Here's the deal: First off yes you are correct. The likely hood that the average person on the street or at home is going to be up against anyone wearing armor is remote to say the least. So ya .380 or the .40 will definitely do the trick. Well actually start off with the .40 and if you have to, fall back to the .380
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The other thing you need to know about armor is that the threat levels I mentioned are for specific calibers moving at a designated max speed, and with the average composition as made by Commercial Manufactures.
A considerable amount of folks do not know or understand that there are 2 different types of rounds; sub-sonic, and supersonic. Nor do they realize that the same caliber is made in both speeds. There is such a thing as a "Slow" 357, 9mm, .45 and so on. Then there are the so called "Fast" rounds in the very same calibers. Basically what I am trying to say is that you or anyone can buy Sub-sonic or supersonic ammunition in the same caliber. Keep in mind that at Sea Level the sound barrier is roughly 1100 to 1150 fps, and the higher you go the higher the speed has to be to break the sound barrier ("supersonic")
So because there is ammunition that can be either/or, they have specific levels of body armor to meet the threat. Once again the level of protection you need is a matter of just what the threat level you are likely to engage. 9mm sub sonic, 9mm supersonic, and then you have the 9mm fired from a sub machinegun that because of the longer barrel is traveling a whole lot faster than a 9mm fired from even a 6" barrel. I used the 9 only as a reference point the same thing goes for any kind of ammunition that can be used in various weapons all of which have some effect on just how fast the round is traveling when it impacts the vest. So if you are wearing a Level IIA vest which is meant for rounds traveling at sub sonic speeds and you encounter someone use Super Sonic rounds that IIA is not going to stop the round from going through and actually entering your body. It WILL go a long way to increasing your life expectancy because it has slowed down and deformed the round hopefully enough that if it does break the skin it doesn’t enter as far nor do as much damage as it was intended to.
The one thing that cracks me up is when I see a high value Person of Interest (good or bad) and the Police have them wrapped up in a US Military soft body armor field jacket for the protection of the person of interest. Ya well not so much and well don't hold your breath waiting for that to work out. If they are using an old Vietnam flak jacket/field jacket then anyone with a decent weapon firing supersonic rounds is going to take that person out every time ok presuming the shooter has a clue about how to use the weapon in question properly. That vest won't stop a 38 plus p let alone anything faster. As for the new models of field jackets, those are
Supposed to be able to counter anything up to and including sub machine gun fire. There is NOT a single piece of SOFT body armor in the World that is capable of stopping either an AP round let alone Rifle fire. To stop those you had best be wearing hard armor as in Level III or Level IV armor with the plates inserted. Then again any and all armor is worthless when it comes down to head shots from any kind of weapon.
At this point I'm wondering if I should start a board or just a thread callwd "Everything you never wanted to know about body armor and some things you did"
