Originally Posted By: stchman
The Ruger LCP is a great carry gun. Small, reliable, easy to conceal. With them being on sale for ~$229 these days, it makes sense.
Don't listen to the "you need something bigger than 380" folks, 380 will do the job.
You need to study police shootings. .380 will not do the job. For that matter, consider the FBI shootout that spawned the development (in a roundabout way) of the round I carry concealed-- .40S&W or the "10mm short." Bad guys Platt and Maddox took rounds from the agents, one was a 9mm that would have been a fatal wound even if Platt had been in a hospital O.R. on the table when shot-- no surgical repair would have prevented that wound being fatal. But, and this is a big but, the wound *trauma* was not enough to prevent him from continuing the fight long enough to continue being a lethal threat before he succumbed to the wound . This is seen some in police shootings. The suspect can be hit in the kill zone with 9mm and keep on fighting long enough to remain a very lethal threat. When someone is seriously jacked up on adrenalin or the right drugs and are a lethal threat, I want to hit them preferably with my Glock 21SF .45ACP or if out blue jeaning around on my own time, nothing less than my concealed carry piece, an ultra slim .40S&W compact firing the hot stuff like Hornady critical defense, Speer Gold Dot, or Remington Golden Saber. I don't want anything less than 400 foot pounds muzzle energy in order to create a traumatic wound channel. This is about stopping the threat right now not 5, 10, 15 or more seconds after they're hit.