Uh, oh, you' ve opened up a can of worms here (I just hope you don' t ask if the 270 or 280 is better, or maybe 30-06 or 308) Anyway, let me tell you my feelings, take all of your statistics and throw them out the window (remember there are three types of liars: a liar, a d@mn liar, and a statistician!). My point is these studies can be manipulated (possibly without the researcher even knowing it). So you decision boils down to preference. Here it gets tricky, the recoil of neither gun is uncontrolable, so to me at least that isn' t a factor. What is a factor your comfort witht the weapon you choose. I carry a 1911 in 45 (no I don' t find it to be too heavy or bulky for concealed carry), however, the 1911 isn' t for everybody. It can be intimidating, and the most effective carry condition, condition 1 (cocked and locked) will make many nervous. As a result I don' t recommend it to a novice (I carry mine because that is what I' m comfortable with, and I use it for CDP competition). However, either caliber will be adequate for home defense (although I would never reccomend anything lighter than a 9mm). And as for competition, you can use any carry gun for CDP competition which I highly recommend, so there are no limits there. I would base it on which gun I wanted, in your price range I really like the Springfield Armory XP' s. But I wouldn' t advise going any lower money wise, the key is you want a gun that is 100% reliable (no matter what caliber its in), and not all of the lower end guns are. But, I really think if you become good with either caliber you will be well protected (my wife carries a 9mm and that should tell you how I feel about them, the one thing I love most carries one).

As for the incident in L.A. I don' t see how that applies, as a civilian we will most likely never be involved in a firefight, much less one where the bad guys have body armor! If that does become common, rest assured I will carry something bigger than a handgun. Also, it was a shoot out in Miami (not L.A.) in the late 80' s that prompted the FBI to go away from a 9mm as " standard issue" , they first switched to a 10mm and then found out many officers couldn' t control the recoil. Then they moved to a loaded down 10mm (which gave rise to the 40 S&W), and in fact today I believe any FBI officer can be approved to carry any of the following, 38 Spec., 357 mag, 9mm, 40 S&W, 10mm, 45 ACP, and I' m not sure but I think a 357 sig., provided they can qualify with the gun they are going to carry. Which tells me it' s probably the Indian, and not the arrows that makes a weapon effective.

Gordon

P.S. Sorry I didn' t mean to write a book.