Drizzly Saturday Afternoon

Another long sigh...summer's over, it's drizzling rain and I've got to do a 70-mile road bike ride in the AM...

S....I....G....H......

I'm waiting on a call from a guy who is, I suspect, going to tell me how those .40 cal Glock 22s in the hands of that super secret military unit whose name we're not supposed to utter but who has their own primetime hit weekly series starring President David Palmer performed over in the Sandbox.

Or maybe he's calling to ask me how they performed — extremely well, according to the cherubs and seraphim. No word yet from President Palmer (although I could tell you how his previous series' superstar is so taken with Crimson Trace LaserGrips that his signature H-K might get left in the ole Hummer more often than not, but that would require more effort than I can summon up this rainy morning).

Anyway, all this is part and parcel of the of the collapsed SOCOM Request for Proposal...all the various entities that make up SOCOM are now hell-bent on getting some kind of new handgun. The high-speed guys will simply buy them off the shelves, because they can have what they want...those on the Gyrene side will get trick 1911s; some of the CT guys will get the Glocks; there's a scattering of SIGs in 9mm and .40 that'll be out there.

But let me be real serious for a moment here — the bureaucratic collapse of the SOCOM RFP is going to cost AMERICAN LIVES! Here's how...yeah, the operators get what they want...but there's a lot of guys out there who aren't the operators...and they're still doing the job with what they have on hand. They're the men and women driving the Humvees and the trucks, working support roles, ect. THEY are the ones who wanted a better handgun, because they're the one's who most often need what a handgun does — one-handed firepower up close and personal.

When your butt is sandwiched into a Humvee, the SHTF and one hand has to remain on the wheel so you can get the operators out, what do you want in your free hand? I submit that the answer to that question is NOT a flawed 9mm loaded with ball.

You want a .45 that goes BANG every single time, because that's what's going to get you and the people in that Humvee or truck HOME!

And now those poor bastards are not going to get that .45 because some behind-the-line clerks couldn't decide on whether the guns should be optionally available in pink with racing stripes or some other lame requirement.

It's a damn crime, and, as usual, the grunts in the field are going to pay the price!