I've gotten along just wonderfully without one of those "little girl" guns. I have no use for such a thing.
I'm embarassed every time I buy .38 ammo for the wife too!
(Let's see. How do you get that little smiley face with the rolling eyes into the reply?) Hmmm....Oh yeah! Here it is!
I'm sure you were just kidding, but just in case:
The .38 Spl was considered a police standard in this country up until the 1980s and can still be encountered in some smaller departments and security services. It is still widely used as back-up weapons by many LEOs.
The 9mm probably has killed more criminals and terrorists throughout the world than all other semi-auto service caliber handgun calibers combined. I would hardly tell the US Special Forces, British SAS, German GSG-9 that they are carrying "little girl" guns. All are trained to kill you very dead with those 9mms.
European police and military services have fought terrorist cells such as Baader-Meinhof, the Red Brigades and the IRA far longer than our own recent War on Terrorism. Even with all the other service pistol cartridges available, militaries around the world have seen no reason to change to anything else and have no real reason to do so. Israeli military and police have stopped would-be suicide bombers with the "puny" 9mm.
Oh, and this has been done with largely ball ammo.
Sure, the 9mm has had failures to stop, and ball ammo would not be considered the best defensive ammo available. But all other service calibers have failed too. But serious shooters make it work because it's all they have, and in most cases, it's all they need.
If you don't like the 9mm, that's fine. But in truth, it's probably as effective (or as ineffective) as any other service caliber handgun caliber.
But I know you were just kidding....