Yup.... you heard right. Now before you all stone me to death allow me to explain.
As a child of the 1980s I grew up in the age of the Wonder Nine. Beretta, GLOCK, Sig Sauer, HK, and Smith & Wesson. Everyone was dropping the wheel gun and adopting a 9x19mm of some sort or another. Hell, even Uncle Sam saw the writing on the wall and ditched the rattle trap 1911 for the Beretta.
Films like Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, RoboCop, The Rookie, Predator, Commando, Terminator, etc.... all of them had a ton of Wonder Nine action. They fueled the fire in sales long with every article in every gun rag about the next agency that just adopted a Wonder Nine. The LAPD, NYPD, FBI, etc... police sales do drive civilian market sales.
What was happening to the 1911 at the time? Well, it was being made by Colt and a couple of other folks. There was a small problem. The majority of them sucked! Standard procedure back then was you bought a 1911 and then sent it off to your gunsmith so it could work right. They were rattle traps that didn't feed anything but ball ammo and that's if you're lucky. They were low capacity, large, heavy, and a money pit. Why spend your hard earned money on an outdated piece of crap when you can buy a new hi tech GLOCK or an Italian Stallion Beretta 92? What about the ultra well crafted Sig P226?
The 1911 was starting to fade away..... than President William Jefferson Clinton came into the picture and signed into law the Assault Weapon Ban. A hideous piece of legislation that banned magazines over 10 rounds..... Gasp! That should reduce crime! Well, it didn't and we all know that. But we're not discussing the AWB itself.... more on the effect on the popularity of the 1911.
Now post 1994 you can still buy a GLOCK or a Beretta but why would you? Unless you had a source of pre-ban magazines you'd feel screwed and cheated. Why would you carry a fullsize pistol that can hold 15 to 17 rounds of 9x19mm when by law you were limited to 10 rounds max. All of a sudden the 1911 becomes in vogue again. Here you have a fullsize pistol that is also now all of a sudden "slim" and carries a cartridge that has more "knock down" power. 8 rounds of .45 will do what 15 rounds of 9mm can do! Everyone and their mother started cranking out 1911s.
You started having companies that made 1911s update the design. Make them work better, feed better, feel better. The 1911 I have today is 110 times better than one produced in the 1980s. I have a 2011 production Colt Combat Commander and a 1986 Colt Series 80. The Series 80 still can't feed JHP even after sending it off to a great gunsmith in the Miami area. But the Commander feeds everything and anything right out of the box. No tweaking needing.
The AWB helped fuel the 1911 market because folks thought "if I can't carry or own a fullsize 9mm pistol with proper magazines I might as well own something that is more powerful even though it has less capacity". Caliber effectiveness isn't being discussed here either. Just marketing and sales. Gun magazines were pushing 1911s and the .45 ACP for the simple reason that the AWB gutted the Wonder Nine market. what sold the Wonder Nines was capacity. Restrict it and the market drops like a rock.
The .40 S&W also gained market share due to the AWB. A Beretta 92FS, Sig Sauer P226, and S&W 5906 all held 15rd of ammunition. But their .40 caliber cousins held 11rds. Buyers wouldn't feel as cheated with the loss of one round than with the loss of five. Also agency sales drove that market too. Because in the mid 90s a ton of agencies swapped their Wonder Nines for .40 cals. It also drove the CCW market too. Before the AWB most companies didn't produce compact pistols. During the AWB a ton of companies did due to the 10rd limit. If you had to work with 10rd max, why build it a huge pistol around it. Compact and subcompact power house pistols started to show up. Those 9mm and .40 and .45 pocket pistols spelled the death of the Beretta 84 or browning copy...the .380 high capacity pistol was killed. GLOCK came out with the subcompacts because of that very reason. But that is also another discussion.
In the end... the 1911 market is what it is today because of Bill Clinton and the AWB. The AR-15 also is where it is today because of that. But that was more of the "If I can't have it I want it" mindset.
