I'm going to toss my own comments in as well.

Actually get some Winchester Silvertips or Hydrashoks and overpenetration
will never happen again ;)  Of course, it is somewhat debatable what is
better...  Over penetrate and give the person 2 holes to bleed out of, or
to mash up organs and insides with a hollowpoint... 

  The results are pretty much the same in either case.

Class III or IV ( I forget... too much Electrical engineering in my head)
has a metal plate guaranteed to stop a standard NATO 7.62 round (standard
in battle rifles and machine guns)  Of course, I think in most cases, the
target will still get a broken rib or two...

  Probably Class IV, although the metal plate does not cover the entire
chest.  Note that today a Class III vest costs around $700 and a class IV 
vest
close to $1000.  These things also have to be discarded after getting hit
once.  They are *not* cheap by any way shape or form, but a loss of $1000
is better than death in any case.

Well some people....  Others like to subscribe to the "spray and pray"
theory...  Pump out enough lead... you're guaranteed to hit something...

  This isn't necessarily better.  There is a clear disadvantage to using a
weapon on full automatic..  It becomes very difficult to aim.  You also
waste a hell of a lot of ammo.  Yes, guns do run out of ammo!

My own points:

  All guns have a kick when they go off.  This makes it very difficult to
use a large caliber weapon rapidly without any loss in aim.  You don't 
need
to fire multiple bullets anyway.  One hit with a .44 or (geez) a .50 and
*anyone* will drop.  You simply don't need to fire very quickly.
  To give you an idea of how bad the kickback is, I saw a video about WWII
submachine guns.  There was one in particular (Browning Automatic?)  which
the people using it were instructed to aim for the target's right kneecap.
Why?  The gun would jerk back, walking the bullets up and across the body
to the left shoulder.  It didn't matter how strong the person carrying the
submachinegun was.
  Rifles can be fired quickly because they get braced against your 
shoulder,
but you're better off with single shots anyway.

  To paraphrase the U.S.M.C. (My brother is a corporal):
  'If any time you need to use a pistol against someone with a rifle, 
you're
in deep trouble.'
  There are a *ton* of action movies which make this mistake.