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I'm a Glock advocate. My main defense pistols are my Glock 23 (.40S&W) and my 1911s (.45).
And for personal defense 9mm is just about bare minimum but I prefer .40S&W or .45. I will state as a physician who sees a lot of gunshot wounds that there's a vast difference between the tissue damage done by a 9mm and the .45 and .40 - The difference in damage to limbs and long bones is more dramatic. 9mm seems to pass through tissue poking a clean channel more than anything else. But the .45 rips through the body and creates ugly holes where the tissue is mangled and bones are shattered. The .357 also makes very ugly wounds. I don't see as many .40 wounds, probably because, most of my cases are gang members shot by other gang members. It seems the .40 is still mainly a cop-round. But the statistics for the .40 suggest it's very close to .45.
Forget all the muzzle energy calculations and balistic gelatin studies done with various ammunition ... look at the statistics for "one shot stops" for various calibers if you want to get an idea of what to get. That being said, there's no substitute for proper training and shot placement. There's no point in using a .45 if you miss with it all day. But, IMO, the .45 is far from unmanagable.
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