The best damned handgun ever made is the 1911A1.
The military had a gazillion of them.
What do the idiots do?
They replace it with a tinker-toy piece of crap made by Baretta, with the muzzle velocity of a rubber band gun and the knockdown capability of a spitball shooter.
What do the police departments do?
They fail to pick up the gazillions of 1911A1s available on the surplus market from the military, because they're afraid of the big ol' nasty .45, man, shoot, don't you know that sucker will jump out of your holster and shoot you in the foot?
Idiots, all.
Why does the military get rid of 'em?
Because some damn REMF pogey-bait "program manager" (that barely got to 0-5) or some goofy "safety officer" (qualified on a rubber gun), having occupied nothing but staff wieny positions their whole career, convinced some other idiot at the Pentagon that the Yankee Fist was obsolete, probably because he'd pinced his widdle thumby-poo on the grip safety or he barely shot a 20 on a MPQ course, or, worse yet, he had a private epiphany which revealed to him that the "cocked and locked" 1911A1 was just too dangerous for the stupid recruits to handle.
And the chiefs of police that wouldn't go with the 1911A1 did so because they were afraid of being accused of being "behind the times", non-progressive, or something equally stupid and was too damned dumb to start a training program for his officers on the use of the 1911A1.
So rather than save the taxpayers boo-coo monies, they convince the councilmen and commissioners to buy some damned "designer" silliness.
That's okay, boys, some of them surplus 1911A1s will make their way onto the market eventually and when they do, I'll pick up a few, work on 'em and make a dollar or two and some lucky citizen will get a damned good, extremely reliable, good shooting and just plain fine piece of killing iron. Assuming, of course, that we can still possess a firearm by then, what with the stupid birkenstockers and liberals roaming around, just looking for a reason to grab any gun they can, for any reason they can find.
And it'll outlast any of the "designer" fancy irons around.
When the Glock has at least one hundred years of reliability behind it, then maybe I'll argue the point as to which is best, but by then the old boat anchor will have been around for two hundred and going strong!
I'll be gone, but I guarandamntee you, it won't be because my 1911A1 failed me.
I never had one fail me. Even the one's that were so worn that you could hear it rattle from a hundred yards away. Even after being dropped in the mud of the paddy, my ol' friend never failed me.
I carried one for my entire career and the only time I did not qualify as an "Expert" was my last year on active duty.
I fired 49 out of 50 on that course. Must of been a bad round.
Or an Old Sar' Major. :)
Why the military ever went to the 9mm round is unknown to me. It's probably the result of some beancounter trying to save a few dollars, or some Congressman getting kickbacks.
9mm isn't necessarily a bad round, if you have jacketed hollowpoints and a moderately hot load. But since the military can't use JHP's, they are left with a marginal round.
There are much better rounds available. 357SIG is a great round, but I'd be reluctant to carry it in only FMJ since you don't get any expansion. .45ACP is proven in combat to be very effective, and I believe that you'll see less of a a degradation in using FMJ rounds only than you'll see in any other major caliber.
But it's going to be a hard sell to get the beancounters to abandon their 15-round Berettas for an 8-round Sig or 1911. Also, a lot of women shooters seem to have problems with the .45 ACP.
So that leaves the .40 S&W. It's bigger than the 9mm rounds, and you have a pretty wide range of bullet weights (from 135 to 180 grains, and probably wider), so the military could pick the best performering weight. Full size .40 S&W's can accomade 13 rounds, so you only 2 rounds while going from 9mm to .40.
Adpoting the .40 would be a big improvement over the 9mm.
I totally concur BTW.
L