Small Arms Review magazine had an article on this topic in the past year.
Posted on 10/29/2002 10:20:27 AM PST by Fixit
I agree in spirit - but give me a 1911 any time (and several magazines).
:)
Small Arms Review magazine had an article on this topic in the past year.
WILL IT STILL BE HER SENATE?
Nam Vet
The .45 ACP was designed SPECIFICALLY to stop Muslim insurgents in the Philippines...
H&K dreamed up the PDW idea during West Germany's crazy terrorist era of the late 1970s - as literally a glove-compartment gun for likely targets of the Baader-Meinhof Gang.
At 15" with the stock collapsed, the MP7 just is too big for many current cars' glove compartments. It's really a gun too approaching the size of more-conventional SMGs like the Mini-Uzi to have a niche.
GUN REVIEWS free from ad-money bias - emphasizing woman-friendliness of tested guns!
I'm no expert, so what do I know, maybe that new gun has some advantages that aren't readily apparent. But for me, I want EITHER accuracy-speed OR surething-stopping power. That weapon appears to me to have speed going for it as well as penetrating capability (useful against armor), but not accuracy or stopping power (useful for crazed attackers). That's not my kind of combination.
I would rather have an FN FAL than an M16 but either one will do just fine. If I had to carry a lot of ammo, I would go with the M16.
I probably generally prefer the larger heavier calibers but there is a lot of nonsense spread about their effectiveness, and a lot of it by people who should know better.
I recall once when my dog treed a coon and I shot him twice with a .45acp before he fell out of the tree. Despite having been hit twice in the center of the thorax, the coon fought my dog for several minutes before expiring.
On the other hand I have seen my Daddy kill hogs with a single shot from a .22 short many times. They would invariably drop as if pole-axed. He knew just where to shoot them.
Nor will it stop a Muslim stoned on khat, a type of plant that they chew. A lot of those cavemen were chewing that crap at Gardez and some of our guys almost bought it b/c they were using the 9mm Beretta, which didn't have nearly enough stopping power to put the terrorists down. While this weapon seems pretty slick, these guys need to study some AARs from Bakara Market and the Shah-e-Khot Valley before acquiring anything like it.
It would likely be very effective, however, against harder targets.
The new breed of firearms - HK MP7, FN P90, etc. - demonstrate a point which is under-addressed by the gun-rights community. Firearms technology is moving forward, and we're firmly stuck in the past. The AR-15 and Glock 17 are basically the last great advancements in civilian firearm technology, created around 1960 and 1980 respectively. (Yes, other firearms have been created, but are practically just refinements of those evolutionary steps.)
Developments such as the MP7 and P90 mark the next evolutionary step in firearms: armor-piercing short-barreled select-fire firearms midway between rifles and pistols. Not much bigger than a handgun, sporting the stability of a shoulder-mounted rifle, and having large magazine capacities (40 rounds or more), these can defeat most body armor without the bulk of full-blown rifle rounds (the most compact being the larger M16/M4). Where these new weapons lack the decisive punch of larger caliber (.30 or more), they arguably make up for it via full-auto and large magazine capacities: if you can't make a big hole, make lots of little ones with comparable effect.
The advantage of these weapons is exemplified by the firearms failure experienced during the infamous North Hollywood bank robbery. There, two well-armored perps casually took hundreds (thousands?) of medium- and large-caliber hits without apparent harm, police eventually raided a local gun store for deeper-penetrating rifles, and the incident stopped only by a lucky hit injuring one perp, and the other perp apparently giving up from boredom and offing himself. One MP7 could have penetrated that armor and stopped the incident early on. Some may argue that rifles would be better, but police would rather have compact pistol-like weapons than bulky rifles.
Of course, a well-armored police force (note the increasing militarization of all levels of law enforcement) does not want civilians to own weapons of such penetrative power. While rifles are indeed still capable of armor penetration, criminals prefer easily concealable arms. As such, the federal government has effectively banned civilian ownership of competing firepower - and did so way back in 1934.
Prohibitions on short-barreled rifles, armor-piercing (hard metal) handgun bullets, and machineguns have been around for a long time. Such prohibitions did their job of significantly reducing the firepower available to criminals and (er, um, ah) freedom fighters, in relation to the significant evolutionary advancements in body armor. Thanks to these prohibitions, citizens (good and bad) are unable to own the next evolutionary step in weapons with the capability of penetrating body armor.
The Founding Fathers wrote the 2nd Amendment for a reason: when there is a significant inequality in the balance of power between government and citizens, bad things inevitably follow (as exemplified by Europe's centuries-long tendancy to kill citizens at a rate far exceeding criminal homicides in the USA). Due to national laws transgressing the 2nd Amendment, citizens are stuck with 1950's technology arms, while would-be tyrants snap up the latest compact high-volume deep-penetrating weapons. This does not bode well for the future of freedom in this nation. The balance of power must be maintained, for the peace and freedom of our people.
The MP7 (aka HK PDW) is a remarkable advancement in firearms technology. Arguments over caliber must address the ability to deliver controlled full-auto fire (i.e.: one big hole vs. multiple little ones). Do not underestimate the seriousness of your inability to own one.
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