Quite so.
FWP is partly correct in giving the FBI some credit for establishing a database of ammunition performance, but they were Johnny-come-lately to the party. The FBI database was started after the 1987 conference (see FBI Spl. Agent Urey Patrick's paper, "Handgun Wounding Effectiveness" for some of the background here, it's available on the DOJ website). They began this work in 1987, and has been generated using test protocols devised by Dr. Martin Fackler in the 1970's and 1980's.
Dr. Fackler was the man who "invented" 4% ballistic gelatin as a bullet testing medium. Duncan McPherson, one of the other founding members of the International Wound Ballistics Association, was also a major contributor to the early study of terminal ballistics and in fact generated most of the mathematical formulae used today by all testers, including the FBI.
Additionally, there have been a number of very influential bullet/ammo testing entities working as private contractors for both the Dept of Defense and for LE agencies. Dr. Gary Roberts' group was very active for a number of years testing ammunition and compiling statistics on street shootings for LE agencies in the state of California. Their data have never been made available to the public, but it is quite possibly the largest single database of terminal ballistics research in existence. Unlike the FBI data, which is all laboratory findings, the California data is correlated with street shootings using proprietary info from CA's law enforcement agencies. I know that Federal/Speer has relied on this data heavily in developing defensive/police ammunition, and I've heard that Hornady and others have as well.
Correct. I believe that Dr. Fackler was the first to say that penetration was the primary concern even after barrier penetration
