Sunday, August 5, 2012

USMC Goes From 9mm Back To .45

So the Columbia City Police recently switched to 9mm. But now, the United States Marine Corps is going to .45, back to the future.
The Colt .45 M1911 is making a big comeback, now that the U.S. Marines have placed a $22.5 million order for the Connecticut-made pistols
The 1911 is making a comeback? In the words of LL Cool J: "Don't call it a comeback, I've been here for years".

I don't believe the 1911 has ever been actually taken out of service. I think the M-9 was a "supplement" to the 1911, but I could be wrong.

The argument about going into combat zone with 18-19 rounds of 9mm ammo vs. going in with 8-9 rounds of .45 ammo seems a little silly to me. The military's primary weapons are long guns. The main purpose of a sidearm (for the military) is to give them enough time to bring the long guns (carbines, rifles, etc.) to bear, but I digress.

3 comments:

  1. Not the whole Marine Corp, just MARSOC and the Force Recon guys. The M9 is indeed the standard issue, the SIG 226 (Navy) and 228 (M11) are supplements.

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  2. Bryan,

    After looking closer at the order and balancing the number of 1911s versus the number of folks in the USMC, I think I'm wrong. It does indeed appear that the USMC is replacing the M9 Beretta with an updated 1911. Cheers!

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