It is rarely ever what you think
My agency went to the .40 S&W about 20 years ago. We were issued the guns on a PER THREAT BASIS. It started with out uniformed border units that had a lot of experience in gunfighting. They pretty much did the gun selection.
Then our plain clothes officers. Next were our jailers and finally my division, which comprised half of out agency or more. I carried my GLOCK 17 for almost 4 years after we selected the BERETTA 96D Brigadier double action only pistol.
They ran a competition and ALL THE GUNS ENTERED FAILED. They then ran a second test and the BERETTA 96D and SIG 229 passed, but nothing else. BERETTA underpriced SIG as usual and that was what we were issued.
Part of the problem was the ammo, we specified a 155 grain jhp that was getting close to 1200 fps out of the BERETTA which had the longer barrel.
At that point, they started burning up the 9m.m. and .357 ammo. We received 150 rounds of practice ammo and 50 rounds of carry. This was a huge improvement over when I began. After you qualified, you went up to the range officer and held out your hand. They counted 6 rounds of hollowpoint and yelled "next". I had to argue that I needed 18 rounds to fill my speedloaders.
Now they were giving out 6 boxes of 9m.m. or .38 Special practice ammo (124 grain FEDERAL Hydra Shok) instead of 3 boxes, just to get it off the books. Also, the range officers got to shoot ALL THE TIME.
When I went for transition training to the BERETTA, I brought along the S&W model 13 that I had been issued at the academy and no one even had a record of my being issued a revolver!
Well, we had some bad press, much of it well deserved as it was about skeleton crew staffing and lack of working equipment and the attempts to cover that up.
So all of a sudden, we had money for new vehicles (literally 3/4 of our vehicles could not be driven at night when we needed them most for detainee transport).
We also got ammo in the specified quantities ( which some officers sold to gun shops as soon as they got it).
The agency I work for now, had to changeover from a mix of 9m.m. & .40 S&W pistols to just .40 cal. and it took over a year for a small post. 5 years later, we still have 9m.m. that we have not been able to shot! Of course, no one seems to what to do with it.
Any time you have a bureaucracy involved, what would seem like common sense goes out the window. Anything that disagrees with the bureaucracy is always wrong, because whoever came up with an idea in the organization would always see it as criticism and that is a threat to a career. Later on, it becomes an almost religious dogma.
You will find that the "shared magazine" argument is like that. Also, all real bureaucrats know that their employees are stupid and incompetent, just like they are all lazy and untrustworthy.
If this sounds like a pretty broad statement, try working in a federal agency for a couple of decades. You will come across agency heads who do not even know what their agency does, much less what kind of pistol they should carry!
Just my experience!
Jim
My agency went to the .40 S&W about 20 years ago. We were issued the guns on a PER THREAT BASIS. It started with out uniformed border units that had a lot of experience in gunfighting. They pretty much did the gun selection.
Then our plain clothes officers. Next were our jailers and finally my division, which comprised half of out agency or more. I carried my GLOCK 17 for almost 4 years after we selected the BERETTA 96D Brigadier double action only pistol.
They ran a competition and ALL THE GUNS ENTERED FAILED. They then ran a second test and the BERETTA 96D and SIG 229 passed, but nothing else. BERETTA underpriced SIG as usual and that was what we were issued.
Part of the problem was the ammo, we specified a 155 grain jhp that was getting close to 1200 fps out of the BERETTA which had the longer barrel.
At that point, they started burning up the 9m.m. and .357 ammo. We received 150 rounds of practice ammo and 50 rounds of carry. This was a huge improvement over when I began. After you qualified, you went up to the range officer and held out your hand. They counted 6 rounds of hollowpoint and yelled "next". I had to argue that I needed 18 rounds to fill my speedloaders.
Now they were giving out 6 boxes of 9m.m. or .38 Special practice ammo (124 grain FEDERAL Hydra Shok) instead of 3 boxes, just to get it off the books. Also, the range officers got to shoot ALL THE TIME.
When I went for transition training to the BERETTA, I brought along the S&W model 13 that I had been issued at the academy and no one even had a record of my being issued a revolver!
Well, we had some bad press, much of it well deserved as it was about skeleton crew staffing and lack of working equipment and the attempts to cover that up.
So all of a sudden, we had money for new vehicles (literally 3/4 of our vehicles could not be driven at night when we needed them most for detainee transport).
We also got ammo in the specified quantities ( which some officers sold to gun shops as soon as they got it).
The agency I work for now, had to changeover from a mix of 9m.m. & .40 S&W pistols to just .40 cal. and it took over a year for a small post. 5 years later, we still have 9m.m. that we have not been able to shot! Of course, no one seems to what to do with it.
Any time you have a bureaucracy involved, what would seem like common sense goes out the window. Anything that disagrees with the bureaucracy is always wrong, because whoever came up with an idea in the organization would always see it as criticism and that is a threat to a career. Later on, it becomes an almost religious dogma.
You will find that the "shared magazine" argument is like that. Also, all real bureaucrats know that their employees are stupid and incompetent, just like they are all lazy and untrustworthy.
If this sounds like a pretty broad statement, try working in a federal agency for a couple of decades. You will come across agency heads who do not even know what their agency does, much less what kind of pistol they should carry!
Just my experience!
Jim
