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My own take aways are:

1. Any gun will work a large percentage of the time. A 25 you will carry is better than a 45 you don't carry.

2. A gun that you can shoot well is more important than caliber. A 22 you can shoot accurately is better than a 45 you can not shoot well. This particularly applies to some of us who are older with hands that may not be as steady or strong as they once were.

3. Practice.

4. Having said this, 380 up incapacitates significantly better than mouse guns. So carry the largest caliber gun you can shoot accurately and will carry.

5. From the 9mm portion of the study where half the shootings were with FMJ, use a good hollow point. They work better.

6. Keep a shotgun or rifle handy. If you can get to it, it will work a lot better than any handgun.

None of this is new. This study just reconfirms these conclusions for me.

AndyC wrote:Shoot him center, shoot him deep and shoot him till he stops.

Everything else is subjective as far as I'm concerned - even choice of handgun calibers. Close up, the differences between them appear significant - but zoom back out to real life and they're all pretty poor stoppers.

That right there.

Interesting related article: http://www.chuckhawks.com/ammo_by_anonymous.htm

The Annoyed Man wrote: The reason that caliber is important, and also good bullet design, is not because a .45 is a better death ray than a 9mm, but because it will likely expand to a larger diameter than the 9mm, making a bigger hole. A bigger hole means a better chance of taking out something vital that a smaller hole might miss.

AndyC wrote:Shoot him center, shoot him deep and shoot him till he stops.

Everything else is subjective as far as I'm concerned - even choice of handgun calibers. Close up, the differences between them appear significant - but zoom back out to real life and they're all pretty poor stoppers.

I completely agree with both comments above. There isn't a big difference in actual practice between say a 9mm and a 45ACP as AndyC noted, but as the Annoyed Man stated, a bigger bullet has an increased chance of hitting something critical...maybe not a lot more, but anything that ups your odds is a good thing! In other words, if you can control it and don't lose accuracy, why not? Of course that's ignoring things like weapon size and mag capacity, which of course of also very critical. But that's another discussion that I'm sure will come up sometime

I've been going through this debate myself and haven't come to a good resolution.

I think I'm between 9mm or .45 ACP at this point but still haven't ruled out .40 S&W.

I might just flip a coin a few times....

Texas10X wrote:Interesting related article: http://www.chuckhawks.com/ammo_by_anonymous.htm

Don't show AndyC this part:

Hollowpoint ammunition is NOT more lethal than ball (full metal jacket) ammunition. You may have seen media hype about "killer dum-dum bullets" but this is nonsense. Hollowpoint bullets usually expand and stop in the human body, and thus the attacker absorbs much more of the bullet's kinetic energy than if the bullet had merely zipped through him and left two small holes. Hollowpoint ammunition is also safer for all parties concerned.

Sorry, I couldn't help myself. Now Andy, don't say anything mean to Texas10X.

I saw that earlier...was wondering if Andy had seen it.

SQLGeek wrote:I've been going through this debate myself and haven't come to a good resolution.

I think I'm between 9mm or .45 ACP at this point but still haven't ruled out .40 S&W.

I might just flip a coin a few times....

IMO there is no real practical difference in stopping power so I would choose the one that you feel comfortable with and more importantly shoot the best.

AndyC wrote:It's from a guy who loves the Glaser - 'nuff said.

He he.. When I had to do bodyguard duty in a hospital a many years ago they insisted on Glaser ammo. So I said okay and carried my 44 S&W 629. 3 days carrying that monster in the small of my back under scrubs was enough. I now carry compacts weapons that were not available then. I don't do (paid) bodyguard stuff any more either.