| I gave Christopher and Benjamin a debate project that entailed them each writing out what they considered the best handgun in the world. After seeing some of what they wrote I thought I'd briefly give the an example of how to lay-out an argument, so here it is. What do you think? Personally, despite what I said in this paper if money was not a problem I would be carrying the Heckler and Koch Usp, but here is the argument for the Glock 17. Timmay In searching for the premier handgun in the world, it is crucial to take a brief glance at the history of warfare. Warfare is a constantly changing landscape. We watch the historical escalation of weapons and tactics that invariably have given victorious armies an edge leading them to victory. We see the Roman formation utilizing discipline, and fighting as a unit. What chance did chaotic tribes have against this fighting machine? Cavalry brought a new unstoppable weapon, but the long lances of the Scotch neutralized that, while hundreds of years earlier the English developed a weapon called the long bow that gave them tremendous advantage over their enemies. In the rise of Britain they used control over the seas to dominate while in World War 1 control over the air becomes the crux of the Allies victory. Look at the Revolutionary war, the British had a warrior that they considered invincible; he had proven his worth in countless wars in countless places, yet this warrior proved their demise because they were not able to adapt to the guerrilla style of warfare that the American Patriots employed. Finally the Civil war showed us the value of a semi-automatic weapon; this was devastating to the Southern warriors because it provided a tremendous advantage over their muskets. Without doubt, warfare is a constantly changing environment and in 2006 the best handgun in the world should reflect that. Enter stage left, the graduating class of 2006, Kimber, H & K, Glock, and Sig Sauer, to name a few. Amazing weapons, light, functional, sleek, weapons of destruction, beautifully capable of doing what they were designed to do-kill. Talk about escalation, the handgun has traveled a long way from the single shot derringer. Its path followed the cowboy way to Colt; who developed the premier gun of that era the six- shooter; through the German made Lugers; all the way to the compact pistol we have today. It is hard to define “the best” out of such a class; all of the pistols at the beginning of this paragraph are excellent in their own right. I will attempt to show why I believe the Glock 17 is the best handgun in the world and will provide several criteria why based on the premise that the premier handgun in the world must be a weapon capable of providing its handler a “chariot” like advantage in combat. Here are the criteria: affordability, function ability, trigger pull, and finally the wild card, combat readiness. Affordability. The Glock 17, in all its glory is a simple gun; it consists of 33 working parts, and in beautiful irony, is quite inexpensive. For $300, to $500 dollars this gun can be purchased. In contrast the H & K Usp cannot be purchased for under $800 and many run as high as $1300. This disqualifies the Usp from being used as the weapon of any military worthy of that name in the world, and to me disqualifies the gun from this debate. If gold spears would have provided an edge for the Romans, then a few warriors would have carried them and killed many of their enemies, but the overall victory was through a less glorious weapon used by everyone in the unit. The man in the trenches has no place for gold and glitter his goal is the destruction of his enemy and he needs a weapon he can afford to use to reach that goal. Function ability. This is where the Xm9 pistol trials would come into play, but Gaston Glock was not willing to sell the rights of his pistol to the U.S. Government, so his gun was not entered. However, to show the quality of his pistol, Mr. Glock ran his pistol through a series of tests I believe far superior to anything at the Xm9 trials. It was fired under conditions of extreme heat, ice, sand, and mud, dropped on a steel plate, buried, submerged in water and run over by vehicles. After each of these tests it was tested with different ammunition for an extended period of time and passed flawlessly. The Glock 17 will function no matter what. The trigger pull separates the Glock from the current gun of the U.S. Military the Beretta M9. What a terrible gun. To diverge for a second the M9 has double action on the first shot, 9 to 11 pounds then on the second shot the trigger pull is 6 to 9 pounds. Those who argue that the Beretta is a safe gun are correct, it is as safe as those who operate it. Until the standards of our military are raised in our guns and our personnel, we cannot expect anything but safe. But safe does not mess up bad guys. Terrorists are not safe, they sit in desert hide-outs right now plotting how to kill American civilians and we worry about is establishing democracy and having a safe weapon (oxymoron). The Glock has a draw pull of 5.5 pounds; every time you pick up the Glock 17 to fire it will have the same trigger pull no matter whether it is night, or day, desert or mountain; advantage Glock. All in all, the wild-card, hammer in the coffin of other weapons if you will, is the combat readiness of the Glock 17. This gun has a trigger operated safety; it will not go off unless the middle trigger is depressed therefore if dropped or snagged on its holster it will not misfire. But upon drawing, the only thing that keeps its operator from putting rounds on target or terrorist is squeezing the trigger. In closing let me mention that Gaston Glock was first, he was the innovator in the field of light plastic pistols. Some purists have a hard time adjusting to the idea of a plastic gun. They grew up watching Clint Eastwood and his 44 Magnum revolver and like to swagger around saying that real men carry real guns. Warriors carry the best weapon available, that, my friend, is the Glock 17. |
