[Glenn E. Meyer]

The weapon was designed to penetrate Soviet body armor with an ergonomic and easy to use platform - both the long arm and pistol. The latter was an armor piercing side arm for rear echelon personnel. That assumed a frontal assault by the Soviets and special units attacking the rear. Also, the front could get penetrated. The commonality of the pistol and rifle round were a selling point.

Since civilians can't have armor piercing rounds and don't face that many armored foes (yes, you could walk into North Hollywood again) - it's not really designed for us.

Some folks say the civilian round is like a 22 mag in stopping power but that' an unknown. In the civilian world, putting any rounds into the BG usually brings the incident to a successful conclusion (yes, the mad Meth biker might show up). So the gun would work for you. But what's the advantage over an AR or M-4?

They are cool and can be used to shoot down enemy spacecraft as shown by successful engagements of the Go'auld by SG-1. Col. Carter loves her P-90 and that's good enough for me.