ribit,
My advice to anyone who wants to carry a .25 is ... if you insist on carrying a .25, DO NOT LOAD IT ... you might be tempted to shoot someone with it ... and if you do shoot someone with it, even at point-blank range, you will only succeed in pissing them off that much more and they WILL kill you. As a defensive weapon, you will have a far greater chance of success in defending yourself if you throw the .25 at the head of your attacker than you will have by pulling the trigger. The highest and best use of a .25 is as a weight for your fishing line.
B.

The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted. ~ D.H. Lawrence