[tipoc]

"Which Handgun is America's Sidearm?"

We're talking handguns here.

Being something like America's sidearm isn't something that anyone chooses. It's something that is. It's something that is uniquely American. Something that from Patagonia to Reykjavik, Papua to Galway, folks look at it and say "That American Gun."

It's a stone fact that there is more than one. We are fortunate that way.

No1. and still kicking, what folks in the Bantustans call "the cowboy gun". The Colt Model P, the 1873, the Colt Single Action Army, the Peacemaker, the "Thumb Buster", the original "Colt 45". You can argue that Remington made a good handgun, that the Walkers came first, but at the end of the hours, the 1873 is so strongly identified with America, cowboys, the West and etc. that it is and always will be America's gun. By extension all single action handguns of that pattern are known as cowboy guns and thus American.

No. 2. The 1911. No doubt and enough said. It fits the criteria of number 1.

No3. is the only controversial one of the bunch. The snubby. The short barreled da revolver in calibers that count. I think the snubby has a good spot as America's gun. In J frames, the Dick Special, the Colts and S&Ws and Rugers, etc. Other countries made good da revolvers, Britain, Spain, Belgium and others in various calibers. maybe none as good as S&W and Colt did but still good. Good snubbies were made by England in the "Bull Dog" class of gun. But America made snubbies like nobody else and still does. Long after Europe gave up on the revolver we have held onto it and continue to produce it in large numbers. But the snubby holds a unique place here. I think the third of America's handguns.

tipoc