Teddy Roosevelt was the instigator of the .45. In the Spanish-American war in Cuba whatever handgun they were using would not stop the fanatical Cubans or Spaniards. Roosevelt wanted and insisted upon something that would knock a person down if it hit them in the hand. Hence the 1911 .45.

I shot a .45 with a muzzle break cut into the end of the slide. It had almost no recoil, and could be held on target very, very easily. Otherwise I've had to hide my pain when firing a .45, and it can get to be considerable. I avoided them like the plague, and not flinching was possibly my greatest accomplishment in self-control. I fired a .44 magnum one time, and it flew out of my hand while I damned near screamed.

You make a very good point about reliability, and I'd put a few clips of both hollow-point and frangible bullets through it to check that. If they are reliable I'd probably load each type alternately. For one thing, if I ever had to shoot someone I would probably empty the clip in them if it was just one person. No one wants a wounded person who is very angry and probably armed.

Gun nuts come up with more goddamned scenarios than you can imagine. If you have a 13 round clip, they'll come up with one that requires 14 rounds. If you have a .40 S&W, they'll point out that it takes a .45 to get through a 2"x4" and what are you gonna do if - - - ? If you have a pistol they'll point out you need the power of a rifle, and if you have a rifle they'll show how you need to conceal your weapon. And, how many times in their lives have civilians been better off if they were armed compared to how much better off if they aren't. When I was drinking, and around drinking people, not being armed saved a lot of lives, both that of the shooter and victim. Some people get absolutely nuts. And you can go through thousands of normal lives and never need a gun. The FBI estimates that 25 friends and relatives are killed by civilian weapons for every badguy. Not many armies can sustain those kinds of losses. Not even the completely bogus, faked, made up and inflated body counts in Vietnam claimed kill ratios like that. By the way, before they started using suicide bombers, that was the ratio of Palestinians killed to Israelis killed. 25 to 1. And the same ratio of Native Americans to US Army.

If I were buying my choice of a personal defense weapon it would be this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FN_P90
Quite a weapon, and a 50 round magazine.

Frankly, I cannot imagine a situation where I'd shoot someone. I really can't. It would have to be up close and very personal. But I would let someone know I did have a gun, and get the hell out of there. I'd endure a lot to not have to deal with it.

BTW, I did get assurances I could get the money for a dog, and may head off to Florida later this summer. Not as far as Miami, but if yer willin' ah may git a ways down ther.