Paul M. Barrett, in his book, "Glock: The Rise of America's Gun," suggests that the 1986 shootout in Miami which left some FBI agents dead and wounded wasn't really a case of being outgunned, as the FBI contended. The agents had the firepower, they just didn't use it as efficiently as the bad guys used theirs. Nevertheless, the FBI latched onto that as an excuse to change their standard handguns from revolvers and 9mm semi-automatics to .40 caliber Glocks.
Now we learn from Jonathan F. Keiler in Why is the FBI Spending $80 Million on a New Gun? that they're going back to 9mm. Here's an excerpt:
Now the FBI has decided that the .40 Glock is no longer acceptable, and has put out the big contract for a new handgun, in -- wait for it -- 9mm. According to the FBI, improvements in ammunition over recent years have evened out the differences between the .40 and 9mm so that it behooves the agency to return to the round it abandoned after the Miami shootout. Of course, this being the federal government, the switch back to 9mm will mean abandoning tens of millions of dollars’ worth of perfectly good .40 Glocks and millions of rounds of ammo in stock, in favor of a new pistol, which appears will be the SIG 320, at the cost of tens of millions of dollars. To make matters worse, Glock 22/23s can easily be converted to 9mm, so that the purchase of a new handgun in favor of the lighter round seems even more wasteful. And even if the FBI allows agents to continue using some Glocks, or only issues the new 9mm to new agents (doubtful), the switch will cost a lot of money.
Unless Congress stops it, then it will happen. One has to wonder, however, what will happen to all the Glocks they're now using. It seems that all government agencies these days are well armed, so they'll probably be handed down to some formerly benign agency. In fact, one of Mr. Keiler's suggestions is to audit all federal agencies with armed personnel to evaluate whether they actually need guns. Not a bad idea.
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