1911dan

what is your thoughts on the shift from 30 cal rifles to 556? did people who were serving/fighting through the transition period lament the lack of terminal effect of the new round or were they just glad they were carrying something lighter?

I carry a 1911...disengaging the safety is just a matter of building the proper muscle memory through training. Now even if I am carrying glock my thumb disengages the phantom safety during my presentation with no time cost. Do not disregard all guns with external safety's for the safety's sake unless you are unwilling to dedicate the time towards training yourself to become competent with the firearm you carry...which you should do regardless of the complexity of the gun.

5.56x45mm is the round which is fired out of the m16 family of weapons. It is significantly smaller than the 7.62x51 mm round which was its predecessor.

have you read reach for the sky by Douglas Bader? if so what did you think?

Instead of the advice of using what you are most comfortable with, my argument is to train with what you will use to defend your life. Your comfort level with a gun may be built on years of informal range use, target shooting and plinking. Those activities, while useful for developing the basics of marksmanship, do not necessary translate perfectly defensive use of a firearm.

Also, in terms of terminal ballistics, the 22lr is somewhat lacking. While any round out of a firearm is deadly, some are more effective at stopping the threat in a timely manner than others. You may want to choose something which will have better downrange effects while still being controllable.