Actually the issued duty weapon was being switched from 9mm to 40s&w at the time so it was both of those. 40s&w is no weenie round; it is ballistically similar to .357 with similar bullet weight and velocity. If anything it has the advantage from being 1mm larger. Obviously he didn't get hit anywhere too vital but since he was able to fight on even with solid hits in the chest and abdomen it just goes to show that real life is nothing like the movies.
I hear a lot about the .357 being the ultimate man-stopper, mostly because of Marshall & Sanow's "One shot stop" (OSS) statistics which are no more scientific than using insurance payout data to judge what is the safest car. Statistically, an old Volvo 240 wagon is a safer car than a new $86,000 Mercedes S-Class despite having no airbags, pyrotechnic seatbelts, stability control or ABS. Why is this? The people who drive old Volvos tend to be much older and take fewer risks. Similarly, .357 Mag (the OSS champion according to M&S) shooters tend to be much older and more skilled, plus have fewer rounds so
place their shots more carefully than spray and pray high-cap 9mm types.
Fackler's ballistic gelatin produces a large "temporary stretch cavity" from even handgun rounds. Some equate this "kinetic energy dump" with "stopping power" but Fackler himself debunked this by pointing out that this shock wave was insufficient to cause trauma to living tissue no matter how impressive it looked. Despite this, many people with no background in physiology believe it somehow causes some kind of "neural shock" so larger is better. All I can say is the real wounds just look like someone stuck them with a large screwdriver, and they clearly did not stop a lot of people. With hunting rounds, the shock wave is clearly powerful enough to tear tissue, but no handgun the typical person can fire is like that.
Don't get me wrong, it is surprisingly easy for people to get killed from any kind of firearm (the .22LR is incredibly, a good OSS round). But realize that even after you have inflicted a mortal wound,
they can still kill you before they finally die, especially considering you wouldn't have fired your weapon unless you were in immediate, mortal danger. In that light it is best to consider no handgun cartridge to be very "powerful" because placement is so critical (I've seen a LOT of gunshot victims
walk in). I consider it a last ditch type of weapon to be carried when concealment is required and used mostly to allow rapid retreat unless you are a LEO.
I rarely see anyone with two shotgun wounds and then never from the same direction. True it's less than ideal in a hand to hand combat situation, but I really hope if you're going to be walking around with a shotgun that you'd also carry a handgun as backup. There is another disadvantage of the shotgun though: virtually none of them are "drop safe" so they can fire if dropped with a round in the chamber.
Speaking on the lighting issue; this is your HOME we are talking about here so there is no reason you cannot just wire up 10,000 watts of light to
Clappers and be prepared to light the whole place up. I mean why consider planning to fumble around with a G2 in your own dark house as being prepared?