As a child of the 1980s I grew up in the age of the Wonder Nine. Beretta, GLOCK, Sig Sauer, HK, and Smith & Wesson. Everyone was dropping the wheel gun and adopting a 9x19mm of some sort or another. Hell, even Uncle Sam saw the writing on the wall and ditched the rattle trap 1911 for the Beretta.
Films like Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, RoboCop, The Rookie, Predator, Commando, Terminator, etc.... all of them had a ton of Wonder Nine action. They fueled the fire in sales long with every article in every gun rag about the next agency that just adopted a Wonder Nine. The LAPD, NYPD, FBI, etc... police sales do drive civilian market sales.
What was happening to the 1911 at the time? Well, it was being made by Colt and a couple of other folks. There was a small problem. The majority of them sucked! Standard procedure back then was you bought a 1911 and then sent it off to your gunsmith so it could work right. They were rattle traps that didn't feed anything but ball ammo and that's if you're lucky. They were low capacity, large, heavy, and a money pit. Why spend your hard earned money on an outdated piece of crap when you can buy a new hi tech GLOCK or an Italian Stallion Beretta 92? What about the ultra well crafted Sig P226?
The 1911 was starting to fade away..... than President William Jefferson Clinton came into the picture and signed into law the Assault Weapon Ban. A hideous piece of legislation that banned magazines over 10 rounds..... Gasp! That should reduce crime! Well, it didn't and we all know that. But we're not discussing the AWB itself.... more on the effect on the popularity of the 1911.
Now post 1994 you can still buy a GLOCK or a Beretta but why would you? Unless you had a source of pre-ban magazines you'd feel screwed and cheated. Why would you carry a fullsize pistol that can hold 15 to 17 rounds of 9x19mm when by law you were limited to 10 rounds max. All of a sudden the 1911 becomes in vogue again. Here you have a fullsize pistol that is also now all of a sudden "slim" and carries a cartridge that has more "knock down" power. 8 rounds of .45 will do what 15 rounds of 9mm can do! Everyone and their mother started cranking out 1911s.
You started having companies that made 1911s update the design. Make them work better, feed better, feel better. The 1911 I have today is 110 times better than one produced in the 1980s. I have a 2011 production Colt Combat Commander and a 1986 Colt Series 80. The Series 80 still can't feed JHP even after sending it off to a great gunsmith in the Miami area. But the Commander feeds everything and anything right out of the box. No tweaking needing.
The AWB helped fuel the 1911 market because folks thought "if I can't carry or own a fullsize 9mm pistol with proper magazines I might as well own something that is more powerful even though it has less capacity". Caliber effectiveness isn't being discussed here either. Just marketing and sales. Gun magazines were pushing 1911s and the .45 ACP for the simple reason that the AWB gutted the Wonder Nine market. what sold the Wonder Nines was capacity. Restrict it and the market drops like a rock.
The .40 S&W also gained market share due to the AWB. A Beretta 92FS, Sig Sauer P226, and S&W 5906 all held 15rd of ammunition. But their .40 caliber cousins held 11rds. Buyers wouldn't feel as cheated with the loss of one round than with the loss of five. Also agency sales drove that market too. Because in the mid 90s a ton of agencies swapped their Wonder Nines for .40 cals. It also drove the CCW market too. Before the AWB most companies didn't produce compact pistols. During the AWB a ton of companies did due to the 10rd limit. If you had to work with 10rd max, why build it a huge pistol around it. Compact and subcompact power house pistols started to show up. Those 9mm and .40 and .45 pocket pistols spelled the death of the Beretta 84 or browning copy...the .380 high capacity pistol was killed. GLOCK came out with the subcompacts because of that very reason. But that is also another discussion.
In the end... the 1911 market is what it is today because of Bill Clinton and the AWB. The AR-15 also is where it is today because of that. But that was more of the "If I can't have it I want it" mindset.
they work. Bottom line