For most people, April 15 is the Day of the Taxman, when we rush down to the post office to stand in line for hours to get our tax return in the mail before midnight. For some of us, however, it's BAG Day: Buy a Gun Day, where all us psycho right-wing gun-nut militia types take a portion of the money Uncle Sam doesn't extort from us and invest in our Second Amendment rights.
This year, I did something I never thought I'd do: I bought a 9mm handgun (specifically, 9mm Luger, aka 9mm Parabellum, aka 9x19mm).
I couldn't help myself. AIM Surplus (http://www.aimsurplus.com/) had Walther P-1 pistols on sale. These are post-war versions of the famous P-38 that the Germans carried during World War II. I do not collect nazi militaria, and I'm not an especially big fan of German guns. However, for $239, I couldn't pass up the opportunity.
I wasn't disappointed. The P-1 arrived (via a licensed FFL dealer, of course) in great shape with two magazines and a rather scuffed-up but very servicable leather holster. The pistol not only looks great - and is one of the most comfortable pistols to hold I've ever seen - but it also shoots quite well. I felt that it was definitely a handgun I could trust if I ever needed to defend myself.
The problem of ammunition arose, however. The 9mm has a pretty dismal history as a man-stopper. One of the most infamous events in the checkered history of the round occured in 1986 when several FBI agents were killed or wounded in a shoot-out with two heavily-armed bank robbers; the 9mm pistols carried by the agents didn't put the bad guys down, allowing them to return fire even when hit in the chest. Would I relegate my nifty new P-1 to the gun safe as a target pistol only, or could I find a round that would work for personal defense?
A lot of work has been done in the twenty years since the FBI shootout, both on bullets and the means of testing them. While a 9mm generally isn't as effective as a larger or more powerful cartridge such as the .357 Magnum or the .45 ACP, tests in ballistic gelatin indicate that some 9mm jacketed hollow-point rounds have the penetration, expansion, and weight retention to be effective man-stoppers. Of course, there's no consensus opinion. For those who even remotely consider the 9mm for personal defense, there are those who believe in "light and fast" bullets (usually 115 or 124 grain at velocities at or above 1200 feet per second), or in "heavy and slow" bullets (147 grain at subsonic velocities).
I don't have the facilities to do my own ballistic gelatin testing, and even if I did, I don't know that it would be definitive. I've opted for the Remington Golden Sabre 147 grain JHPs. They cycle well in my P-1, and if I ever find myself in the gravest extreme, I feel confident in the combination.
The interested reader should see http://www.firearmstactical.com/briefs31.htm
Hmmm, 9mm for personal defense? I used both a Colt .45 (the old faithful M-1911A1) and a Baretta 9mm in the Army. As tank creman, that's what we were issued as a service weapon (though I'm of the opinion that if we lost all our other weapons, including the main gun, two 7.62mm machine guns, and a .50 caliber heavy machine gun, we were in dire straits indeed to be using a pistol). I found the .45 to have much more "oomph"...better knockdown, and more impact damage. And, it was a sturdy and reliable design; you could kick it, beat it, drop it in water, rub dirt on it, whatever...and it would still shoot.
The only real advantages the 9mm has (and they are considerable, I suppose, given the stupidity of most people these days) are a bigger magazine capacity (15 vs. 7 for the .45) and a simpler design, one that even the most dim-witted person can breakdown and clean.
So, I guess it depends on the user. A .45 seems the better choice for someone that knows what he or she is doing; the 9mm is a better pistol for the novice.
Posted by: Mike | June 01, 2005 at 12:34 PM
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