You know, all this reading about .22s carried for defensive purposes reminds me of a site I found when I was first getting started in firearms and looking for whatever information I could find. Specifically these articles.
https://www.theboxotruth.com/the-box-o-truth-26-little-guns-vs-the-box-o-truth/
https://www.theboxotruth.com/the-box-o-truth-27-little-guns-vs-the-box-otruth-2/
Theres only one thing wrong with the box of truth. Its as wrong as the scientists that say the bumble bee can't fly.
If you study the shooting of President Reagan, you will see some facts that have very little to do with penetration. When the president was shot, the itty bitty ineffective penetrating bullet punched right through Reagens rib cage, punctured a lung which started him chocking on his own blood in the limo, and stopped an mere inch from his heart. Penetration was all of about 6 inches.
Secret service agent Tim McCarthy got one in the stomach, and he went up and back in the air, the bullet punctured his spleen and started massive internal hemorrhaging and he was incapacitated on the spot. He was unable to move from where he landed on the sidewalk. Bullet penetration was way short of FBI standards, but darn near killed him from internal bleeding on the scene. Bullet penetration was all of about 6 or 7 inches.
D.C. Police Captain Gerald Delananty was hit in the neck, and dropped to the pavement in very critical condition. The bullet did significant damage to Delabanty's neck that he could't do anything, yet penetration was only about 6 inches. He had to be retired on a medical from the D.C. police due to his right arm being partly paralyzed from the few inches of penetration the .22 round did on his neck.
Press secretary James Brady was hit in the head, and the ineffective penetration of the bullet didn't stop it from punching through his forehead, scrambling his brains like a bowl of eggs. It went into his brain, dropping him on the spot and he spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair hardly able to talk and unable walk. A few inches of penetration.
Bobby Kennedy was hit in the head by a .22 Iver Johnson cadet revolver wielded by Sirhan B. Sirhan, and was killed. He was dropped on the spot and died in very short order. Bullet penetration again was very far from what the FBI says is needed, but enough to go through the skull and into the brain.
The .25acp is in the same class as the .22lr. Way short of what the FBI says is needed. Yet Vasily Blohkin had no problems killing thousands of victims with his Walther model 5 .25acp. Blohkin is credited with about 5,000 to 7,000 of the 20,000 murder victims of the Kyten forrest massacre he ran on Polish officers.
I can only conclude that the box of truth people have never engaged in a real gun fight or use a firearm on another person. John Moses Browning was a DeVinci level genius, and he figured that all that was needed was just enough to reach a vital organ. Thats about 7 or 8 inches at most. As shallow as 5 or 6 inches sometimes. He invented the .25acp for personal protection, and tested it out on goat carcus's.
BUT...and this is a big BUT...I go by my own experience. In 1969, I was assaulted in an alley in Washington D.C. I was armed with a Italian made replica of a 1857 Sharps 4 barrel derringer in .22. The two person thug team was armed with a large kitchen knife for one and a crowbar the other one. The big guy with a crow bar was trying to smash my skull in while his buddy was blocking the escape. His first swing missed my head by an inch or two and I had ducked down and to the side, he was swinging again when I shot, range from gun muzzle to his stomach was about 2 1/2 to 3 feet. First round stopped him for a second and he hunched up a bit and grunted. As he was cranking up to swing at me again, my second shot hit him in the stomach again, and this round hit something vital. He dropped the crow bar, doubled over and went to his knees, bent over until his forehead was almost touching the pavement, then fell over on his side and started to scream. Scream very loudly. By that time I was halfway out the alley the way his buddy had run at the first shot.
I'm not real concerned with FBI statistics. I'm not a FBI agent, nor am I the Lone Ranger, the Caped Crusader saving Gotham, or Steven Sagal battling 20 terrorists. I'm just an old guy wanting to be left alone, but willing to use a bit of force if someone really pushes me into a spot where I have to defend myself. For the very average Joe going about a quiet life, a .22 revolver will work fine. The FBI can go bark at the moon along with the box of truth know it alls.
