Stopping power

[BehindBlueI's]

If defense was the ONLY consideration, we would be carrying long guns chambered in a round suitable for something human-sized.

Maybe, but a handgun has advantages for defense as well. You can access and deploy a pistol in situations where a long gun is useless.

 

[BehindBlueI's]

I am a little surprised that .380 showed so well in this study, since the Bubba Fudd consensus on INGO is that it is a mouse gun and should never be carried for self defense.

But as a 1911 guy it is nice to see that 9MM placed even lower than .380.

Which is a function of not controlling for variables, not because it's somehow a better cartridge.

Remember at least a third of random violence encounters could be solved with a starter pistol. Caliber is irrelevant in a large chunk of those uses. The same exact criminal faced with a shootout with a robbery victim vs a shootout with an LEO will often behave quite differently. The stakes are different. For the first, the motivation is to escape the robbery attempt unscathed, the criminal can just try again later in the same night. However the same criminal knows that an LEO is more likely to pursue him, has the ability to quickly summon more officers who will also engage him, and that tracking him down is going to be a priority of the LE community. The odds of a psychological stop are diminished.

Guess which of those encounters is more likely to be approached with a .380? And that's why these amalgamations of disparate types of gunfights are, by and large, not indicative of what they say they are.

 

[1nderbeard]

(not really) surprised by the dismissal of the video, and other critical comments. I thought it was rather interesting, and can't think right off of a better way to gather data upon which conclusions can be made.
Rifle is obviously the best choice, but concealability is a big issue. In SHTF scenarios though that may not matter much. Just don't carry a .22lr and expect to be Rambo.
For everyday use where concealability matters go with a pistol that you can control and put shots on target, as long as it's a .380 or bigger.

 

[Ark]

Agreed. However he did say that that was his conjecture and not a finding of the study.

I am a little surprised that .380 showed so well in this study, since the Bubba Fudd consensus on INGO is that it is a mouse gun and should never be carried for self defense.

But as a 1911 guy it is nice to see that 9MM placed even lower than .380.

I was surprised at the results for mouse gun calibers. Not great, but the penalty was less extreme than many like to suggest. Of course, there also appears to be about 1/3 of people who will immediately quit when they're shot with just about anything, but still. Not exactly a "noisemaker".