Utah lawmakers propose M1911 as official state gun
The bill to make the Browning M1911 the official gun breezed through a committee hearing this week and is scheduled to be debated by the full House as early as Wednesday.
Republican Rep. Carl Wimmer said the state should have the gun as one of its state symbols to honor John Browning, a Utah native who invented it in 1911.
While this is purely symbolic and strictly speaking a waste of the governments time… considering what they *could*be spending their time and effort trying to pass, it’s a magnificent use of public resources.
And the M1911 is a monumentally important invention. While it has been updated (the M1911A1 modifications, adopted in 1924, basically set the pistol in its permanent form), the original design is still a world-beater in terms of simplicity and reliability and stopping power. How many other one-hundred-year-old devices (the device itself, not just the design) can you think of that a person would feel fully comfortable and justified in keeping ready for everyday use? A hammer, maybe?
The only arguable flaw in the M1911 design is the use of a single-stack magazine with only a seven-round capacity. Several variant designs have been produced with double stack magazines providing 13 or more rounds. But since the .45 ACP is not a dinky little pipsqueak of a bullet like the 9mm, a .45 doublestack can lead to grips that are uncomfortably large for some shooters. Seven rounds, though, remains a respectable amount of firepower, and the standard magazines are cheap, reliable, easy to find and quick and easy to replace.
It could be argued that a better gun to honor John Moses Browning would be the M2 “Ma Deuce” 50 caliber machine gun. Another long-lasting design (entered service in 1921, and is still in production and military service around the world), the Ma Deuce has the little problem that for some reason the federal government has decided its not appropriate for civilian ownership and use. Thus the M2 is military only… while the M1911 is available to everybody.
So if you don’t own one, celebrate the centennial of the M1911 by going out and buying one for yourself, and more for family members. Do your part to support both history and human rights by irritating the hell out of the civilian disarmament advocates. If you are not a resident of Utah, do your part to see to it that your state competes well in the next “Brady Campaign To Neuter The Serfs” state scorecard listings. Utah has the best ranking of all fifty-seven states… a total score of ZERO. Hard to do better than zero… but that’s no reason not to try! The Utah state legislature could always pass a law that *mandates* that all households own at least one firearm, or else post a sign out front to alert passersby that that house is unarmed.
4 Responses to “M1911 as official state gun (Utah)”
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Aside from the single stacked magazine the only quibble I have with the M1911 is the non blocked, non-floating firing pin. In the original design (not sure about all of the more modern variants) the firing pin rest against the primer if you have a round in the chamber. If you carry the pistol with the hammer down and a round chambered (Condition 2) and you bump the hammer against something, say the underside of a table as you stand from the seated position, you can cause an accidental discharge. More modern pistols have either a firing pin block or an inertial firing pin and can be carried safely in condition 2. Of course, in a single action pistol there’s really no reason you’d want to carry Condition 2, as you’ll have to cock the hammer before firing. However, it is something that 1911 owners should be aware of.
I agree the M1911 is a fine pistol and holds it’s own well with much more modern firearms. And, if you can’t kill something with 7 rounds of .45 ACP, you really should be running the other way. Some people gripe about the weight, and I suppose if you were a police officer and carrying it on your hip that might be a factor, but for home defense I like the extra heft as it reduces the recoil and makes it quicker to get off an accurately aimed second round. Some of the modern light pistols are quite snappy in your hand and they aren’t fun to shoot for too many rounds at the range. John Browning truly was a mechanical genius. If you look at the quantity and quality of his work I think you’ll be hard pressed to find anyone else in his league. Not to mention how many other designs cribbed off of Browning’s work.
I have had the opportunity to use the 1911 or 1911 A1 on people on several different occasions and I for one think it is the best for stopping power in a and held gun. I know that there are bigger hand guns out there but the .45 APC is just the right size.
The only two quibbles I have with the M1911A1 are its noise on firing – it is gawdawful loud…and its bullet trajectory due to the low muzzle velocity – which seems like that of a howitzer at any great range.
But yeah, it is one of _the_ classic American weapons, and a very well designed and hard-hitting pistol.
And she’s official now