[Yea, I prefer to just try and keep my bad attitude to myself now that I have made it this far I would like to live to see my 80's
I was not inferring I am some kind of bad ass. (likely just the opposite) As my ID states..I make knives, and have collected them since I was a kid.
The point however is wound trauma, and that is what we are talking about when we discuss a weapons ability to "end" a confrontation.
The way the body deals with trauma is of course diffrent for each person, but "stopping power" is really just a measure of how much trauma a certain gun/caliber can inflict. Alot is said about how effective a round is in this regard. I must of course point out that a "one shot" stop is great...but one may find that multiple shots are required. Enough trauma and even the most flipped out PCP junkie will fall.
One of the reasons that a sword is a deadly weapon is because it can introduce massive trauma very quickly. A .357 round can "upset" a sofball sized cavity and shock a body with the resultant trauma...so it should not be hard to see that if you cut someone from the top of the neck to their knee you would in fact be creating a huge wound channel. Spilling someones guts in front of them also has a great psycological effect..not even counting the amount of trauma involved.
And anything that can disconnect a persons brain from controlling their body is quite usefull. It does not have to be lethal, as electric stun guns have shown.
Learning to avoid conflict of course is the most sensable path ....
KM