Discounting obscure stuff that's Forgotten Weapons...
The first double stack 9mm pistol was the FN Hi-Power.
Then...
S&W 59?
Did we really go from 1935 to 1971 without another commercially viable double stack 9?
Beretta's 92 series starts in '72.
Then Glock in '82.
P-series Ruger in '85.
Were wonder-nines really so thin on the ground for so long?
Well, there was a vice grip on the US market composed of M1911/.45 ACP love on one side and Sixguns Über Alles on the other. Many M1911/.45 fanboys still don't believe that the "Europellet" could harm an enraged mouse, and the revolver bigots didn't think that any self-loading pistol was reliable enough for police service. There was of course a sub-set of the revolver bigots who were also big bore fans.
ReplyDeleteWhile there was experimentation with high capacity 9x19mm pistols after WW2, you didn't see any real commercial development until the 1970s. The WonderNine era didn't kick off in earnest until the JSSAP XM9 trials were underway. Police buyers finally came around to the idea of replacing revolvers during the drug wars of the 1980s.
I'm just astonished that the shift in the market happened while I was watching.
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