citizen and officer involved self defense shoots (as opposed to executing a search warrant on a crack house, etc) shows upwards of 90% occur at ranges of 5 yards or less in 5 seconds or less with 5 rounds or less fired by the armed citizen or officer.
2) LEOs do in fact have to go into dark places looking for scary people and thus face greater risks and greater potential to encounter multiple assailants, but those shoots are still statistically very low, and more often than not are predictable with the result that multiple officers will be involved at the start. That is a large reason why more shots are fired when more officers are present. The average of 3 increases to about 5 with 2 or 3 officers and to around 6 with more officers present.
Armed citizens do not have to, and should not be looking for scary people in dark and scary places. The should be using reasonable situational awareness to identify and make eye contact with prospective assailants long before they close the range enough to initiate an assault or robbery. The vast majority of the time, if a prospective victim sees an assailant at a distance, the assailant will pick an easier target. if the victim is armed and isn't afraid, a smart criminal won't hang around to find out why.
3) About 50 percent of all "stops" are psychological stops where the assailant was shot and essentially thinks "Golly...I got shot, I don't like getting shot, I'm going to stop doing what is causing me to get shot. In that 50% the cartridge used really doesn't matter as long as it does enough damage for the assailant to realize he or she has been shot.
4) It's the other 50% where the terminal performance of the bullet, bullet placement, and number of vital hits matter. In the extreme, the only thing that will immediately incapacitate an assailant is a hit in the central nervous system - the brain or upper spinal column.
A cardio pulmonary hit in the upper chambers of the heart or the large blood vessels immediately above it will produce a rapid incapacitation through rapid decrease in blood pressure, and lack of oxygen to the brain, but we're talking about 10-15 seconds of useful consciousness, and an assailant can do a lot of killing and wounding in 10 to 15 seconds.
5) Most LEOs are not "gun people" and don't shoot any more than is required to qualify once or twice a year. Most departments tend to suck at properly training officers and I still hear about officers who are issued a firearm and take their first shots in qualification. If they pass, they are considered good to go, with a total of 50-60 to maybe 100-120 rounds total fired, if they were lucky enough to get a practice run first. I shoot more than that in any given week.
6) Hit percentages for LEOs vary by department and their training programs as well as by distance (under or over 7 yards) and based on good or poor lighting conditions. But on average the hit percentage under 7 yards is around 20% and it gets worse at longer ranges as well as in low light. Which means LEOs are skipping about 80% of their rounds fired through the neighborhood. It's not a surprise at all given that the vast majority of officers report not using the sights at all during the engagement.
Some folks use that to justify not using the sights, but it's a poor argument as the reason officers don't use sights is not extreme stress but rather massively inadequate training. You default to your lowest level of mastered training under stress, and for most officers that operationalizes as "point the gun in the general direction of the bad guy and pull the trigger as hard and fast as you can".
It's a good thing LEOs have things like sovereign immunity, department provided attorneys, department provided liability insurance and courts that are generally tolerant of both poor shooting and mistake of fact shoots (about 1 shoot in 5) where the suspect is believed to be armed but is ultimately found to have been unarmed.
As an armed citizen you have absolutely none of this and will be held criminally and civilly liable for every round you shoot from the time it leaves the barrel until it comes to rest...somewhere.
Thus, given 4), 5) and 6), the general rule is to shoot center of mass and keep shooting until the assailant is down. The same is true for armed citizens but it's in their best interests to learn to shoot well, and more importantly learn to use brains, common sense and good situational awareness to avoid ever having to shoot at all.
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With all that in mind:
A) I'm a big believer in shooting a handgun that actually fits the shooter's hand well and points naturally for them. If the handgun doesn't fit well, the shooter will never become truly proficient with it.
B) I'm also a big proponent of training shooters to use the sights and verify sight alignment each and every time they shoot. Start slow, and once the student masters sight alignment, trigger control, and most importantly once they've developed a consistent grip and related muscle memory, the student can start shooting progressively faster.
It works like this:
- The shooter learns to draw (slowly) from concealment while keeping their eyes on the target.
- As the sights come up into the student's line of sight, the student places their finger on the trigger, and places the front sight on the spot he or she wants to bleed.
- The shooter then pauses, and aligns the sights, and then maintains that alignment while they release the shot, adding pressure when the sight alignment is good and holding pressure when it looks bad.
- Over time, the more the student practices the more the student will find that the sight are already aligned as the sights come up into the line of sight. That's an artifact of the brain and the muscles in the arm and hand 'learning' exactly what they need to do to align the sights, and doing it in advance as the gun is brought up.
