Both are good, both kill, both stop a threat.
The age-old question, .45 or 9 mm? Which has greater stopping power?
The 9 mm caliber is not anemic, weak, and negligible as some .45 zealots make it sound. 9 mm equals .354 inches in the English system. This means the 9 mm caliber is one-tenth (.10 inches) smaller than the .45 round. To put things into perspective a BB is .177 inches in diameter. So the difference between the two rounds is less than the size of BB. Do you really think that a projectile traveling several hundred feet faster than the .45 round and only one-tenth of an inch smaller is something negligible?
So OK, the .45 round makes a hole one-tenth of an inch bigger than the 9 mm. Is it reasonable or even logical to dismiss the 9 mm round as weak and insignificant? If that is your position, then might as well discount the .45 round as weak and insignificant too since the difference in diameter between the two rounds is so small that if one is weak, the other must be too.
Many of the arguments against the 9 mm round say the bullet tends to go through a body and therefore does not deposit all of it energy inside the target. This argument is greatly flawed. Again, think logically before you answer this question: Do you rather have 1 hole .45 inch in diameter traversing half your body width, or two holes .354 inches (9 mm) in diameter from a bullet that traversed your entire body and exited at the other end? If either bullet hits a vital organ like the heart, liver, or mayor artery the threat stops. This would apply to even a small caliber like the .22. If the bullet did not hit vital organs or arteries, then the blood loss from two holes, the entry and exit wounds, and a longer wound cavity from the 9 mm round is greater than from 1 hole with a slightly wider wound cavity but shorter path of the .45 round.
These are my two cents into this debate. I am not a ballistics expert. Hell, the only gun I own is a .22 for plinking. But not all the bravado talk for the .45 round passes the smell test. In my opinion, the 9 mm round is one-tenth of an inch smaller than the .45 round but it travels faster. Therefore, by the transitive property of equality it cannot be significantly different from the .45 round. Will the 9 mm round stop the much feared 250-pound drug crazed crack addict that will brake into your house in the middle of the night? Maybe not, but do not count on the .45 doing the job either. Besides, all crack addicts that I have seen are poor, anorexic devils weighing 110 lbs. Do not worry about the stopping power rhetoric surrounding these two calibers. Focus on shot placement, and double tap if possible. Both calibers are good, both kill, both stop a threat.
