Long ago and far away I also carried a M1911A1 in combat. Pistol training in the Army was pretty minimal, mostly requiring a minimum number of hits on a silhouette target to qualify. Not much emphasis on the handgun, really.

I had a friend who took 3 rounds from an AK-47, all in the chest. He was back for duty in under a month. I had another friend who took one round in the upper leg, breaking the femur and opening the femoral artery. He died in less than 2 minutes.

We used the pistol when clearing bunkers and tunnels. We loaded 8 rounds of tracer-ball ammo, allowing the shooter to "walk" his shots into the target. The .45 ACP was effective in every case, but never knocking a man down and never resulting in immediate death.

Then I served 24 years as a cop. Training, back in the day, was "shoot, look, shoot, look, shoot, look". Later on, the training evolved considerably and we were taught to shoot until the target stopped moving, period. For multiple targets we were taught to double-tap one, then double-tap the next, and repeat if necessary.

Stories about "stopping power" and "knockdown power" are vastly exaggerated. I've seen people shot with .38 special, .357 magnum, .22 LR, .25 ACP, .45 ACP, 7.62X39, 7.62X51 NATO, 5.56mm NATO, and 12-gauge 00 buckshot. Some laid down and died. Some keep coming at you. Some turn around and walk away. I've never seen anyone "knocked down".

To stop a man requires either serious disruption of the central nervous system, or a sudden drop in blood pressure (typically caused by massive tissue destruction and arterial bleeding). Taking out the brain stem will stop all motor response. Reducing blood pressure to a point of unconciousness can take a while, depending upon the tissue damage and the individual.

Welcome home, fellow vet.

__________________
Life of the party until 8:00PM