Just to clarify, I was NOT advocating OC, but simply trying to point out that asking about concealibility is NOT the right starting question to ask in selecting a firrarm for personal defense. As I said, what's the largest caliber gun you can comfortably and ACCURATELY shoot? THAT is the key question, and figuring out how to conceal it is an issue for later on. If concealibility WERE the right question, all of us would be carrying Jennings .25ACP pistols by default.
And secondly the question of gun choice for personal carry is a VERY complex question, and you would need to write an complete book on the subject to cover everything necessary. That isn't going to happen on a board like this. Yes, there will be lots of advice, but no structure, no organization, and most importantly, incomplete coverage of key elements on the subject. Therefore, the proper thing to do is READ THE BOOK:
http://www.amazon.com/Minnesota-Permit-Carry-Firearm-Fundamentals/dp/1606438093This is really no different than having somebody new ask "What is the best caliber to reload?" An impossible question to answer as it stands, because you have no idea what guns ther person has, what expertise they have with them, and what they want to shoot at. Beyond that, it also totally ignores the reality that your are going to HAVE to read an entire reloading manual BEFORE you can probably make an informed decision on this subject.
This board is not a community college, and it can never be made into one even if every member tried their hardest to make it that. This is a place where you can get opinions which may be very good, horribly bad (40 S&W cases can be used for... ), or indifferent. Answers can be provided to people which specific questions that fully answer the question: You want to duplicate a Norma factory 10mm load, use Blue Dot.
In other cases, the questions may not be easy to answer, and it may be either painfully apparent or not so obvious that the question being asked is really indicating a fundamental need for some formal education from a published book rather than 15 different opinions. THIS, in my opinion, is where the road to heyll (trying to avoid the profanity bot here...) can be paved with good intentions, because we generally all like to give the best advice we can and help people out. That's kind of why we're here, apart from making fun of Tootsie's sheep and cabana boy obsessions.
Bottom line, the point I am trying to make here is that sometimes giving out advice may not be in the best interests of the person asking for it, if it looks like it's going to take a whole book to actually answer the question properly.
