I just read all these posts, and no one mentioned the Dan Wesson .357 pistol pack. No longer made sadly, but I bought mine over 25 years ago. In less than 2 minutes I can configure my .357 from a 2" snubby with small grips to a 8" barreled scoped hunting revolver, and I can plink with .38 caliber or use full power .357 mag ammo for business purposes.
And the poster of a knife attacker covering 20 feet is pretty much correct for most common street attacks. It has to do with mind set and threat accessment. If John Doe is tra-la-la-ing down the sidewalk and doesn't realize he has become the target of Pete Perpetrator, but is instead filled his head with his daily schedule for tomorrow, when at 20 feet he finally sees Pete with a knife already in his hand. Pete is already focused and committed like the predator he is on the target he has selected and closing the distance for the attack. John, startled to see the knife in Pete's hand, has to mentally change gears from being unaware of his surroundings to now realizing the attack is coming, "oh yeah, I've got to get my gun out and defend myself", to actually getting that gun out. In that time it took John to get his mind on the situation, Pete has closed the distance and is attacking. Twenty feet is nothing at all, can be covered in about 2 seconds or less by a guy running at you. What went wrong? John wasn't focused on his surroundings, and a .44 magnum won't do him much good. Had John realized he was a likely target and been scanning for guys like Pete Perpetrator, and wrapped his hand around the grips of his .25 ACP in his pocket early he could have popped Pete as soon as Pete pulled the knife. Yep, it's nice to have a big gun instead of a little gun, nice to have lots of bullets instead of a few bullets, but better to have a trained brain.
