Letter Re: Thoughts on Defensive Handguns

Dear JWR:
I have been reading SurvivalBlog for about a month and I really enjoy it a lot. One subject came to mind that I thought was worth discussing. That area is the [Colt Model] 1911. It is worth saying that I find the term combat tupperware incredibly amusing, as a Glock owner. I do not know what kind of high end custom 1911s people are talking about when they say it is necessary to spend $2,000 to get this platform to be functional. I bought a Springfield [Armory] Mil Spec .45 for about $535 and it works fine though it isn't as pretty as an Ed Brown or Les Baer.

Some individuals speak about the guns being really unreliable. From my experience these claims are unfounded. The Springfield and Glock 22 have each jammed once, both were easily cleared, luckily on the range not in an emergency. I am sure the 1911 would not perform flawlessly on the Glock torture test but considering it served the US Army for both World Wars and countless smaller ones its reliability is solid enough for me.

The next point of contention that I have with criticism read on this site is about its single stack capacity and the weakness against multiple targets. I think it is worth remembering that in TEOTWAWKI and probably most of you will be carrying an assault rifle so the .45's magazine capacity of 8+1 is not a big concern. The real niche of the handgun is before the time that I hope never comes! Since it is not convenient or socially/legally acceptable to carry an assault rifle in a 3 point sling to the grocery store or while driving a tractor we are left with a pistol for self protection the vast majority of the time.

The average gunfight is at very close range with a couple of shots fired. During gunfights where individuals (almost always police officers) run out of ammo and find themselves changing magazines rapidly under fire it was because they missed their target(s)! Not because their handguns did not have the needed stopping power or because there were a dozen attackers. Someone can have an extended 33 round magazine in a Glock 17 with four spares in their cargo pocket but if they are not able to accurately engage their target(s) they will probably not survive a gunfight. It is not particularly important what kind of gun you have, it is important that you can accurately engage targets. That is my 2 cents on that topic. - Ryan