Quote Originally Posted by mushroom_toy
Wow you must not be too bright. Come to my property piss me off, and give me 50 yards or less and im pretty sire I can probably imobilize you, 90 yards or more and i can probably inflict a decent wound. No its not gonna rip your arm off, but anything is deadly if you hit someone in the right spot.
As stated previously, the FBI found most self defense shootings occur at 21 feet or less. You don't want to have to rely on "hitting the right spot", which with a .22 needs to be the brain or heart, to immobilize/kill someone within this range. If you had your .22 and I had a knife, within the confines of a home chances are still pretty good that you'd be the one dead and not me.

Its very simple

Muzzle energy
.22 Long Rifle - 104 -141 ft·lbf
(the range is for loadings, not a margin of error)
9mm parabellum - 326 to 356 ft lbf
.45 ACP - 369 - 414 ft lbf
12 gauge shotgun - common loads exceed 2200ft lbf

When you consider the amount of energy a .22 has combined with its small diameter its a no brainer. Bullets kill and immobilize through massive tissue damage and blood loss (in the case of simple immobilization, more so a sudden drop in blood pressure). The .22 long rifle round is VERY low powered. The energy for the loads you probably are firing is about 1/3 that of a 9mm/.45ACP. And keep in mind neither of these rounds will necessarily immobilize or kill someone when shot. The .22 simply doesn't possess a lot of energy to transfer to the target to cause said massive tissue damage or shock the target on a psychological level. The bullet's diameter is too low to create a large wound channel, which is what causes sudden and dramatic loss of blood pressure. I have shot a rabbit with a .22 to no immediate effect. It kept running.

Yes, you're going to kill someone if you shoot them in the heart or in the cranium. But I could do that with the .177 caliber air gun I had in 6th grade. Anywhere else, you're just going to anger someone who is probably only a few feet away from being able to stab you. The idea of .22 LR for self defense is laughable. Go ask a gun store owner, a hunter or a combat veteran what he thinks about that. Its simply not practical.

So basically. YOU ARE THE ONE WHO IS NOT TOO BRIGHT. YOU DON'T HAVE TO KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT FIREARMS TO TAKE ONE LOOK AT A .22LR AND KNOW THAT YOU WOULD NOT WANT YOUR LIFE TO DEPEND ON ITS EFFECTIVENESS, EVER.