Dilemmas

As I trust is clear from various prior posts, I'm neither shy nor even a little apologetic that I own and enjoy shooting firearms. I think being an avid shooter goes a long way towards enjoying American heritage, as well as being a good skill to have when the undead start climbing from their graves. That was a joke. But a joke with a point: I will almost certainly never be in a position where being able to shoot is important, but if shooting is ever important, it's probably going to be REALLY important. And is a fun hobby in the meantime.

Since my own firearm aspirations are pretty much satisfied (with one exception), the only firearm shopping I really do these days is with (or for) other people, with varying results, and with the best results occasionally coming when people ignore my advice. But whatever. Then this morning, an old friend asked me about the merits of 9mm vs. 45.

Oh boy.

This is a subject that sees extended debate. Seriously; you would not believe the amount of discussion and arguments (which often devolve into flame-wars) online over something as simple as one-tenth of an inch of slug diameter. But there is heated debate, with the semi-traditionalists extolling the virtues of the Most Holy .45 to young whippersnappers in the 9mm mafia, who retort by criticizing weight, recoil, and ammunition capacity.

To be fair, both sides have their points. The generally accepted .45 gold standard is the .45 ACP (Automatic Colt Pistol) round, fired by the universally recognized Colt .45 automatic pistol. Which is actually called the Model 1911, after the year of first production. Yes, the Colt .45 design is about a hundred years old, and is still in MASSIVE production by at least six major manufacturers.

The design was created in response to a specific challenge that was being faced by the United States Army, which was at the time in the process of "pacifying" various islands in the South Pacific, notably including the Philippines. The problem was that GIs were getting killed by crazed Philippino freedom fighters, who would charge the GIs through a hail of pistol fire to attack with machetes. At the time, the standard US Army pistol was a .38 caliber revolver. Although the .38 was fully capable of killing people, it sometimes took people minutes or hours to die from the fairly small holes it made in them. This just didn't work for the soldiers who, for machete-attack based reasons, really couldn't wait that long for results to come through. They kinda needed the 'bad guys' to go down as soon as they were shot.

Enter the Colt .45. Although there are some semi-exotic rounds in circulation (.454 Casull, .50 AE, etc.) the .45 ACP is by far the most common large-caliber pistol in the world. For day to day use by The Common Man, it is simply as big as it gets. This means several things. First, ammo capacity tends to be limited, since the cartridges are big, and the main design (the Colt 1911) pre-dates double-stack magazine designs. A 1911 will only hold 8 rounds in the magazine (but newer designs like the Glock 21 will hold 13). Second, both the ammo and the pistol firing it are fairly heavy. A 1911 weighs 2.5 pounds empty. Third, despite the heavy platform, recoil is fairly fierce, and even a guy my size can have problems keeping the thing reigned in, in event that several shots need to be fired in rapid succession. It is a fucking beast of a pistol. Finally, and most importantly, a center-mass hit with a .45 will in fact stop a crazed guy who's charging at you with a machete, whereas history indicates that a smaller round might serve only to further annoy him.

There is absolutely nothing subtle about .45 pistols, much the same way there's nothing subtle about a Harley, or a '69 Camaro. And in a similar vein, all of those things have an intrinsic amount of class and/or sexiness, regardless of age or circumstance.

Turning to the 9mm, it is first important to point out that the modern 9mm Parabellum round (the universally accepted "9mm," although there are actually a few different chamberings of 9mm) is ballistically very similar to the .38 US Army round that was replaced by the .45. The 9mm round does have a lot going for, primarily that it is a lot smaller and lighter than a .45. Whereas a .45 is a beast of a handgun, which places sizable physical demands on the shooter, a 9mm can be managed by just about anyone. Being much more user-friendly, it takes less strength, less practice, and thus less training time to learn to use a 9mm, all of which are important.

Whereas you need to practice at least occasionally to get and maintain the ability to really use a .45 (especially if you plan on firing more than one shot), even a casual shooter can reliably get good results with a 9mm. The US Army's switch to the M9 (the current-issue U.S. service pistol, which is essentially a 9mm Beretta 92F - think Mel Gibson in 'Lethal Weapon') was based at least in part on the fact that lots of soldiers (including many women, in the modern Army) don't have the physical strength to qualify with the 1911. Incidentally, this was not a new problem with the 1911; one of the reasons for the WWII-era development of the M1 Carbine to compliment the M1 Garard rifle was that officers and support personnel who didn't need a Garand and who couldn't qualify with the 1911 still needed a weapon to carry.

