Wondernine 2.0

I read gobs of articles about the miraculous 9mm round in the early '90s, albeit the majority were in a  Handguns or Guns &Ammo 9mm one-off magazine, so the validity of the arguments were tainted by a need for conformity and esprit de cartouche. For a short time, everyone was on board with the advantages of the parabellum. The U.S. military had adopted the Beretta to conform to NATO standards and to replace the old warhorse that "technically" had not been manufacturer for the military since 1945 (but had "technically" been "remanufactured" for decades). U.S. police departments had finally "caught up" with "some" European police departments by switching to autoloaders predominately in 9mm. Concurrently Glock burst on the scene with marketing schemes that included strippers and generous trade in programs (that made Glock the biggest gun wholesaler of firearms for a while).

But then, as the story goes, the FBI won lost had a gun battle in Miami, suffered a couple deaths, and went ballistic mad about ballistics. Crockett was the only local LEO in the country carrying a 10mm. The FBI helped develop the .40 S&W (née 10mm Short). Glock sold a crap more guns. But a funny thing happened on the way to a national caliber standard that would have eclipsed the .38/.357 nirvana.

Civilians did not flock to the new police standard. Gun writers remained enamored with the 45 ACP, while secretly carrying .38 Special +P. Concealed carry won massive inroads all over the country, leading to development of compact 9mm handguns (And don't forget the national magazine capacity cap that helped kick off the early subcompact sort-of-full-size feeling chopped "service" guns, like the G26). And eventually, bullet technology caught up to .40 S&W (and .45 ACP).