Yeah, and it's a pretty tough calculation to try to come up with a best solution.
The balance striven for is normally between adequate penetration versus over penetration in the pursuit of stopping your adversary. And there are a several variables to have to try to take into account, many of which you will likely have any control over. Heck, how can you predict if your fired projectile will hit a bone or just travel straight on through soft tissue? So you have to select the proper caliber, weight, bullet construction, and delivery package all while making just best guesses at how you will possibly need to use it. So just resolve yourself to pretty much having to pick a compromise and hope for the best. Because if you KNEW you were going to be going into a firefight for your life later that day, you would just choose to be somewhere else at that time.
BTW, I agree with your recommendation to KEEP on firing if you are fighting for your life with an adversary, to try to STOP him. However, the prosecutor is going to make a real rough time for you when asked to explain why your adversary was shot 17 times. You will be presented in the worse possible light. So ONLY shoot until your adversary is DOWN, then stay out of the line of fire while help is summoned. You DO NOT want to walk over to him to check to make certain that he is down for the count only to find out disappointingly (and possibly fatally) that he DEFINITELY was not. Someone wounded can STILL pull a trigger.
Also, when the authorities show up, your goal was NEVER to kill the adversary, but merely to positively STOP him. Be careful of what you say and how you say it. Babbling away at this time to relieve the tension could be a real big mistake. As far as the police are concerned, YOU are a suspect in a homicide until reasonably proven otherwise.
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