How Military Guns Make the Civilian Market

[xchrom]

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/07/how-military-guns-make-the-civilian-market/375123/

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A U.S. sailor demonstrates the Beretta M9 to a Chinese solider aboard the USS Mason. ( U.S. Naval Forces Central Command/U.S. Fifth Fleet/Flickr)

This week, the U.S. Army will brief arms manufacturers on the design requirements for a new standard-issue handgun. Several gun makers will compete for the lucrative contract, developing weapons that are more reliable and more powerful than those currently in service. Officials say the upgrade is overdue—it’s been nearly 30 years since the Army adopted the Beretta M9. But the last time the military challenged the industry to make a better handgun, all the innovations intended for the battlefield also ended up in the consumer market, and the severity of civilian shootings soared.

Studying gunshot injuries in the D.C. area in the 1980s, Daniel Webster of Johns Hopkins University noticed an alarming trend—as time went on, more and more patients were arriving at the emergency room with multiple bullet wounds. In 1983, at the beginning of the study period, only about a quarter of gunshot patients had multiple injuries, but in the last two years of the study, that proportion had risen to 43 percent. Over the same period, semiautomatic pistols with a capacity of 15-rounds (or more) were replacing six-shot revolvers as the most popular firearms in the country. It’s not difficult to see the correlation—more bullets in the guns, more bullets in the victims. But why had guns changed so radically in such a short period of time?

In 1980 the Joint Services Small Arms Program invited the firearms industry to develop a new military handgun, with more than double the capacity of the sidearm American troops had been issued previously. At the time, soldiers were still using essentially the same handgun their grandfathers had carried into the trenches of World War I, a pistol John Browning had designed at the turn of the century. Its standard magazine held just seven rounds. The U.S. Army had a long wish list for a replacement, with 72 mandatory design requirements and 13 additional “desirable” features. According to Leroy Thompson, author of The Beretta M9 Pistol, “many of these mandatory requirements were very military-specific, which made it difficult for an off-the-shelf commercial pistol to fulfill them without alteration.”

In a series of trials, prototype guns were slathered with mud, soaked in salt water, subjected to hot and cold temperatures, dropped, and fired thousands of times. The Army tallied each misfire and scrutinized each mechanical failure, requesting various design tweaks along the way. Italian manufacturer Pietro Beretta entered the trials with a prototype based on their Model 92 semiautomatic pistol, which had been developed for Italian military and police forces. By 1985, Beretta had won the contract, and the Army placed a preliminary order for more than 300,000 of the new pistols, now designated M9. Initially the guns were manufactured in Italy, but to meet demand Beretta moved production to Maryland.

[Duckhunter935]

1. I guess we will see if the no guns in GD is really enforced

Most guns have the lineage back to military firearms. My 1926 Mosin is a true military spec rifle.

[onehandle]

2. How dare they conduct studies on the sacred gun!

Next, The Black President will walk up to my door, and pull the codpiece right out of my pants.

Socialism!


What Domestic Terrorists Are Teaching Our Children

[xchrom]

3. +1

[Paladin]

5. +1000. (nt)

[Lurks Often]

4. The article is pretty much a giant pile of festering crap.

The guns submitted for the Joint Service Small Arms Program in 1985 were already available on the civilian market and with the exception of the Smith & Wesson M59 (available for sale to civilians as of 1971) and a Colt prototype, the makers were all European gun companies.

The 1911 needed replacing because the ones remaining in the inventory were worn out and were from WWII production. Having handled and fired one in the National Guard, those 1911's wouldn't fire 7 shots without a jam and were about as accurate as a thrown rock at 7 yards. Combine that with the need for NATO standardization on ammo, the US went with the 9mm, a less powerful cartridge then the 45 ACP it replaced.

[Paladin]

6. Yeah, we certainly don't want our psychotics conducting mass shootings with jam-prone pistols.

[Lurks Often]

10. Missed the point entirely I see

[Paladin]

13. You're one to talk.... (nt)

[Lurks Often]

14. You sound bitter

As if you are watching the legislatures and the courts overwhelmingly support gun owners. Bummer

[NightWatcher]

7. I love my 1911's, but I've done custom work

Every so many years the government, like all other businesses who use tools, update their tools. I'm predicting they go with something similar to a Sig 226 (8 or 9)

This article reminds me of the stories that come out to scare people, that the government is buying a million rounds of ammo at a time. This isn't for training purposes or because its cheaper in bulk, but it must be because they are coming to round us all up. The article lacks in many areas.

[onehandle]

9. Blah blah blah guns blah blah blah guns...

blah blah blah guns........

[Lurks Often]

11. Thanks for the lack of constructive input

[aikoaiko]

8. The real story is how civilian market pistols make their way into the military

[TheKentuckian]

12. That doesn't inspire the vapors the same way though with the right framing, it will be tried.

Maybe something like "#1 military in the world struggles to close the gap with gun nuts"?

It's all about the spin and opinion shaping.