When someone is saying "minute of bad guy" or "deer," what do they really mean? Well, the intent is to get a hit and stop them.
In the first regard it should stop the attack, in the second it would keep the game from escaping to suffer. Each situation, although it looks different, has the same goal, to stop. The results after that can certainly be different but share a lot of ethical ground.
So, how big is a bad guy or deer in terms of minute of angle? Well, measuring what is consider the "Center of Mass," or basically the torso as the largest contiguous area, it's generally accepted as about 18" square. It can be said the COM of a bad guy or deer is 18 MOA.
The typical rifle is 1-2 MOA. Handguns can be shot to 2-5 MOA. The skill level of the shooter is what is in question, and from that we get an idea about what people really think.
Most assume a handgun cannot be shot accurately out to 100m - and yet the weapon capable of 2MOA is aiming at a 18MOA target. What do most handgun shooters use for sights? Open fast express sights for close range. Taking the Tuller distance as one measure, that's 21 feet. Not the best sights for 100m, and those who hunt with handguns tend to prefer ones with a tighter sight picture.
That principle is "Aim small shoot small."
One of the advantages of a rifle is that it has a stock to locate the rear of the weapon and reduce sight movement. That is why they are easier to shoot long distances more accurately. It doesn't mean pistol shooters can't, tho, as many videos on line show them hitting steel targets past 400m.
What we can learn from that is to see stocks as simply an aid in aiming the gun more accurately for the less skilled shooter. Which is why we issue rifles to our armed forces instead of pistols - more accurate at a lesser skill level means less training and less cost. A newer younger shooter can hit the enemy soldier at 100m a lot more often with a rifle than a pistol.
The funny part is that is about as far as soldiers do try to shoot in combat. Usually about 125m for aimed fire according to decades of military research. Beyond that the risk of getting hit by a round never intentionally aimed goes up quickly.
The average human trained to shoot won't try to hit an 18MOA target much past 125m. Even when he's got a weapon capable of 2MOA.
Despite all the internet bragging, when the bullets start flying both ways, we collectively don't think we're all that good.