just wondering about one shot stops
If the attacker stops after one shot (i.e. before the trigger can be pulled a second time), one of two things happened.
1. He decided to give up. He didn't stop because he was shot with a .357Mag, he stopped because he decided that he would rather stop doing what got him shot than get shot again. By the way, this is, by far, the most common reason a person stops attacking after being shot, and it can happen whether the round used is a .22Short or a .44Mag. In fact, it often happens that the attacker stops even if the round doesn't connect--sometimes even before a shot is fired.
2. He was immediately incapacitated. Immediate incapacitation, when discussing handgun calibers, is virtually always the result of serious damage to the upper spine or brain. Any caliber in the service pistol class (.38special, 9mm, .40S&W, .357SIG, .357Mag, .45ACP, 10mm and other calibers with similar performance) has the potential to penetrate deeply enough to do serious damage to the upper spine or brain when placed properly. So, again, the stop didn't result from the use of a .357Mag, it was because the bullet traveled in a path that intersected with the spine or brain.
Which means that if we're talking about calibers in the service pistol class, it's really not that productive to discuss caliber and one shot stops as if there is a strong connection between the two.
