Calling it stopping power is a MYTH
Well the likes of David Spauling, Massad Ayoob, Dr. Martin Fackler, Tom Givens, and others disagree.
Massad Ayoob and David Spauling did a lot of research in the morgues and police records and found pretty much what I posted. They are both well known retired policemen and instructors.
Same for Dr. Martin Fackler (THE Dr. Martin L. Fackler. Retired colonel in the US Army's Medical Corps. Served as a battlefield surgeon and was the head of the Wound Ballistics Laboratory for the Letterman Army Medical Center.)
That does not mean Stopping Power is absolute and can be quantified to the last decimal place.
There are so many factors besides the cartridge makeup involved. Not only such things as shot placement, type and amount of clothes worn, distance, angle of the shot, but also physical and physiological makeup of the one being shot.
But yes, larger bullets tend to do better, faster ones to, heavier ones to, better constructed ones to, etc...
Sure many people are killed with a .22, but rarely stopped, and stopping is what matters.
My wife was a ER nurse, Trauma 1 nurse, CV-ICU nurse, head of CV-ICU, director of CV nursing, and she has told me that as the size and power of the cartridge increased, more and more of them were carried in. Many of them shot with .22s and .25s just walked in!
The only ones she saw aways carried in were those shot with shotguns. And I've even heard of a few of them continuing the fight!
BUT, that does not mean there is no such thing as stopping power. The military, the police, firearms instructors, and anyone with sense knows one picks the largest most powerful gun they can handle and shoot strait.
Deaf