Nobody denies that there are better options. However, I cannot find any news article where a man was shot 45 times and lived. I have seen an article on a man that was shot many times by a LEO (don't remember where or how many) using a .40 and the guy didn't stop. The LEO was shot in the head with birdshot when the guy tried to shoot his wife. The angry husband wasn't on any drugs, just pure adrenaline.
Either way, this was the .40. Shot placement is key to everything. I highly doubt the man was actually hit 45 times by a 9mm, but if he was, that police officer was not shooting him in the chest or anywhere that could have caused instant death, which he should have been after the first 3 shots IMO.
The simple question is if a 9mm is adequate for self defense. Not, "which is better, the 9mm or the 10mm?". God knows we've all seen the debates on calibers, yet not a single person will volunteer to be shot by the caliber they stomp on.
I'll be the first to admit that I'd much rather carry a .45. Simply because it's bigger and that makes me feel better. But many people have been killed with a 9mm, so I know it's adequate and I'd never tell people otherwise. FWIW, I carry a .40 because that's the gun I could afford at the time. If it were a .22, I'd still carry it.
It was an Illinois State Trooper who had the honor of making one of the first big shootings with a 9mm in the early '80s. He dumped three magazines (15 rounds each) into this perp on PCP. If you know anything about those on Angel Dust (think Roddy King), you know that they just do not feel pain. Thus you have to hit a critical spot. The bigger wound cavity, the more likely to hit something critical.
This incident was the prime reason that the police moved to .40 and the .45ACP. In fact the .40 S&W came out of the research started due to this incident.
I am surprised that others here do not remember the incident. It was in all of the gun mags.
A link would help jog my memory. The shootout that jumps to my mind when the 9mm/.38 stopping power subject is the one in Miami: 1986 FBI Miami shootout - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
So, based on this single, true, anecdote one may conclude that shotgun butts have more stopping power than 12 gauge 00-buck shot and twenty something 9mm Para shots, at least on individuals on PCP. It would seem that we should be paying more attention to shotgun butts, then?
One may also conjecture (quite soundly) that had the officers been shooting 45 ACP, or 357 Mag, or even 44 Mag that things would have not been different, or any other low-powered cartridge for that matter. One may also wonder that if the "suspect" was carrying a hi-capicty 9mm he would have done far more damage, too. It seems that reloading his low-capacity 1911 magazine was his undoing.
This.
a .357 Magnum round into your wall 3 feet away from your target wont do anything.