This is one of those perennial debates that typically end up revolving around either statistics or someone's personal preference (or "belief") regarding what's "adequate" for personal defensive use when it comes to handguns.
Well, statistics can be gathered and made to mean whatever someone wishes.
Personal preference? It's not always possible to change someone's thinking regarding facts, as not everyone applies the same meaning and importance to words as the next person.
When you've seen what happens to someone shot by various calibers, including .380ACP, it can make the ground under your feet feel a little less solid when it comes to thinking that
caliber selection is some immutable factor and an overriding influence when it comes to the effectiveness of defensive handguns. Nice if it were true, but the world doesn't provide us with such convenient "answers" to things.
One of the members on a couple of other gun forums works in the criminal justice field and has been involved in investigations of more than 200 murders where .380ACP was used. That's more than one of the favorite" studies" previously linked in this thread.
Like other cops, I've had a case or two where .380ACP was used to shoot into
or out of a house or other structure, and the little .380 rounds can penetrate more than "caliber aficionados" might often like to expect.
Now, for a dedicated
service/duty caliber, I'd not particularly wish to carry a .380 as a primary weapon. The job alone tends to put someone into Harm's Way very frequently, and when you think about being repeatedly dispatched to reported situations where violence is suspected or known, or you actively go around looking to find and intervene in suspected situations involving criminal activity, it can start tilting the odds a bit against you compared to the average person just going about their daily business looking to avoid trouble.
The "minimum" service/duty caliber I'd feel comfortable carrying would be a .38SPL or 9mm ...
however ... given my druthers, I'd not exactly "feel adequately armed" going into a known situation that might involve shooting unless I retrieved a shotgun or rifle from my veh. The handgun is a minimal level of defensive/duty weapon, convenient because it can be worn in a holster, freeing my hands for other normal tasks, but still allowing me to be armed in the event of a sudden situation.
So, back to the .380ACP ...
I stopped using the .380 for approx 25-odd years as a younger cop. The only reason I gave the caliber some further consideration many years later was due to the improved quality and diminutive size of .380 pistols, and even then, only because I could slip a pocket-holstered LCP into some jeans or jacket pockets that wouldn't let me carry one of my J-frame snubs. I could carry a LCP in some of my normal retirement activities when I didn't anticipate a higher risk and felt like wearing a belt gun, and could be armed without having to "dress around" the weapon. As a retire cop and someone who had spent a lot of years serving as a firearms trainer, I'd long since tired of always being armed with something large enough to have to "dress around" it.
Now, I tend to think of the .380 as being at the marginal end of the adequate range of personal defensive calibers. It lacks the bullet weight of the .38SPL, and the usual velocities seen realized in the sub-3" pistol barrels might make expansion an iffy thing. Then again, the velocity and bullet mass of the little caliber might make penetration an iffy thing if expansions does occur. Well, TANSTAAFL. It is what it is ...
... and what it
is ... is often an approved "minimum" caliber approved for secondary & off-duty use by many LE, pretty much alongside the venerable .38SPL fired from sub-2" to 3" snubs, and nowadays the little 3" guns chambered in 9mm.
Is the .380 popular? Easy question to answer. Just look at the market demand for them. In one of my previous Glock recert classes we were told that the reason Glock had finally decided to create a little single stack .380 for the US market was because of the
commercial sales numbers for the caliber. It was said that in the 3 years leading up to the development and release of the G42, that the .380ACP was the hottest selling commercial (non-LE) handgun caliber ...
and ... the biggest section of that commercial market was ... women buyers and shooters.
For many years in the revolver heyday of LE, it was quite common to see cops carrying either a PP, PPK, PPK/S chambered in .380, or a .38SPL snub. The .38SPL snub was pretty ubiquitous in that regard. There was no shortage of firearms instructors who might use a "respectable" caliber for duty, but who pocketed a .38 snub on their own time.
I tend to suspect the newest small & light plastic .380's, and the growing market of diminutive plastic single stack 9's, are going to take the place of the venerable Chiefs Special .38 as the easily pocketed defensive weapon of the next decade or 3 of the 21st century. Don't get me wrong, as the .38 snub is alive and doing well ... but the little .380's are selling about as fast as anyone can make them, and they cost less and are more easily concealed.
Now, being able to develop good skills at shooting them may require some work, but mastering the little 5-shot .38's took some effort, too.
I'll keep my half dozen=plus 5-shot snubs ... and my pair of LCP's ... and they'll all see use as retirement weapons at various times and in various circumstances when one of my bigger belt guns aren't considered desirable,
by me. Do as you will, and practice/assess your skills.
