[IrishPennant]

I was an MP at LeJuene in the mid 80's when we transitioned from the .45 to the 9. We, of course, spent a lot of time on the range qualifying and bitchin' about the stopping power, etc. when one of the range instructors made the comment, "Hey, would you rather be hit by a Volkswagen doin' 90 or a Mac Truck doing 50?"

Carried a handgun my whole life and don't really hold to that question/comment, but it stuck with me as a spiffy anecdote...

'Course, that reminds me too of being a younger boot even before that when we WERE still carrying the .45 and going to semi-annual qual. I was griping about how loose the my old, issued pistol was...so loose you could shake it and hear it clank. I blamed that for my inability to get a tight group on the target. My moaning caught the ear of a range instructor, who snatched the pistol from my hands, drew down on the target and placed five rounds center mass, handed the .45 back to me and silently walked away. I shut up.

[Big Red Badger]

That’s Funny right There,
not the VW doing 90.

[GreyFriar]

And I recall my platoon sergeant saying that most soldiers weren’t trained in how to aim and fire the .45. He then gave me a short block of instruction on how to properly hold and aim the M-1911. When everyone else was bitching about them, I ended up putting all 7 rounds in the 50 meter target, and remembering his instruction ended up doing expert with it every time. With an M-16, I wasn’t a great shot. And later we had LTC that insisted our scouts use the sights on their M-2s instead of just “point and spray.”