A long time ago I read several articles about the ability of handgun ammunition to stop a threat. It’s not a new subject as it’s been covered for years. We agreed that Greg Ellifritz is an authority on this subject and many others. We fully recommend reading his excellent 2011 post on this subject on his website “An Alternate Look at Handgun Stopping Power“.
We at AmmoFox want to highlight this information and also acknowledge that other things contribute to the ballistic stopping power of any particular cartridge. An example could be the particular ammunition brand or gun that fires the cartridge may have a longer or shorter barrel length. Below the shotgun result, 90% were 12 gauge and it really shows why people choose it for home defense.
Below is a quick summary of some results ( read the rest here ).
| 380 | 9mm | 40 S&W | Shotgun | |
| Number of people shot | 85 | 456 | 188 | 146 |
| Number of hits | 150 | 1121 | 443 | 178 |
| Number of hits that were fatal | 29% | 24% | 25% | 65% |
| Threat not incapacitated | 16% | 13% | 13% | 12% |
| Incapacitated by one shot (torso or head) | 62% | 47% | 52% | 86% |
There’s a lot to be learned on this subject and more information will come out as new cartridges are handguns are introduced. We do learn many things like you can’t really depend on a one-shot stop from a handgun and a 380 can be used in self-defense (my opinion).