I was a deputy in Texas for 17 years. The issue of stopping power of various cartridges was always a lively debate.
One theory, not mine, but I happen to agree with, is you can only count on damage being done to your assailant by the tissues the bullet actually hits. Temporary cavitation, hydrostatic shock, etc...could not be counted on to stop an adversary. The only damage one could count on to stop a bad guy was damage done to the tissue the bullet actually hit. Ergo, a bigger diameter bullet (45 ACP) driven at a decent velocity, was more likely to stop an attacker than a smaller bullet (9mm) driven at a faster velocity. I agree with that 100%.
