“But guns chosen by the military achieve cult status, used as iconic weapons in James Bond and other action movies, and become highly desirable among civilian gun owners too.”
I think your see M9’s in movies so much because they are popular prop guns. You can use them in Army movies and in normal movies where the script just calls for “a gun” and they have an external hammer that people love to cock for dramatic effect.
I’ll admit to having a Taurus knock off of an M9, even though I never had, or qualified with an M9 in the Army. Weighs a ton but it shoots and runs and didn’t cost much.
“...people love to cock for dramatic effect.”
I’ve noticed Hollywood is big on having actors cock Glocks.
I really like Berettas. They are heavy but that makes them very easy to shoot. Pretty much bullet proof. How about an M-9
in .40?
I used to have a Beretta .380, looked like a scaled down version of an M-9. Maybe a “Cougar”. Can’t remember exactly. Lost that one in the “divorce of ‘87”. Heavy as a lot of full sized 9mm but it was a shooter.