MinnMooney,
If you primarily are worried about getting charged criminally or about being sued civilly, then maybe it is best you do not carry a gun at all. Maybe it is even best never to attempt to defend yourself at all because the chances of either one of those things happening is pretty high if you do injure or kill someone even in a pretty clear cut case of self defense. You need, as I see it, to make a decision now - are you more concerend about losing your life savings, or are you more concerned about losing your life or your ability to ever earn again.
The whole idea of which ammo to use is pretty important. Allow me to address this after having put some thought to issues like the thread starting question over the course of the past 28 plus years:
If you have not asked yourself these questions, be sure a DA will do so: Have you fired your rounds of choice in practice over and over again? Does your firearm shoot accurately using them? Are you a trained and or qualified shooter, if not why not? Are the rounds commercially available? If hand loaded were they loaded within specifications acceptable in the industry? Does the ammunition have any attributes known to make it more deadly that regularly available ammunition – such as Teflon coating, explosive bullet, alterations made by the shooter (cutting into the bullet to enhance expansion), powder charge above the recommended charge? To simply choose the same round as used by your local police department could be quite the big mistake for more than one reason.
Mas also recommended using the same self defense ammo used by your local PD.
Police departments often use less than desirable ammunition in their duty weapons because of departmental policy that has been effected by political agendas. Case in point: For years, beyond other departments or LE agencies, the NYPD was still carrying underpowered round nosed revolver ammo. So that was potentially bad advice from a self defense point of view, at least bad for those of us in an area where a department has been ruled by political folly. Some police departments also use ammunition that is labeled by the manufacturer as Law Enforcement only, or that is normally only available to LE agencies. Use of this ammunition by a non LEO would be akin to legal suicide when the issue gets brought up in court; it would probably look worse than using hand loaded ammunition. Yet some other police departments use ammunition that is legal for them, but actually illegal for the non law enforcement public to use.
Heck if you really take that advice from Ayoub, then if you normally carry a .45 and the PD carries a 9mm - what are you going to do - change your gun and ammo to meet the ammo they carry! Instead of using what the local PD uses just because Mr. Ayoub said to use it, why not do some research first. Find out what they use and why. Some departments use whatever they can get least expensively that meets certain other criteria. Some use ammunition not available to the general public. Some departments use rounds known for over penetration, my agency did just that for several years. Some departments use +P ammo. Will your firearm even handle those rounds reliably? Of course, some agencies and departments use ammunition that is well suited to be a self defense round used by anyone. Do your homework if you are that concerned over legal or civil suits and still want to carry.
If you use hand loaded ammunition and you if have loaded to specs found in an industry standard hand loaders manual, you will probably be alright in the eyes of a jury, regarding your choice of ammo, no matter how bad a picture the DA wants to paint. That is if you have a smart attorney, and if you have not otherwise painted a picture of yourself as a crazed wanna be killer.
Regardless of what I consider my well thought out answer above, in essence it comes down to this: In an emergency where your life is in danger, or you are in danger of serious bodily injury, or same for a loved one or other innocent party, it does not mater much what ammunition you used to defend yourself or the other person as long as it was within reason. As to carrying a type of ammo day to day, the choice may make somewhat more of a difference in panting a negative picture of you by a DA. So in essence, commercially available (in the USA) hollow points manufactured for self defense, if legal in your area, proven as a reliable round, and with which you are familiar and relaibly able to hit your mark, are reasonable as a defensive round (in the USA) regardless of what you local police department uses. So are hand loaded rounds that were loaded to normal industry specs. So, if your firearms and ammunition are legal, it does not necessarily, but certainly can, boil down to this:
1) the District Attorney who is anti-RKBA goes after you for whatever reason he can do so to get political brownie points
2) You are injured or dead and no one goes after you criminally
No, when you think about it, that information basically the same as offered by someone else who you hamered is neither childish nor worthless, at least certainly not as I see it. It was just not explained, in my opinion, as well as it could have been explained. Some might even see it this way: Whining about it may be what is worthless, insulting the person who wrote it may be childish, not offering up anything else but regurgitated information given by others may be pointless. I think most would agree though: Thinking about the issue, then discussing it without insults is the true High Road way, and is the way that will benefit most of us here who may one day be involved in a courtroom scenario over a shooting incident.
All the best,
Glenn B
