“Very common. It may be better to aim for the pelvic girdle in a knife attack. Break the support struckture and the attacker falls down and cannot walk.”
The disabling shot to the pelvis has been discredited. Pistol bullets will not break the bone, just punch a hole. Jeff Cooper taught a better solution. Two to the chest, evaluate, then one in the head if necessary.
Shit. Just empty it
It is not the right choice in a gun fight.
Chest shots do not necessarily immobilize immediately unless they hit the spine.
Most of what I see "discrediting" pelvic girdle hits is all about people continuing to be able to pull a trigger. That is not what we are talking about in this case.
Here is a Dave Spaulding discrediting pelvic girdle shots:
I’ve talked to several people over the years who have either been involved or have been witness to armed conflict in which a pelvis shot was delivered, and all describe the victim of said wound going down but remaining in the fight. This being the case, one must ask themselves if incapacitation is the same as immobilization? Incapacitation means being unable to take action while immobilization means not being able to move; are they the same thing?
If a person with a contact weapon is more likely to be immobilized with a pelvic girdle shot than with a chest shot, the pelvic girdle shot has validity. With a contact weapon, immobilization can be more important than incapacitation several seconds later.
So, the question becomes, which is quicker at immobilizing the threat: Chest shots or pelvic girdle shots? We know chest shots often take a while to take effect, perhaps many seconds to a couple of minutes. But Spaulding says all the cases he knows of "went down" with pelvic girdle hits. We know that is not the case with chest hits.
The alternative is, of course the central nervous system, which can work very well, and often is (but not always) near instantaneous.
The counter to that is the head is more mobile, more subject to movement out of the line of fire as the opponent sees the firearm being pointed at them.
There is a lot of theorizing, very little data. I would like to see how many people shot in the pelvic girdle remain able to walk, instead of crawl.
That would give us a better handle on whether it is an effective technique or not.
In practice, you shoot at what is available, because you do not always have a choice.
I have a friend who described several gunfights he was in. Two he resolved with head shots, but, they were gunfights, not fights with someone who had a contact weapon. I will ask him his opinion on pelvic girdle shots. He shot quite a few people, mostly with a .45.