Are European handguns rubbish?

[Tegyrius]

Originally Posted by StainlessSteelCynic

I think his response may be due to several instances where either poor training on/understanding of the Glock safety mechanism resulted in unauthorized discharges by people who should have known better or (the more likely of the two I think), where several Glock pistols have been found to be poorly manufactured and resulted in pistols blowing themselves apart in the users hand.
I don't recall if the destructing pistols were ones manufactured in Austria or at the Smyrna, Georgia factory in the US.

IIRC, most of the Glock kaboom incidents were in the .40 S&W and .357 SIG models, which combine a higher-pressure cartridge with a partially-unsupported casing. A lot of them were a convergence of factors... including excessive powder charges in reloaded casings.

(ObT2k: This is one hazard of reusing brass multiple times.)

Originally Posted by Panther Al

As to the list, yeash. How did I forget CZ. There is a company that never gets the props it is due.

+1. IMO, if you don't want to carry plastic, the CZ 75 is one of the best values on the market today.

Originally Posted by bobcat

glocks are by design(double action with no manual safety) unsafe to carry loaded

Yeah, I know. Hard to believe anyone survived carrying revolvers all those years...

- C.

[95th Rifleman]

Europe produces, arguably, the world's best handguns. Afterall even the US military use an Italian 9mm as their standard service pistol.

The main argument is mainly over the balance between stopping power and magazine capacity. The heavier and more effective the round, the less you get to play with. Most militaries have chosen in favour of capacity.

However in the 21st century a new factor has come into play, armour penetration. Most modern militaries use body armour as standard which makes both the .45 and the 9mm useless. The Germans have developed a 4.6mm round to deal with arour while FN has gone with a 5.7mm.

As body armour becomesmore and more widespread the compromise will become a complicated triangle of factors and will become far more interesting.