You keep talking about newest product introductions, yet the Turks are flooding the market with new-model pistols that are steel-framed, double action hammer fired pistols with external safeties. And, lest you say that they are merely based on the CZ-75, all striker-fired poly pistols are based on the HK VP-70, which is even older than the 75.
And let me understand, a hammer-fired single action pistol with external safety and decocker and polymer grips with a single-stack magazine, decocker, and firing pin block is not modern, but a striker-fired single action pistol with external safety and polymer frame is? Or, perhaps, being hammer-fired is okay as long as it is double action, but single action auto pistols cannot possibly be considered modern? I note that the majority of 22lr pistols are single action.
Considering rifle-caliber pistols are popular and being introduced to the market, and since many are single-action striker-fired designs without an external slide release, and since they clearly follow your guide of being introduced to the market, then how does that affect the definition of modern?
And 1911's only bought for nostalgia? You mean to say 1911 shooters are just making their purchases because they harken back to a simpler time? I'm not sure they got the memo on that one.
Autos no longer modern? How about designs discarded and are no longer in production by anyone. Truly, the only thing that really differentiates modern from archaic designs is the mode of lock-up and those which lack a detachable magazine. Yet that clearly blurs because modern pistols use rotational-locking barrels from time to time, and while the Walther P38 is out of production, the Beretta-based derivatives are clearly not. The Steyr 1911 is not modern because it requires a charger to load it. The C96 for the same reason.
Modern autos are those built for general use by a population based on a multitude of specifications. The Zastava is clearly a modern pistol. 1911's are clearly modern because they are in general use by not only just civilians. After all, virtually all rifles used are single-action - that is hardly something I would call old-fashioned. The CZ-52 is no longer in production, but its features are surely as modern as any pistol that currently employs them. You see, don't forget that the CZ-52 also uses a firing pin drop safety and a decocker. Indeed, the only thing truly not "modern" about it is its awkward grip angle.
And it is certainly off-topic.
. Modern can meen "revolutionary" in a techonolgy sense, or it can mean "currently fashionable." Since there has been no ground-breaking firearms development in the last 100+ years (along the lines of the brass cartridge or box magazine) the term in this case definitely refers to the latter definition. That is to say, pistols are "modern" when they are near the top of the popularity scale, and become "outmoded" at some arbitrary threshold below that.
