I found a news story that demonstrates how girly St. Paul police must be:
The department is switching from .40-caliber Glocks to a choice of 9mm Glocks or Smith & Wessons.
Police Sgt. Cory Tell says the department’s current firearms aren’t necessarily outdated, but police want to make sure they’re using the most reliable equipment possible.
He says 9mm guns are easier to control than .40-caliber Glocks because they don’t have as much recoil.
I guess they’ll never be able to handle the manliness that is the .45 Auto. OK on a serious basis (if you’re a cop in St. Paul note that I wasn’t being serious when I said your department is girly) I can see justification for this move. Police receive inadequate firearms training, albeit very expensive inadequate training:
The guns, plus training, cost $137,000. The nonprofit St. Paul Police Foundation has raised about $80,000 toward the cost, and the department will get some money for trading in its old guns.
That’s a lot of money. Either way with less than adequate training I could see a 9mm being a better choice because the .40 does have pretty snappy recoil behind it. Personally though I think I would have taken the money going towards new firearms and used it to hire a good instructor and get the police department up to snuff with their current equipment. Changing out guns isn’t the only thing that will need to be done as ammunition and magazines will differ as well.