Marshall and Sannow's work's aren't just flawed, they are utterly worthless. If you look at their work in depth, they are nothing more than a very poorly put together aggregate of very raw and unusable numbers. With all of the factors that go into a stop, and only analyzing one factor out of many, the numbers are so out of context that they have absolutely no meaning whatsoever. Real understanding of terminal ballistics and the science behind putting a man down requires actually knowing how and why things happen, careful analysis of individual cases to understand cause and effect, and established knowledge of how factors affect the end result. Putting poorly gathered, incomplete statistics without context is not science, or relevant, or useful, but rather nothing more than an indicator for real research to be done. Marshall and Sannow's works are, at best, junk science, and misleading at worst. Whatever you do with those garbage works, take it with heaping teaspoons of salt and do real research to understand how and why. Those percentages should be disregarded without a second thought.
Also, don't buy into the whole "all bullets are equal", or "all calibers are equal", because they certainly aren't. The truth is, there has been so many failures to stop that can be attributed to caliber, load, and bullet selection alone, that many calibers and loads have been, for good reason, called into question. People who will tell you that .22LR and .32 ACP work as well as 9mm, 357 Magnum, or 45 will point to the times they worked well in circumstances that favoured the smaller caliber, but conveniently forget about the cases where those smaller rounds failed to penetrate deep enough to kill or incapacitate, where the larger or more powerful rounds would have, and prove that those smaller calibers have severe flaws, and can fail even if the shooter makes careful shots. Its amazing how cherry picked anecdotes can trump other anecdotes completely contradicting a belief; people who tout .22LR always remember the stories where they worked, and conveniently forget about all the times it failed, and a superior round would have worked.
Yes, choosing the wrong load with the wrong gun, the wrong barrel, can cause under penetration, and an otherwise successful stop of an aggressor could turn into a potentially fatal failure. No, the range queens aren't right when they say that shot placement is the ONLY factor, and that choosing a better round, or a larger caliber is only for idiots who can't aim or have big egos. No, those who claim that barrels, bullets, and calibers don't matter are not even close to being correct. Yes, when you choose lighter loads, lighter bullets, shorter barrels, and smaller calibers, you are trading off one advantage to gain another.
Does it take a cannon to kill a deer? No, but the people I know who brag about poaching them with a .22LR don't brag about the 10 they wounded for the one they killed. Does it take a cannon to kill a man who is attacking you? No, but in a life or death struggle, you want every advantage you can get, and in real life circumstances, with stress, and long penetration angles, an inadequate caliber, bullet, or load, can yield inadequate results. When your life is on the line, over kill does not exist, and it is under kill that will prove fatal to you. Perhaps the cannon isn't necessary in perfect conditions to kill a man, but in an emergency it is the surer bet to save your life from a threat. What is base minimum in perfect conditions has no relevance to the situation you face, and what will be required of you and your weapon.
A .308 or a 12 gauge shotgun are better for self defense and stopping a threat than any pistol, no matter what people have to say about shot placement, and how the fact they can put hole sin paper in well lighted areas under no stress will magically allow them to shoot bad guys between the eyes in a self defense situation like some bad movie. A powerful weapon is no substitute for marksmanship and a cool head, but don't believe the idiotic mantras that good marksmanship is a panacea for every problem, or a replacement for adequate firepower in certain situations, either.
