| I agree somewhat generally, but some minor things: > yeah, single-action trigger, but there are draw techniques which rack the slide and the gun is designed to enable these The 1911 is sorta designed to be carried with a round in the chamber and the hammer cocked, relying on the grip safety and thumb safety. But militaries often didn't (still don't sometimes?) have people outside of MP carry pistols that way, because the pistol is a last resort backup. The accident rate from stupid during normal times outweighs the benefit of a fractionally faster draw in the rare case of use. Which brings to the second point: > 1911 is more "one shot stop", something which 9mm doesn't do reliably. That was the working theory for many decades (like.... 8-9 decades). That's been thoroughly disproved by modern science and ballistics. Size of pistol bullet doesn't really do anything (compared to other pistol calibers that can penetrate far enough), but increased accuracy does work much better. This is especially true in a military context where the rifle is designed around one shot stop (mostly due to 3-4x faster velocities). Law enforcement agencies will still make bad decisions around this for political / optical reasons. See e.g. the FBI's terrible choice of going to 10mm, backing off to 40s&w, and then finally coming around to 9mm |
You use a pistol because you need it to be small, unobtrusive, or it's your last option.
A rifle or a shotgun is almost always better than a pistol if you don't have the size constraints (which are sometimes optics - a police office with a holstered gun looks way less threatening than one with a rifle).