Hopefully the day will never come that you have to use a firearm to protect yourself or someone else. After doing it in Iraq I can only tell you that it sucks! If you ever have to use a handgun here is something you need to know.
Handgun stopping power doesn’t exist. It’s a fallacy. Handguns don’t have stopping power. Handguns are around because of size and weight. Most people can’t carry a rifle or a shotgun everyday, so cops and civilians carry handguns.
Everyone is looking for the magic bullet, the one that will stop any person with one shot. The problem is that it doesn’t exist. The debate between .45 ACP, .40 S&W, and 9mm is outdated. It mattered 20 years ago before ammo moved into the digital age.
To win a fight the handgun has to make the other person give up, shutdown the central nervous system, or create massive blood loss (read more about winning here). Any handgun caliber has the same chance of making someone give up. Generally the bigger the gun looks the more psychological value it will have. Caliber isn’t something someone is trying to figure out when a gun is pointed at them.
Most handguns have enough power to penetrate the skull and inflict enough damage to cause nervous system shutdown (side note; a .45 has been known to not penetrate the skull). Even a .22 Long Rifle will penetrate and cause shutdown. You can also sever the spinal cord, but it’s a small target and takes extreme penetration. Most handguns won’t penetrate that deep and are designed not to.
To have someone bleed enough to stop them can take a long time or the bullet has to hit something vital. The bullet would have to puncture the heart, liver, or cut a major artery. These are all small targets, easy to miss, and not anything most people are shooting at. Every course teaches center of mass. The heart is the only thing close to the center of a person’s body.
We are taught to shoot center of mass because that gives us the biggest area and least chance to miss. A miss is worthless. Every hit goes towards stopping the attack.
The secret to handgun stopping power is multiple hits. Any amount of power can be doubled almost instantly by making another hit, and then another, and then another.
The bottom line; if you carry a handgun be prepared to shoot someone multiple times to stop them.
Stay Safe,
Ben