[GoodOlBoy]

True the germans did invent the 9mm, but again it was not the round it was touted to be. I should have stated that the peackeeping statement had to do with it replacing the 45 auto during the vietnam war. Ballistically the 9mm looks great on paper. But then again so does a 38 special. As for 40 S&W recoil thats bull. If you have a 40 that is recoiling badly you have a problem gun the 40 does not noticeably recoil harder than the 9mm which does not recoil that much harder than the 380 auto. Does the 9mm have a place. YESSSS. So does the 38 (I carry a 38 special)

The question was asked what gun to carry as an armoured car driver. To hang onto the 9mm like a tick on a dog because it is a popular round is completely stupid, and it took Texas Highway Patrol, the FBI, and California Highway patrol more than 10 years to finally realize it. For civilian carry there is not, I repeat not a thing wrong with the 9mm. I have shot, and considered buying both a 9mm torkarev (yes I know it is a different round) and a Ruger 9mm that I fell in love with a buddy had. I DIDN'T buy then because I had NO practical reason to downgrade what I was carrying (At the time a milspec 1911A1 45 ACP)

In my opinion a revolver is MUCH more practical for a driver. Carry a few speed loaders there you go. Ease of one handed operation, lack of confusion when operating the firearm, etc etc etc.

The 9mm DOES NOT DO WELL Penetrating vehicles. I have been at the range when we had this argument when we banned them here, and we went to the range with an old car (donated) and shot the heck out of it to see for ourselves. Not counting direct hits on a frame or the engine block 9mms did NOT penetrate reliably EVERY time (6 out of 10 on average, side windows it did well on, rear glass and windshield it did ok, doors. . . . . 7 failures to penetrate out of 10 shots). 40's penetrated 9 times out of 10 on average. 45 acps penetrated EVERY TIME. 357 mag penetrated every time, 44 mag penetrated all but once, and it was an OBVIOUS low powder load (Everybody at the range knew it as soon as the trigger was pulled), 38 special was not quite as well on penetration as 9mm, and 380. . . . we won't go into 380 its just sad. We banned 9mms and 38s on anything but backup guns, 380s are banned altogether. We had one officer bring out a 357 sig. He declined to shoot SIMPLY because we didn't have spare ammo for it at the time and he didn't want to burn up his personal ammo (don't blame him)

We can argue this all day, and some web pages have thousands of pages of this argument. But I have SEEN it done, it is not something I would put MY life on. Period.

My 2 cents (And I'm done)

EDITED TO ADD: The Germans as well as the Japanese perscribbed to the wounding theory of battle by the way. One man dead is one man dead. One man wounded is one wounded and two to carry him away. The Koreans later tried this same tactic in the Korean War. Not to say that this was why they invented the 9mm, far from it. Just saying.

GoodOlBoy