imported post
Gunslinger wrote:
5.56 Armor Piercing Incendiary rounds are now readily available. Body armor or wearing a piece of cardboard have the same results. 5.7MM metal inserted rounds will punch through it easily. A .44magnum round to the heart--even if it doesn't penetrate, will kill you by cardiac shock. If you know the BG will be shooting a .38 spcl, fine. But how do you know what you may face?
According to most reputable studies, common street thugs prefer cheap, small-caliber handguns. The most common rounds you see in everyday street crime are .22, .25, .380, .38 special and 9mm. Occasionally a thug will use a .40 (and that round is becoming more popular with criminals) but generally, thugs want small, easily concealable, inexpensive handguns that use cheap, easy-to-find ammo. There just aren't a lot of reports of hoodlums using .44 Specials or rifles like 7.64, 5.56, or .223 in their everyday crimes...
You rolls the dice, and you takes your chances. If you want to wear Level IV body armor in your day-to-day routine, then good on ya, but I'll go with the statistics, and my own skills and awareness.
Also, you have to remember that not only are "common criminals" mostly carrying small-caliber, cheaply-made guns, but most of them don't maintain them properly, and most of them don't know crap about how to shoot them accurately. How many stories do you see where some thug walks into a store, fires 6 or 7 shots at the cashier, and doesn't score a single hit?
Nope, I'll just keep my eyes and ears open, and my well-tuned .45 on my hip...
