Let's bring in a live example from Finland a day or two ago. Robber with a gun walks into a clock store and threatens the owner. Owner pulls out his own gun and threatens the robber. Robber runs away. (No information on wether the robbers gun was a toy or real. Perhaps he simply did not want to test his luck, after all even if the robber had time to fire a shot the other guy might have been alive long enough to shoot back. Also no information wether he ran like a little girl.)
My point is that a threat of force can be enough to disarm the situation and I simply think that it is crazy not to allow people to try to disarm the situation. (Well there is always talking as an option but "talk softly and carry a big stick" and so on.)
And if the robber/attacker is close when you need to draw the gun then getting it out for shooting at him takes just as long as getting it out for threatening him.
If on the other hand, you already have the gun out (for example, you heard your window shatter and picked up the gun) then why not announce the crook that you have a gun and will use it if they do not leave?
(also, I'm not saying that there is time for a warning shot every single time, or a safe direction to shoot it but I just think that IF it can be done it is a good idea because then you might be able to stop the attack before anyone needs to die. And if it is not enough then, you have a gun, just one less bullet.)
I've heard Hollow point is good for dwaling with attackers.
It's high lethality means you'll have an easier time dropping a drug crazed attacker.
In addition, the bullet tends not to penetrate all the way through
(I'm basically an armchair gun specialist, so correct me if I'm wrong)
These days hollow points are getting better, there used to be multiple occasions when they did not expand due to hitting a hard target or simply failing for reasons ...but even if it does fail to expand it still is a bullet so it hurts/kills. It just makes a smaller hole than it was supposed to.
The whole purpose of a hollow point is to expand into a mushroom shape and therefore make a bigger hole into the target. This also means that it stops faster than if it had been a non-expanding bullet. Usually this is a tradeoff between penetration and expansion.