The Marines are taking steps to help counter the opium-enriched terrorists in Iraq. The 9mm bullet has had many documented incidents in which the insurgents are shot multiple times and still able to fight. When they are shot with the larger caliber .45 they have a higher percentage of a kill ratio. Senior Marines and officers are now being issued the M4 Carbine instead of the Beretta 92F 9mm pistol. Policy states that Staff Sergeant and above, up to Lieutenant Colonels will be issued the M4 Carbine. Full Colonels and Generals will be issued the Beretta 92F 9mm pistols. They also have the option of carrying their own personal side arm, and most are choosing to go with a 1911 style .45 or large caliber wheel gun. If the men in the field will pay for their own side arm rather than use what is issued to them, it says that we need to speed up the next purchase of hand gun design to a larger caliber hand gun.

For the military there are two valuable points. First is that they are supposed to be fighting a group of religious Islam extremists. If they are so religious, and Islam clearly denounces drug use, why are so many showing up on opium during the daily skirmishes that our troops are facing? Second, we as a nation need to provide anything that our troops can justify that they need. If they all need .45 hand guns as back ups, I vote that we give the combat troops anything they need. We applaud the US Marine Corp for making changes in the field to try and save our troops in harms way, but we as a nation need to give them more.

The fact that the US Marines can not use 9mm in combat is valuable information in the CCW community, as this will help answer constant questions about what size gun do I get for CCW permit. Our answer is always get the largest caliber handgun that you can carry and fire safely while maintaining control. A 9mm may be the largest caliber that you can carry and still hit the target. What ever size hand gun you pick, practice.