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STOPPING POWER This is the great subject that has fueled endless debate for many years, and will probably continue to do so. It is great fun, and very informative, and valuable, but it has limitations seldom applied to it. Most of us tend to apply a worst case logic across the board, and forget the percentages involved. To all who care: The odds of an armed confrontation for the average citizen are very small. The vast majority of us will, fortunately, spend our lives without one. The odds of the presence of a firearm stopping the confrontation without shots being fired are quite good. This happens all the time, and is the single most important advantage of an armed citizenry. If your luck just goes to hell, and despite all these long odds, you wind up engaging a bad guy, the odds are huge that a single hit *with anything* will stop the fight in your favor. Nobody, good guy, or bad, wants to be shot at all! Any hole in your hide of any size, just hurts like hell, and ruins your whole day. There are, of course, psychopathic exceptions, but they are outside the scope of even the most incredible odds. Most people have never been shot. Most people, after a hit with a handgun, even in a vital area, will still be conscious, and have some semblance of their wits with them. Their initial reaction, some variation of "Yikes!", will be followed by a mental search for a point of reference for this new occurrence. Well, guess where all of us have seen the most people get "shot"? The movies! What do the vast majority of people shot in the movies do? They fall down, and quit shooting! If you think this is not a real factor in the real world, you haven't done your homework. We serious students of this subject delve into every facet of an armed conflict, including attitude, will, mental strength and toughness, and a whole menu of "what if?" reaction drills. Joe Citizen, good, or bad, does not. It is highly unlikely that they have ever pondered any "what ifs?" that involve getting shot. Once shot, and past the "yikes!", the brain goes "what do I do now?", and searches the data banks for a reference. In a flash, it finds one, and goes "oh yeah!..fall down, and quit shooting!". This little scenario will occur in an overwhelming number of conflicts. When you factor in this probability with the odds mentioned above of ever having to engage at all, then the whole discussion of stopping power is seen in a new light. It becomes clear that the primary focus of a person contemplating armed conflict should be to be armed in the first place, and to get off their shot, and get a good hit with it. The power, and caliber of their weapon is a *secondary* consideration. If this in any way interferes with the primary considerations, then it should be dismissed out of hand. Size, and weight determine the odds that the weapon will be carried at all. We are not talking "enthusiasts" here, and human nature is a powerful factor. Recoil, noise, and flash interfere with the ability to get that good hit, and must be overcome. We gun-nuts spend the time to do so, and do it very well. Our citizen is unlikely to do so, and the effects of a larger caliber will only hurt his chances. Stopping power comes into play only in the tiny fraction of a percent that occurs when we are forced to engage a person who is outside the norm. Drugs, mental toughness, will, or just plain mean, all contribute to this nightmare. This adversary is the guy who all the actuary tables are based on. He is the cornerstone of the stopping power debate, and there are endless horror stories about his super-human ability to absorb hits, and keep on coming. Well, I'm just kind of fatalistic about this guy. If, after all the incredible odds, this is the guy who wants my wallet, well, it just ain't my day, and it looks like my number may have come up. Soldiers face this kind of attitude in battle all the time, and have done some of their most incredible feats of heroism with exactly that thought in mind. If my booger just smiles after a center-hit with a pair of .32 Silvertips, well, nuts. I'll fight like the devil himself with what I have left, but I wonder if at this point a .45 would have made much difference. I have just shot craps against phenomenal odds. I have been confronted..long odds. I have been forced to engage..long odds, and I have as my adversary a bulletproof psycho, the longest odds of all. It's no great stretch of these odds to have my guy just smile at the same hits from a .45. It *has* happened. In such a case, maybe it's just time to go? In my opinion, this is serious food for thought, and just as valid as the endless debate over stopping power. I have been asked many times over the years to recommend a carry weapon. More often than not, it was someone who had little interest in taking up the world of firearms as a hobby. The opinions I have expressed here have been forged over the years by the sobering realization that there is no easy answer for such a recommendation, and that the holy grail of stopping power is not the end-all, be-all it is held up to be.
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