Whooooeeee, we are jumping around on this one.......
Dr. D,
Ive never personally shot any individual and thats the way I want to keep it. I suppose you could say I practice/educate for a situation that I hope never occurs. Like most people we (shooters), we get facts as mentioned earlier from those individuals who research such information and report on it.
btw.....I did hear at the local gun store that any caliber will do if you do your part....lol.....
.
Ive come completely around on this theory of handgun stopping power....such a possibility exists, although the power from a handgun stopping all hostilities immediately is questionable-it appears very inconsistently and depends upon placement and penetration more than anything else, if the caliber you are using can penetrate the target or punch through a barrier and still penetrate deep enuf to effect the nervous system it will work. There are enuf variables to this to make it frustrating though, while everyone is the same we are all wired different and react differently so what drops one immediately wont affect immediately someone else, and there are various induced capablilites to withstand pain to deaden the nerves......example would be external chemicals, and internally adrealine and just plain mean.
I do hunt and have shot deer and the bugger's have run quite a way while in reality dead on their feet and that is with a solid load in 308, they have skedaddled in spite of placement and penetration......and no defensive pistol caliber has that much stopping power, it appears to be a quest for determination of extremely small percentages of effectiveness, which apparently can be negated eaisly.
I think the question of taking a human life in a shooting scenario is hard at all times, on a public forum with the anti-gun fevor it could have a chiling effect on people's replys...there is quite a bit written on it by ""experts"". The trauma that the individual experiences who was forced into shooting the crimminal out of fear for his own life by that same crimminal--can effect him adversly for the remainder of his life, cost him his family, his professional standing,, not to mention court costs and related hassles...........all in all taking a life is not something I would ever strive for, avoiding that is something every shooter I know does strive for.......fubsy.