Sorry, but this is simply a non issue. Really it is. No pocket gun should ever be carried floating loose in a pocket. Not only will it be prone to printing its recognizably pistol-shaped contour through the material of the pocket, it will also move around and shift its position inside the pocket, so that when you need to put your hand on it in a hurry, you have to fish it out of your pocket and reorient it in your hand before you can fire it. This will be suicidally slow, especially under stress. Any pocket gun actually meant to carried in a pocket should be carried in one of the many pocket holsters designed to carry a gun in this way. Such holsters are designed to keep the gun oriented upright in your pocket, so that when you stick your hand in your pocket, it finds the grip, not the muzzle or the trigger guard or the top of the slide, and also to keep the gun from printing. It effectively prevents a pistol shape from printing through, and if anyone notices anything, it will be a box shape, which might be a cell phone or a pack of cigarettes. And I can tell you as a law enforcement officer, the sight of a box-shape in someone's pocket is NOT "brandishing a firearm", nor does it, by itself, give a cop probable cause to stop you and pat you down.
Where you live, as mentioned, will determine "probable cause", as YOU well know. I moved to Georgia from Maryland, where CCW is extremely difficult to obtain. There, especially in Price George's County, which has a serious crime problem, having a "box" in your pocket just might get you searched, and result in the loss of your license.
Nobody mentioned carrying anything loose in the pocket, so that entire line of reasoning is out the window as smoke-and-mirrors.
Sorry, but given the importance of shot placement when using any handgun, but especially ones in anemic calibers, these people have even more need to equip themselves with something a little better. Because if they are out of practice, it is going to be even harder for them to place those shots effectively, and since tiny little popguns are even more dependent on accurate shot placement to be at all effective, this is a big disadvantage to have to live with.
OK, YOU try to convince them that they should run out and buy a bigger gun. Let me know if you need some people to impress your wisdom upon. We BOTH know that most gun owners are non-dedicated shooters. That's just reality, and preaching to the choir here ignores that reality. How many of those people do you think are members here?
Just as a matter of interest, just how big do you think that these once-or-twice a year shooters, many of whom are now elderly, should go? Shot placement is inherent in ANY caliber against a determined foe. Larger calibers are also going to be heavier guns, with more recoil, which requires the same, or more, practice to master.
Don't think that I don't tell people that the .22lr, or .25 ACP aren't the best choices. I do, but after that I try to help them with what they have. That way, they, at the least, remain gun owners.
Saturno, the .22 lr has a number of problems not found in the .25 ACP. The rim-fire priming produces more mis-fires, or FTF, and the heel based bullets can work loose enough to cause jams much more commonly than the .25 ACP. Also, what is the barrel length for the .22 that produces those figures? It will usually be a minimum of 16". In a small pistol, the numbers are pretty much the same as the .25 ACP. FYI, I found Fiocchi 25 XTP, a .35 gr. Hornady XTP/JHP at Able Ammo for $22.29/50. While not as cheap as rim-fire ammo, it does enjoy the reliability factor, with the same energy in the short barrels.
Once again, I do not carry a .25 ACP today. However, pushing a non-dedicated shooter to buy something else is essentially a non-starter, unless they've recently had a close encounter of the worst kind. I find it much more productive to encourage them to shoot what they have. If they become more interested, it gives an opening to the idea of "up-gunning".
