I tend to gravitate toward firearms that exhibit excellent recoil-control and promote quick and accurate follow-up shots. After many years of shooting, buying and selling semi-auto pistols, a few years ago I settled the pistol caliber debate for myself.
I decided with developments in modern bonded hollow-point ammo, that 9mm offers the best balance of terminal performance and recoil moderation. Any decent 9mm bonded hollow-point will give you virtually the same performance as a similar 45 ACP hollow-point, with considerably less recoil.
The milder recoil of the 9mm round enables the shooter to not only put more shots on target quicker, but also deliver those shots more accurately.
After all, what’s the purpose of a defensive handgun?
It’s a tool you use to stop a threat/attacker. As I understand it, the best way to stop a threat/attacker is to put as many well-placed shots on target as quickly as you can. For me, 9mm is the caliber I choose to achieve that end if need be.
Not only is 9mm an excellent choice for a typical carry pistol, but if you want to move up to large format pistol with a brace rather than a stock* for home defense, or a pistol caliber carbine, you get more than a trivial increase in velocity, and the extra weight of the larger platform further dampens recoil. Boosts in performance aside, LFPs with a brace or stock and PCCs are just a lot of fun to shoot.