...A Caliber Starting with "4"...

I received an interesting e-mail over the weekend from PhillipC., a Floridian I had the pleasure of meeting on my trip to Disney last year. He sent along this most interesting of stories:

Woman's Weave Stops Bullet, Saves Life

KANSAS CITY, MO —Briana Bonds literally came within a hair's breadth of dying late Wednesday night after her tightly-woven wig somehow stopped a speeding bullet.

Bonds, 20, was in her car in a convenience store parking lot when a man flagged her down and told her that her ex-boyfriend still loved her.

She replied, "Well I don't love him," then Banks says she heard gunshots as her ex-boyfriend, Juan Kemp, allegedly opened fire from behind the second vehicle.

They're crediting her hair weave from stopping the bullet from penetrating her skull, which is most likely a stretch of credibility. I'd gather the act of penetrating the glass of the automobile slowed the bullet down enough that the shot was not fatal; I'll refrain from commenting on the possibility that a 20 year old with a hair weave wig might have a skull thick enough to deflect small arms fire... In any case, the facts of the case are that this woman was shot at close range with a centerfire caliber and walked away from it.

It's an interesting anecdote in the caliber wars, certainly. Many folks firmly adhere to the rule outlined in the title - that one should only carry a defensive arm that starts in "a caliber starting with '4'." In the vast majority of cases, it's certainly more than enough - there are plenty of stories of goblins done in with the diminutive .25 and .32 ACP cartridge; anything above or including .38 Special/9mm is considered "enough gun" with regards to handguns. .380 ACP is generally agreed upon as a "minimum" defensive caliber; it walks the fine line between ultimate concealability and stopping power.

Some point out, rightfully so, that pretty much all handgun calibers suck; that rifles are more reliable manstoppers, etc. The loss of stopping power is the price we pay for concealability; even in the most gun-friendly of states, walking around with a loaded rifle isn't a terribly winning proposition. Others counter with the argument that "if you think .22LR/.25 ACP/.32 ACP/etc. is a weak caliber, go downrange and catch one" - personally I find this argument BS - I don't want to be shot with a fast .177 pellet; that doesn't mean I'd trust my life to a Crosman. Just looking at the numbers alone rifles win; in "real world" applications it's just as true - even the mighty .44 Magnum doesn't make a milk jug explode with the same violence as the "poodleshooter" .223 Remington.

Folks have been killed by .25 ACP rounds. Others have taken multiple .44 Magnum rounds and gotten themselves to the hospital. There is no "magic bullet" round that will - out of a handgun - take down every aggressor on the first or second shot; sometimes a lucky or well-placed shot from a .32 will drop the bad guy where he stands; other times the goblin's CNS is so over-medicated that even hot .45 ACP rounds have no effect. In this particular case, it's a pretty good bet that most of the round's energy was spent penetrating the glass window of the car rather than defeated by a hair weave (unless she's weaving kevlar into her dreads...)

It's just interesting to see that a .40 S&W round (yes, there are those that refer to it dismissively as ".40 Short and Weak") wasn't enough for this particular job, especially in light of the penchant for the proverbial "calibers starting with four" mindset. Would a .45 ACP have done the job? A hot .45 LC? A .44 Magnum, the "most powerful handgun in the world" (even though it wasn't even close, even at the time of the movie)? It's also possible that a smaller, hotter round like the 7.62 Tok or a +P+ 9mm might have had enough force to get the job done. In any case, there's one very lucky young lady out there who can thank her deity of choice that this particular round couldn't get the job done.

That and she has a new nickname in the hood: Helmethead...

That is all.