How many of you have ever fired a gun?

[aikoaiko]

166. As a former R&D guy, what do you think of the return of the 1911 in a slightly updated form?

M45A1: The Return of the M1911 .45 ACP?

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When the Marine Corps’ Systems Command in Quantico announced in late July it was awarding a five-year, $22.5 million contract to Colt for roughly 12,000 new M45A1 Close Quarter Battle Pistols, speculation immediately erupted that it might actually be the first indication that the tenure of the U.S. military’s current standard service sidearm, the much-detested, 9mm Beretta, might finally be ending.

Quantico, of course, insists this is not the case at all, that the M45A1s are merely destined for MARSOC, Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command, whose elite troops use a wide variety of non-standard weapons, including an earlier MEUSOC M45 version of the M1911, in their deployments. Perhaps if the M45A1 were any other weapon, their explanation might be more readily accepted. But since the M45A1 is a development of the M1911 .45-caliber ACP automatic pistol, it’s hard not to attach deeper meaning into it.

Probably nothing in the Pentagon’s long history ever stirred quite as much controversy and anger as its 1985 decision to replace the M1911 with the 9mm M9 Beretta. The M1911 had been in continuous use since before World War I and had reputation as a tough, reliable, hard hitting weapon. In its nearly eighty years in the American military inventory, it had undergone only a few, extremely minor, modifications during the 1920s, stemming from experience gained using it in the trenches.