Stopping Power

A friend at work had his house broken into a month or so ago. Today he got a gun. (Well, he ordered it a week or so ago and he picked it up from the FFL today)Everyone goes through the same thing: how do you get the most "stopping power."It's the same as when you're playing Dungeons and Dragons and min-maxing away at your character. You try to get one thing but you don't know what you really want.It's an interesting problem.If you want a gun you can get anything from a .17 to a .50 and damn near anything in between. You want small but powerful. Of course that's an oxymoron. You want power, but controllable... again, no go. Small, but high capacity... You know the drill.And let's not even go down the "hydrostatic shock" alley -- that'll occupy you all night.He went out with a friend of his last weekend and shot a few guns. He fell in love with the .357 (though my guess is he was shooting .38's). It's not a bad caliber at all... but that wouldn't be my first choice in self defense any more.Here's my advice in case you want to hear it: If you want one self-defense gun, get yourself a .40 Glock and be done with it. If you want to go up-market you can get a Sig-Sauer, Springfield or Smith & Wesson M&P -- they all make fine guns. In any of these cases you'll find a nice full-sized (remember, you're not needing to conceal since this is your house) gun that'll hold 15+ rounds.The S&W .40 is a nice compromise round. Big enough to have enough frontal area and small enough to be able to have a bunch. And don't let me make up your mind -- damn near every police department has standardized on it by now.Now, I'm not going to say anything bad about a .38 or .357. They were the issue side-arm for half a century. They are quite useful and get the job done. I have a couple wheel guns and love them to pieces.That being said, I have something else in the bedroom -- a .40 Sig P229. Just sayin'.