The problem is not the weapon. The problem is the military's attitude towards pistol training (with a few notable exceptions). Here's an example. When I went through the police academy, I had two solid weeks on the pistol range following a crawl/walk/run/run like hell methodology. Outside of the MPs, and SOF, who gets that amount of basic (and I stress basic here) pistol training in the military? Answer-no one that I'm aware of.
Of course, comparatively few soldiers are issued pistols. Most of those are also issued an M4, and so the pistol is treated as a red-headed stepchild. Just because it's a secondary weapons system does not mean that it is acceptable to maintain a lesser skill level with it. Saying lesser is being kind; in most cases the skill levels I have seen range from virtually nil to downright scary. But that's not the soldier's fault. That's the commander's fault for failing to train his troops correctly.
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. All my HKs are Variant 9 (manual safety only) and are always carried in Condition One, but I agree that their versatility is one of their advantages.
