Friday, November 21, 2008

A little Friday morning gun talk

Interesting...

Numerous and frequent complaints from the troops have led to some U.S. Department of Defense efforts to find a new pistol to replace the current M9 9mm weapon. It's not just nostalgia.
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Most of the military people issued a pistol, will rarely have to use it. But those who do, like Special Forces, want more firepower than a 9mm round can deliver.
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Many key members of Congress are determined that the Department of Defense will not end up with several different new pistols. Congress is telling the brass, If they don't like the M9, then agree on a new one. But so far, the services have not been able to agree. Thus the saga continues.


Take that with as small or as large a grain of salt as you like, but it's still food for thought, I think. I'd be interested to know why the services can't agree on a new sidearm. My guess would be that some of them want to go back to the tried-and-true Government Model 1911, while others feel that wouldn't be a good route to take because of the different manual of arms or reduced round capacity. As far as the different manual of arms goes though, I don't see why it would be that big of an obstacle. As long as you remember that manual thumb safety and your Four Rules you should be okay. I know there are those who will bring up the point that none of our NATO allies are clamoring for a bigger pistol round, but why exactly is it that the Americans are? I don't know how nostalgia could be the beginning and the end of that. Who's to say that those who want the bigger round don't remember how well it worked when it was the issued equipment? If it hasn't already been done, it would be quite interesting to see what the soldiers thought who'd actually fired pistol shots in anger over in the sandbox...