When limited by rules of engagement to hardball ammo only, this rule is especially true.
I've also heard it said, and I agree with it, that "a 9mm is a .45 set on stun".
Posted on 07/31/2002 11:36:58 AM PDT by blau993
TUESDAY JULY 9 2002
An Open Letter to Members of Congress
© 2002 WorldNetDaily.com
Dear Honorable Congresspersons:
One of your vital tasks is to ensure that our warriors who hang it all out on the killing field are equipped with the right stuff.
I don't see that happening anytime soon unless you get enough straight skinny to counteract lobbyist propaganda and other military-industrial-congressional-complex spin. So to help provide more fair and balanced input, I plan to occasionally pass along some of the most commonly recurring bitches that come my way weekly in e-mails, letters, phone calls, etc., from our warriors.
Let's begin with the M-9, the 9 mm Beretta pistol – which our combat troops say is the first item that should be tossed into the junk pile!
"They're constantly breaking," reports a warrior from Afghanistan. "To make matters worse, the 9 mm round is like firing paint balls. I had to pump four rounds into an al-Qaida who was coming at me before he dropped. We're dealing with fanatical crazies out here who won't quit until they die for Allah."
The Beretta can only be used bone-dry. Even then, it jams repeatedly if sand or grit gets into moving parts. Its ball round has proven to be worse than the .38 Colt pistol slug used by the U.S. Army in the Philippines until it was retired almost a century ago in favor of the .45 ACP M-1911 pistol – fielded to stop the Moros, who ironically were also Islamic fanatics.
Now Special Forces and Light Infantry soldiers in Afghanistan want to bring back the century-old .45, and some elite Marine units already have. A Special Forces sergeant says, "The large-caliber, slow-moving .45 bullet puts the bad guys on the ground. Lighter stuff like the Beretta's 9 mm will, too – eventually – but on the battlefield you almost always have to double tap, and in close combat a gunfighter hasn't the time or the ammo to lose firing two rounds."
Rangers, Marines and most Special Ops troops are some of the other elite warriors in the U.S. military who carry personal firearms in combat while the brass look the other way. Quite a few choose to pack two purchased handguns. But the only Rangers who use the Beretta – even as backup – are those who can't afford to buy their own firearms, and they and the rest of these elite fighters unanimously agree that they "can't trust this fragile, unreliable sidearm."
Almost all the Rangers engaged in hand-to-hand combat during Op Anaconda packed their own personal sidearms. "When I ran out of ammo with my rifle, I pulled my pistol," a Ranger sergeant says. "It saved my life. I hit a number of enemy 30-40 yards away who went down immediately from my .45 rounds. With a Beretta, I wouldn't have made it because of the far-too-light 9 mm bullet, play in the action and its limited range."
In another fight, a Ranger fired several torso shots with a .45 pistol before his foe fell. "When we looked at the corpses, we found their mouths full of khat," he says. "It was like these guys were pumped up on PCP. With the Beretta, I'd have had to fire all 15 rounds and then thrown the pistol at this wild-eyed dude."
We went into Vietnam with a bad weapon, the M-16 rifle, which was responsible for killing thousands of our soldiers. It was a jammer, and if you have a jammed rifle in a firefight, you're dead. The M-16 was such a loser that some jungle-smart grunts refused to carry it and packed captured Soviet AK-47s instead.
What the M-16 was to Vietnam, the Beretta is to Afghanistan. And a soldier with no confidence in his weapon isn't the most motivated fighter in Death Valley.
"We're frustrated here that no one in Washington seems to have the slightest concern for our survival," writes a sergeant from Afghanistan. "It's a damn good thing that we have air superiority and so far haven't had many heavy fights."
Perhaps you congressional folks can figure out how to recycle some of the bucks we'll save from the Pentagon-zapped Crusader and get our combat troops a decent sidearm. This would surely relieve some of that frustration and, just by the way, keep our warriors alive.
Just about all the elite troops in NATO, except for the Fr*nch, who don't have any elite, have access to some form of .45ACP handgun or another. They know what works best.
Most handguns issued in the military are either a badge of rank, or something that is only used as a last-ditch defensive weapon. Most 9mms will never be fired in combat. Rangers, SEALS, SF, etc. go looking for trouble, and know the .45 gives them the best chance of coming back.
Not every .45 is right for everyone, but there are so many fine handguns in .45 out there that at least one has got to be right. For me, the Glock in .45 is more comfortable and shoots better than a M1911 type. The slicked-up Kimbers, etc, are works of art, and I might buy one for target shooting. For serious work, the Glock is all I need. Your mileage may vary.
While we're talking close-up killing, what's the status on shotguns? .45 is fine, but nothing beats #4 buckshot from a 12GA. I'd rather have one guy with a Mossberg back me up than two with even the elegant MP5.
Issue the Berettas to female MPs, and give everyone else a modern .45.
Stay well - Stay safe - stay armed - Yorktown
True enough,it's been said a 9mm is a .45 set on stun!
If you gotta have one and only one handgun,let it be the .45acp.
Granted, it might not feel right in effeminate hands,and another possible reason for the switch, it is the best.
Once saw a picture of an obese fellow shot 32 times with 9mm before being neutralized.
Check HERE
When limited by rules of engagement to hardball ammo only, this rule is especially true.
I've also heard it said, and I agree with it, that "a 9mm is a .45 set on stun".
Three eighty long.
Stay well - Stay safe - Stay armed - Yorktown
Urban legend. I instructed some Boy Scouts a couple of weeks ago and the average age was thirteen. With full house loads they were only getting a two inch muzzle flip and hitting or coming darn close. There was only one boy that was having trouble and I noticed he didn't listen to a thing I said.
For some (quite possibly perverse) reason, I just feel safer.
The military is limited to ball ammo. You aren't. 9mm is a reasonably good stopper with good quality hollow points. A .45 is probably better, but you've narrowed the gap considerably. It's probably more important that you be confident you can hit that at which you aim. The stopping power of a miss is exactly zero, a fact that often gets forgotten in caliber flame wars.
Hah-hah! I'll have to remember that one!
The SAs are fun to blast away with, but the one I want in my hand when it is for real is my nice, low tech 357.
Actually, the French have one of the very best elite forces in the world, the GIGN. According to their website they use a "Manurhin MR-73 8' en calibre 44 magnum." You shouldn't need any help with the translation. The GIGN are the guys who succesfully stormed the Air France plane back in 1996, after they discovered that the terrorists who had hijacked it were planning on flying it into the Eiffel Tower.
Stay well - Stay safe - Stay armed - Yorktown
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