New FBI handgun

After everything I have read 9mm wasn't the problem then.

It was a combination of bad tactical decisions, mr Murphy coming along for the ride and bringing a pistol to a rifle fight.

I think the natural reaction to any incident where folks don't drop immediately is HOLY CRAP I NEED A BIGGER ROUND!!!! You see it in the military with rifles for that matter. Hell folks have needed several rounds of .50bmg at times before they are completely out of the fight.

I personally think all handgun calibers have gotten much better in terms of ballistic consistency. Problem is they are all still handgun calibers.

I like .40 caliber frankly. I like all the service calibers but I do think .40 offers a nice mix of power, barrier penetration and capacity. That being said I don't think any of them do anything drastically better then the other to really be more than statistical noise. They all have slight advantages and disadvantages. Know what those are and play to your choices strong points while doing what you can to mitigate it's bad points.

All that said I think the FBI should just go Glock 17/19 and be done with it. Maybe give the option of a G21/22 to the real door kicker guys should they so desire. Cheap, simple, proven, durable, available and reliable. Hell I am not a Glock fanboy so to speak but they are damn near a perfect product in generic terms.
 
Second, the FBI has been doing everything they can to move away from .40 S&W to 9mm to accommodate weak or small-handed agents. Instead of setting a bar and requiring candidates to meet that level, the Bureau seems more than ready to lower the bar and use questionable testing results to justify the move.
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They are just doing what every LE agency has been doing since the 80s; called EEOC compliance
 
This site is a few months old now so I'm wondering how much, if any, has changed. I'm also wondering if the FBI and the USA's new sidearm will have at least the caliber in common. We will have to continue to wait and see.
 
I am going to go on record here as I have other places and say that there has been no "significant" improvement of a quality 9mm bullet from that time till now.
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Oh boy. Bonded jackets, Solid copper bullets, CAD/CAM bullet design and manufacturing processes. LOT of improvements since the 1980's. Just look at the improved performance in gel tests over the bullets avail then. HUGE advances in barrier performance and expansion after same.
 
I am going to go on record here as I have other places and say that there has been no "significant" improvement of a quality 9mm bullet from that time till now.
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It doesn't have to be the 9MM was fine then and now, you caint blame the caliber for poor FBI tactics.
 
The author of the article in the OP is certainly entitled to their opinion, and maybe they are right or maybe the author just has an axe to grind. Or maybe the FBI took a long hard look at everything they want in a new issue weapon, formalized requirements to express what they want and the SiG P320 is the submission from industry that best met those requirements. Every manufacturer that tendered a submission had a chance to read the requirements in advance and opportunity to submit something that best met them.

The FBI has learned what a lot of LEA have learned the last few years - that 9mm is cheaper to buy, cheaper to run, easier to shoot (more hits), easier to train, carries more ammo for a given mass and in the real world the difference in lethality between it and other cartridges isn't significant.
 
I personally believe the author is jumping to conclusions rather quickly. It would not be difficult for Glock to submit a G19 without finger groves for such a large contract. S&W could modify an M&P rather easily. Then you would still have your 3 main manufacturers of LEO market firearms in the fray. S&W agreed to etch the NCSHP badge on the slide for them at virtually no cost to get that contract. That was just for a state agency. Bringing their trigger into complicance would take no more effort than the laser engraving. Manufacturers used to design all new firearms in hope that the military would buy a few hundred thousand of them tweaking a design at a fraction of the price of designing a new firearm is certainly worth a 10000 unit contract, with support income to boot. It would likely cost Glock MAYBE 10 extra dollars per firearm to make a mold that eliminated finger groves. I highly doubt it would be that much.

For further proof that the author thinks he knows something he really doesn't, look at the excluded list he provides. Beretta, Walther, Springfield (XD), CZ, H&K. While all of those companies manufacture some fine firearms, none of them are super competitive in the US LEO issued firearms market. It is what it is. There are agencies running around with Berettas and H&Ks but its kind of rare.
 
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