sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

Nice pistol. I haven't fired a shotgun in many years - I recall shoulders that hurt for many days. After Joe Biden suggested that everyone simply buy a shotgun for home defense (instead of handguns and AR's I guess) several posts on Youtube showed smaller people firing shotguns and being knocked over versus firing a rifle or handgun. I think unless you have a lot of experience, with a 12-gauge for self defense you get one good shot. But of course, that could still be very discouraging to anyone at the receiving end! The Texas Defender is "cute" - but I do have to wonder how it would feel to fire even a 410 round with a pistol.

OldEarl Loc: Northeast Kansas

The .410 round for a pistol has about as much recoil as a .45 colt. In the derringer configuration this can be extremely uncomfortable. In the Taurus Judge series with a seven inch barrel it is manageable according to a (philosophy) student of mine. As to its effectiveness from a short barrel I have no empirical knowledge. A 12 gauge loaded with 7 1/2 birdshot is fairly good for repeated fire--and will really mess up a perp at self defense range according to my late father in law who was a physician and worked an ER before he went to private practice.

marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL

Once again, the military which used Colt .45ACP for ages and ages until someone decided our troops should be using universally acceptable "mm" ammunition to maintain compatibility with other UN forces, has failed to make a logical decision and goes for lightweight as their main consideration. There aren't a lot of parts in a Colt .45ACP so the argument of Glock 19 being simpler is a load of crap.

Our government, in typically government fashion, suddenly made the decision years ago to cancel their contract with Colt and move to 9mm sidearms made overseas, which put thousands and thousands of American workers out of work and bankrupted Colt so that they barely survived. And also put thousands of workers in the .45ACP ammunition world out of work as well.

Now, holding out hope of getting back into big military contracts, Colt is gullible enough to work with the government again, get all ramped up for bulk production, and then gets screwed again in favor of Glock this time. Once again our government doesn't care about American workers - and again equips our troops with an inferior caliber from an overseas firearm.

There's nothing wrong with a Glock (I've even seen a video of one converted to a full auto machine gun and it didn't melt down). I have friends who love them but there's one main thing wrong. 9mm simply isn't as good as .45ACP in a gun fight.

Nobody seems to remember a drug dealers versus DEA fiasco in Miami that happened about 20 years ago. If I remember right 10 DEA agents were killed before it was over. In the DEA reports, it was clear that they were outgunned as they fought with 9mm. A drug dealer would run toward them firing while charging and a DEA agent could hit the guy 3 or 4 times with 9mm and he'd keep coming. One even emptied a whole clip of 11 shots into a charging shooter and the guy didn't fall until he was almost to the agent. DEA went on a hunt for something new to replace 9mm after that. The result was allowing agents to carry .45ACP if they wanted to. They did want to. I'm sure by now that's all forgotten and they're back to lightweight 9mm.

The article states that police and civilians choose Glock 19s over others. But why? Lightweight and that's the only possible reason. Walking as a police officer or as a concealed carry citizen are both easier with a lightweight piece - but that doesn't make it better in any other way.

Any policeman who has studied the feet-per-second velocity, penetration, and "stopping power" (let's not have a war of words over the non-technical term of stopping power) of 9mm versus .45ACP knows that .45ACP is superior. I'd say that the statistic given in the article that police prefer Glock 19 is based on a heavier Sig 9mm or a Glock 9mm as their only choices.

The officers I've known (one was a deputy sheriff firearms trainer for county and city police where I used to live), and others I've just randomly asked, would like to carry their own preferred choice if their department would let them . And it was always .45ACP. And specifically a Kimber .45ACP in most cases. Let's not forget that some police forces are so far behind the 8 ball that their department demands a .38 Special or, at most, a Ruger .357 revolver.

My story is that .45ACP rules, always has, and I'm sticking to it with my Kimber. I don't care about lightweight - I care about performance when it's required.

act Loc: Trussville, AL

I went from Glock to Sig and will never go back.