- At that point the "pause" becomes very brief and is just used to verify the need to shoot and that the front sight is on target. The rear sight alignment takes care of itself due to muscle memory.
- By that time the shooter will have also mastered trigger control and how to smoothly release the shot without disturbing sight alignment.
- Also by that time the shooter has so many repetitions that the process of placing the front sight on target is second nature and they'll do that even under extreme stress as it is an automatic response.
Now...it's still a good idea to practice long range slow fire from time to time to ensure the basics are not lost. The student will also want to learn how to draw and shoot from a close in retention position, and the student will want to learn good foot work while shooting (side stepping to avoid tripping over your feet) and moving toward cover.
C) I'm a big proponent of not bringing a shooter along too fast too soon in terms of cartridge.
- A .22LR pistol or revolver is the ideal initial handgun as it doesn't have objectionable recoil and it will help the student learn good sight alignment and trigger control - without developing a flinch.
- Once the student masters the .22 you can move up to a larger but still moderate caliber like .32 Auto, .380 ACP, .38 Special or perhaps 9mm Para in a larger handgun.
- Once the student has mastered that and is still flinch free over a long range session, you can look at a heavier recoiling caliber and/or a lighter handgun.
D) There are other factors to consider in handgun selection:
- Can the person readily operate the slide, or manipulate the trigger with adequate accuracy? A PPK/S or similar blow back operated pistol in .380 ACP might be a great fit for a woman, but if she cannot easily rack the slide (blow back .380s require heavy recoil springs), then it's a poor choice.
The same weapon in .32 ACP, with a lighter recoil spring, may be a better choice. Similarly, a locked breech design with an even lighter recoil spring may be an even better choice. For example the Kimber Micro .380 is about 10 oz lighter an a PPK/S but it is much easier to rack the slide and the felt recoil is about the same as the heavier PPK/S as the recoil impulse is spread out more and does not feel as sharp.
Technique also plays a role. if a woman shoots a PPK/S in .380 ACP well but has trouble racking the slide, teaching her to place her left hand over the top of the slide while gripping it while pulling her hand and wrist back into her side to anchor the pistol and then locking her right elbow and pushing forward on the grip with her right hand, using the larger muscles in her upper arm to produce the power to rack the slide may work well for her. It'll work for both administrative and tactical reloads.
E) People seldom shoot light weight handguns in significant calibers well. The Micro 9 is a good example. Most people can shot a Micro .380 well, and the Micro 9 is only slightly larger and heavier - and that's the problem. The recoil of a good 9mm Para self defense round is fierce in the Micro 9.
The same is true for a good .38 +P load in an airweight J-frame and that's true in spades for a J-Magnum frame .357 Magnum. I know a lot of people who like to carry them. I don't know anyone who shoots them really well, and very few of the people carrying them ever shoot them enough with full power loads to get really good with them. They are great carry guns if weight is your primary consideration, and they'll perhaps come in handy for the above mentioned psychological stops. However, if you ever really need to deliver multiple effective hits in a gun fight, you'll find you brought the wrong gun.
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The above points naturally lead the shooter to a pistol or revolver and cartridge that the person can shoot effectively.
For some folks that might be a .22 LR. That will be what it is and it'll be better than nothing, but .22LR has some serious limitations when it comes to self defense:
- Even high quality .22 LR ammo is less reliable than center fire ammo. It's just an unavoidable artifact of the priming system. Poor quality .22 LR can be incredibly unreliable, so if you choose to carry a .22LR buy quality ammo and shoot a lot of it in your firearm to ensure it is reliable. That will probably mean trying a few different brands.
- In a semi auto pistol, .22 LR is more susceptible to rim lock, where the rim of a cartridge in the magazine can end up behind the rim of the cartridge below it. Some magazines are worse than others, but you should always load the magazine for a .22 LR self defense pistol very carefully.
- the .22 LR is more effective and penetrates better than .25 Auto but that's the only thing it has going for it relative to other calibers. If recoil is an issue, .32 ACP is a much better choice and most shooters can manage it.
- Multiple hits with a .22LR are often lethal, but they make really small holes and seldom penetrate enough to get the CNS or cardio pulmonary hits you need to rapidly incapacitate an assailant. You may well kill the assailant but you also may well be dead yourself before he is incapacitated.
- 32 ACP is better, .380 ACP or a standard pressure .38 are better still, but .38 +p and 9mm Para, both tolerate shot barrels better and are where things really start getting effective.
