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Night Watch,
I thought that your answer would be similar to that, and both both agree and disagree. I also am a believer in a reliability above all else, and will agree that ball type ammo, as a general rule, is less prone to malfunction. I would not consider myself to be inadequately armed if I carried a mil spec 1911 with ball ammo, but I also believe that modern semi auto pistols of quality manufacture (including 1911s) enjoy reliability far above earlier designs. guns of today are quite literally designed with the intention of reliably feeding a vast array of bullet designs.
I also feel that the cause of a malfunction is commonly misunderstood or misdiagnosed. My personal criteria for a carry gun is that it digest 500 consecutive rounds of the intended duty ammo, using all magazines at hand, without failure before I trust it. If a malfunction occurs, caution should be used in determining the cause of the failure, as it could be anything from ammo problems to limp wristing. If a malfunction is blamed on hollow point bullets, but the true cause was a bent magazine lip, switching to ball ammo is not a cure.
I have been fortunate enough to have never had a malfunction during a life threatening situation, but I also maintain and evaluate duty/carry firearms meticulously. One of the things that I find I do not like with LE agencies, mine included, is the mandate of carrying a specific load based on the assumption that it will operate reliably in all officers guns. Your entire duty rig, including belt, holster, firearm, magazines, ammo and ammo carriers should be evaluated as a system, and any deficiencies found should be corrected and tested within that system. It can be very easy to miss a problem if any component is tested on it's own, rather than as a part of the system.
As to the question of stopping power, I will leave that to academics to discuss, as this is where the discussion belongs. Stopping power is not provided by caliber, bullet design or weapon systems. Stopping power is the ability, in combat conditions, to deliver the first telling blow.
Justin
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