DR308,
Sorry, I've been away for a while, unable to access a computer.
I understand completely, and do not take what you said wrongly. What I meant by 8 rounds being all you need is that assuming you are walking down the street in a bad part of tow, and someone tries to rob you. If you are forced to fire at him for whatever reason, then you should be straight with 8 rounds. In that situation, you would definitely have gotten yourself messed up, as you are really one sucky marksman, even under pressure. And I know that in a condition RED situation, all of those hours of bullseye ttraining don't mean s**t. But I would have to say that in the majority of self defense shootings, it was against only on or sometimes two adversaries, and in a situation like that I still think that even with your adrenaline pumping and eight shots in the mag, you should either hit him or the excessive noise of all of your shots should scare him s**tless, and even if he has a gun, his accuracy will be as innefective, as now he has all the stress of having a .45 magazine unloaded in his direction on him. But in your situation of four armed robbers at 1AM, i would have to disagree. Even if you were strapped with a HK MP5K and a Beta-C 100 round mag, the odds are just too high against you. Whether 8 .45 rounds or 18 9mm shots, if you begin firing on one of the perps, I guarantee the others are just not going to stand there and watch you shoot them. Even if you, in Condition Red, manage to take down the first, and maybe even the second one, you still have two other armed adversaries to contend with. If I stumbled on to a Qiuky Mart robbery, with four armed men inside, I would not even draw my gun, until I was absolutely sure I could take them all off guard, because as I stated before 4 on 1 is just too high against your survival. Maybe James Bond is good enough to kill all 4 bad guys with jsut his one gun, but I am honestly going to tell you that I could not. Sorry if I rambled there.
But I understand your point completely, and did not mean to sound as though I think I am some Olympic class tactical shooter. I still believe, however, that for most self defense encounters, 8+1 rounds of .45 are going to be enough. And if they are for any reason not enough, I think for your safety you should not start shooting. Now, if you walk into the building and the robbers, in their haste, begin firing on you, thinking you are a cop or whatever, then your are in this situation not of your own volition, and vastly outnumbered, and fighting for your very survival. As you did not initiate the gunfight, you are forced to partake in it. In that case, you would certainly be severely inadequate with even 9 rounds of .45. I'd be the first to admit it. And then i would wish for nothing more than a hi-cap 9mm. So if its your choice to start shooting, then you should be well enough armed with 8 .45 bullets, but if you are forced to start shooting for your safety, you are going to have to make do with whatever you are carrying, and you would undoubtedly be better off with one hell of a lot of bullets, be they 9mm or even .22LR.
Now I am not trying to argue for exclusively carrying 8 rounds of .45, as if I had a CCW permit, I would skip right over my .45's and grab my 16 9mm rounds in my Beretta. But I do agree with you, and no self defense encounter can be predicted beforehand.
Man, I feel like I have been rambling for hours

! But I did not in any way take your post the wrong way, my friend. I greatly respect your opinion.
Jake