While the 9mm lacks the raw power of the .45, it is still fully capable of killing people, as evidenced by the fact that it is historically the most common combat pistol caliber in the world. While it might not stop a man in his tracks with a single pull of the trigger, it absolutely has the power to kill. And that acceptable killing power (while less than the .45) is compounded by the fact that the 9mm is easy to shoot. This means that a lot of people can shoot it, which means a lot of manufacturers build them, which in turn means that most modern pistol-design improvements are centered on the caliber. A lot of people believe (with good justification) that the best overall handguns in the world are made by Glock, which got its start by satisfying an early-80s German military design contract for a combat pistol to replace the WWII-era P38. Since that time, the original production model (the Glock 17) has become standard issue for many NATO armies, and is also the most widely used police pistol in the world. Glock has spun off multiple (mechanically identical) pistols in all sorts of other calibers, incidentally including the .45 caliber Glock 21, 37, and 38. (They're great guns; do a search on youtube for 'Glock torture test.' Fun stuff.) But in keeping with discussion of the 9mm, there is no denying that it is much MUCH more mainstream than the .45, especially in the global market, for ergonomic reasons. Besides being easier to shoot, the smaller round also leads to big benefits like a lighter pistol that will hold more bullets. A Glock 17, for example, weighs about 22 oz. empty, and will fit 17 rounds in the standard magazine. That's more than twice the ammo that a 1911 holds. If you have to shoot a lot, 9mm is definitely the way to go.

But this doesn't change the inherent problem that was faced back in 1911: small caliber handguns are easy to use, and fully capable of killing people. But if you're facing crazed people charging at you with sharp instruments (or similar dire circumstances), you will probably wish you had something bigger to shoot them with. (There's really no such thing as a 'minor wound' from a .45.) Unfortunately, larger bullets means fewer bullets, and a heavier, harder-to-use-well handgun. Like any other highly evolved field, choosing one or the other comes down to which design compromise works best for you. So maybe it's time to consult some experts, of which there are plenty, it turns out.

The modern structure of warfighting means that, in addition to the regular grunts who go out in the field with equipment that is issued to them whether they like it or not, there are now all sorts of people who go into battle with their own choices of weapons. Besides semi-mercenaries attached to NGOs, high-end special forces guys like SEALS and related units have broad discretion to choose for themselves what gear they are going to use. This actually leads to all sorts of interesting points. Take for example, vehicles. A SEAL team headed across the desert to blow some shit up can choose anything they want to get the job done. The standard U.S. military vehicle is the ubiquitous Hummer. But when they have their own druthers, SEAL teams tend to ride into combat not in Hummers, but in 4-door V8 Toyota Tundra pickups. They don't break, a little work gets AMAZING performance out the V8 engines, and the air-conditioning is much MUCH better than in a Hummer. Toyota cannot BUY press like that, which essentially asserts that the top-shelf special-ops truck in the world today is in fact a Toyota.

But the point is that if you really want to know what the best overall gear in the world it, the wonders of the internet means that you can just simply ask the best guys in the world what they use. They're not shy; they'll tell you. And, having looked into the matter, it strikes me that a lot of those guys carry 9mm Glocks, with the semi-compact Glock-19 at or near the top of the list. Likewise USAF pilots; they can choose what pistol to pack as a survival weapon, should they get shot down. The Glock 19 is the overwhelming favorite. I'm really not a Glock fanboy, since they just feel wrong in my hand. But I have recently partaken of the Glock Kool-Aid, and honestly speaking, if you're going to own just one handgun, it should probably be a 9mm Glock.

Unless, of course, you live in California. In which case, you'll need to go to a gunstore, and find out the current state of the law in that State, especially since there are all new laws restricting firearm sales. Those new laws - IIRC - mean that you can't own a 1911 OR a Glock 19. In terms of caliber choice, one of the principal high points of the 9mm round is that you can carry a lot of ammo. But California bans magazines which carry more than 10 rounds, thus obviating one of the biggest benefits of 9mm. Absent a lot of ammo, it's probably a good idea to make the ammo you have count, and lean towards a larger slug. With California's laws taking away most of the benefit of 9mm pistols, anyone living there would probably do better with something larger, meaning a .45. It's much more powerful, can carry about as many rounds as a CA-legal 9mm, and ammo is only slightly more expensive these days. It is absolutely NOT as easy and user-friendly to shoot, but is still quite manageable, and even fun to shoot.

So, if you're allowed to have one, get yourself a Glock 19. If you live in California, see if you can find a Glock 37 or 38.