Handguns show up in the strangest places - Handguns
Handguns have been to the North Pole, the South Pole, and pretty much everywhere in between. Handguns rode along on the B-29 that ushered in the era of nuclear war. Butterfield’s in San Francisco recently auctioned off the Colt 1911 carried by Major “Dutch” van Kirk aboard the plane the dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
The pistol, serial number 468425, was an original 1911 model rather than the 1911A1 that was somewhat more in evidence during WWH.
Pistols And Fighting Men
No matter how powerful multi-million dollar pushbutton killing technology tends to become, war always seems to end on the ground with armed men facing one another with conventional small arms. A powerful handgun has been a source of comfort to fighting men for centuries.
There is no more high-tech field army than that of the United States in Afghanistan at the moment, yet the handgun continues to play a significant role. Field reports indicate enemy soldiers take a lot of 9mm ball rounds from the Beretta M9 before they go down (what’s new?). And generally fall to one or two hardball slugs from the .45 autos that are still in the hands of some special forces personnel, notably the Army’s Delta Force.
There is reportedly a groundswell of requests from our troops to be issued .45 caliber pistols of whatever type to replace the 9mm. Their problem is not with the Beretta pistol so much as with the 9mm FMJ round.
While allied snipers with precision rifles have taken an awesome toll of the enemy, a surprising number of up close and personal gun fights have reportedly occurred in the caves. Some of our troops have been photographed with a holster on each hip.
In Other High Places
The White House has always contained handguns, and not just the duty weapons of the Secret Service. Richard Nixon’s gun collection included two engraved specimens, a Smith & Wesson Chief Special .38 presented to him by the NRA when he was Vice President, and a Colt Government Model .45 auto given him by Elvis Presley.
President Reagan was licensed to carry a Smith & Wesson .32 revolver when he was head of the Screen Actors Guild, and years later, first lady Nancy Reagan told reporters that she habitually kept “a cute little gun” in her bedroom.
I was present at the press conference where the first President George Bush pulled a miniature .22 revolver — I couldn’t tell whether it was a North American Arms or a Freedom Arms — from his suitcoat pocket. A Texas Ranger who body guarded our second President Bush during the primaries told me that our current leader is not only pro-gun, but a very capable handler of firearms himself.
The Guns of Churchill
During the Boer war, Winston Churchill shot several enemy soldiers with his pistol, a “broomhandle” Mauser. In WWII, disgusted to learn that his chief bodyguard carried a feeble Webley .32 auto, Churchill got a Colt Government Model .45 for him.
When he discovered that the security man had gone back to his mousegun, legend has it that the Prime Minister of England snatched back the .45, racked a round into the chamber and on-safed the gun, thrusting it into the capacious pocket of his big overcoat. There it remained for the rest of the war.
Churchill also kept a Thompson submachinegun discreetly accessible in the back of his limousine. British gun expert Richard Law has found photographs of the Prime Minister in which the outline of the big Colt automatic through the fabric of Churchill’s heavy ulster is clearly visible. A few years after the war ended, Colt presented one of their first lightweight Commander .45 autos to a grateful Churchill, who reportedly kept it until his death.