It was back when the whole Dirty Harry thing with the .357 and .44mag craze. Right before everyone went to semis.
The speed loader itself was a problem. You had to train yourself to drop the stupid thing after twisting the release. And that’s hard to do when you have to pay for them.
Being proficient with a revolver is an artform. Anyone can hang with a semi.
Ooopps did it again, standing by fora new blast of flame.
That’s quite amusing, coming from an anachronist like you. Remember why many departments resisted switching to automatics? “Automatics are too hard, too complex for the average officer to use without a great deal of training.”
And there’s a point - which the NYPD has quite nicely proved.