AC , many thanks for posting the pictures, they were an eye opener. Now I am not going to enter in a debate whether it was the poor maintenance , cylinder misalignment or the built quality of the firearm versus KF ammo problems. The reasons might be cumulative . Whether .32acp ammo was shot with this firearm or not is just a speculation and not a fact.
The pictures indeed are scary and I hope that I never get to treat the injury thus caused to the shooter. I was on the verge of buying an Arminius sometime back, I am so glad now that the deal never came through.
There would be a good reason why the bullet stopped half an inch short of the heart, may be an impact with a rib for example. So it missed the heart ? Well it did puncture the lung ( and that can be very serious too) !! The defender must have aimed for the attackers chest in general, no civilian thinks of taking a heart shot in panic.goodboy_mentor wrote:. I know of a case when attacker was shot with .32 from 12 feet, the shot did not penetrate the heart, it stayed half inch from reaching the heart. The result the attacker survived and the defender inside his house got killed with shot from the 12 bore gun of attacker
At 12 feet a .32 ( S&W or ACP) can be lethal. I would never under estimate a .32 caliber projectile at 12 feet.
I remember treating a man where 12 bore pellets had broken his right humerus and entered the chest wall from right side.The chest injury was classified as simple as the pellets were just under the skin and couldn't get any deeper. Now that is neither the fault of ammo nor the shottie !!
Coming to stopping power of handguns in our scenario, well Sir, the options are very very limited. A .380 acp perhaps? It would be a wee bit better than a .32acp, but an absolute man stopper , it is not !! A .357 mag ? Far too expensive !! I would not consider a .40, .44 mag or .50 for obvious reasons.
best,
RP.