The best gun for a gunfight is the one you have with you at the time.

While many of the suggestions here are excellent guns inregards toaccuracy, reliability, ergonomics, and capacity, some are just too big for most folks to conceal comfortably day after day. A gun that is too big or heavy will evantually wear on your patience, and after a fewmonths or years, it may persuade you to leave it at home or in the car. An ordinary citizen wearing a gun allday under casual clothinghas very different needs thana Law Enforcement professional who wears his piece on a duty belt or in a dropped thigh holster. Even an off-duty cop may choose to carry a different weapon for different reasons since his sworn duty may compel him to engage in a firefight that another armed citizen may be able to avoid.

I'm in favor of the biggest caliber, the most capacity, the best reliability, and accuracy, but CC is always a compromise that demands trade-offs, and the person carrying the gun needs to find the best balance for themselves.

Many, many people who have carried for years have gradually decreased the sizeof their carry gun to a J-frame sized 5-shotrevolver in 38 or 357, or stick with a subcompact sized auto that's flatter than most of it's competition.

I'd feel really stupid if the one time in my life I needed a gun was a day I got lazy and didn't have it. It would be heartbreaking if that same incident resulted in the injury or death of someone I cared about. Forgiving myself may be a long time in coming.