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Humans cannot be disabled without killing. You need him to stop now, that requires 12" in gelatin.

The FBI agrees with me.

http://www.firearmstactical.com/briefs10.htm

So do the above.

Given this was 9 shot not this mythical 40 shot spoken above, what is that? dust?

http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090313044828AAvUOoT

http://www.firearmstactical.com/briefs10.htm

It's nice to talk on the internet with theoreticians. I'm sad to say I couldn't dig up the California report I was looking for that says you're just as likely to die being shot with a 9mm as a .45ACP (although this leaves wiggle room as to how long a person would live after being shot which has proven harder to measure).

I can however give you the FBI brief on wounding factors and effectiveness (which can be found on reproduced on various websites and exists on FBI.gov but is inaccessible) which states that a higher caliber rarely makes a difference. You may want to consider some of their other fine reports which cover fun things like over penetration (most shots miss anyway) and "knockdown force" (which is a physical impossibility but still trumpeted as a strength of larger calibers). I'm not saying that most people survive repeated shootings of any caliber, just that the caliber in question being a .45 doesn't make much difference.

Probably more people in this country[USA] have been killed by .22 rimfires than all other calibers combined, which, based on body count, would compel the use of .22's for self-defense.

http://www.firearmstactical.com/pdf/fbi-hwfe.pdf

While .22s may seem like 'wussie weapons', all guns are lethal. The number of people you kill is more a function of how many you shoot, not what you shoot them with.

Granted, if you were _expecting_ a fight you should probably bring along a carbine, after all:

As a corollary tactical principle, no law enforcement officer should ever plan to meet an expected attack armed only with a handgun.

The don't need it. Conventional munitions are good enough for clotting blood. Here is some information on small arms wounding capability. http://www.firearmstactical.com/tactical.htm

Some information on overpressure from google http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=overpressure+ lethality&btnG=Google+Search

The military at one time had enough VX nerve gas to kill a whole country and enough nukes to cook the bodies in their skin and ... nothing happened.

Now, that's not to say I want to get shot 9 times, or that more often than not, it wouldn't kill someone. But to imply some sort of reliance on a wound, pain, or psychological trauma effect is a gross mistake, and not at all as realistic as you claim.

If you want a reference to any of this, start here: http://www.firearmstactical.com/hwfe.htm

Google for Trooper Mark Coates.

Short version: a state trooper shot an obese perp four times in the torso with .357 magnum hollowpoints - the perp lived to serve prison time. Conversely, the bad guy shot the trooper once more with a .22 pistol *after* being shot - and the bullet severed an artery, resulting in the trooper bleeding to death at the scene.

It's not that you shoot them - it's *where* you shoot them.

The other matter is, that once someone doesn't go down after being shot the first time, there's a tendancy to empty the firearm. Keep in mind that lethal force is allowed only when someone's life, usually the shooter's, is in danger, and then it's easy to justify someone being shot ten times.

I should have my head examined butting into an AC flame war but,

"cop killer" bullets = armor piercing, whether that be teflon-coated, carbide core, or some kind of sabot or flechette.

"Black Talon" = a type of jacketed hollow point bullet with additional claws to increase vascular damage.

http://www.firearmstactical.com/briefs2.htm#Black- Talon

You know, this isn't necessarily a gaffe. Although a bullet has lots of kinetic energy, because of its low mass it doesn't have a high momentum. Also, bullets tend to pass through people rather than lodging in them so they may not transfer all their momentum.

The direction someone falls is determined more by physiology than physics.

If you shoot someone with a rifle bullet, they will collapse, but this is thought to be due to blunt trauma of the spinal cord (see bottom of page) rather than the momentum of the bullet per se.

With a pistol round, if they fall, it's likely to be due to blood loss or surprise at being hit.

In either case, there's no particular reason for them to fall away from the side they were hit on.

Giving up the fairly rare opportunity to moderate on this one...

A couple of points need making in light of your expressed views:

Fairly often, if the poor soul who is on the receiving end of a black talon is wearing a good denim or better, the center cavity will plug with material resulting in much less to no expansion. That also means the cutting edges don't get formed too well. This article seems to provided a sane description of the round.

If one is in a military environment they'll be looking at the smaller-diameter end of a full-metal-jacketed small arms projectile, or there'll be "war crimes" to answer for. Last I heard, anyway.