Most 1911 pistols intended for defense will have a trigger weight of four to five pounds, which is a reasonable weight and easy to manage, even for the person with the smallest of hands. Some striker-fired guns require a pressure of five to eight pounds to fire with no additional manipulation beyond a safety lever that is part of the trigger.

Several of the striker-fired designs can be modified so that a trigger weight of 10 to 12 pounds is required to shoot them, but these triggers are so spongy that the ability to shoot them quickly and accurately is greatly affected. Many police officers get minimal training every year and never do learn to shoot them well.

Some will also say that the 1911 design is not as reliable as others. It has been my experience that when a 1911 becomes unreliable, it can normally be traced back to lack of maintenance or a gun that has been "customized"--and not by a professional, competent gunsmith.

Now, before you start writing angry letters, this is not an indictment of striker-fired guns. I carry one of them myself, and I am very happy with it. All I'm trying to do is give the 1911 a pat on the back for having to "suffer" from a cocked hammer.

As I see it, the best feature of the 1911 design is its sliding trigger, which I believe is far more ergonomic than the pivoting trigger that is used on every other pistol design. Without a cocked hammer, this sliding trigger would be impossible to incorporate into the gun's design. Competition shooters have understood this advantage for a long, long time.

If speed and accuracy are the goals, the 1911's short-travel trigger system is the one to have. Shooting a handgun is a difficult motor skill, as it requires the hand to perform a task that it does not normally do: separate the index finger from all of the rest.

Pick up a handgun and try to press the trigger without moving your other fingers. It's hard. And if your other fingers move, the muzzle is going to be taken out of alignment with the target, and at 15 feet, an eighth of an inch of muzzle movement translates to 41⁄2 inches--and twice that at 30 feet, enough to miss a vital area.

It doesn't matter if you prefer point shooting or sighted fire, trigger control is a must. The sliding trigger of the 1911 is simply easier to master.

As a matter of fact, if you take a close look at how the human hand open and closes and look at the controls of the 1911, you will see that John Browning was brilliant in understanding how the human hand functions when it shoots a pistol.

Thinking about it in this way, a solid argument can be made that the 1911 pistol could increase the accuracy potential of the American law enforcement officer. Of course, a solid training program is necessary for the proper adoption and mastery of any weapon. It is a matter of commitment for both the agency and the individual officer.

Should the 1911 be as common as any of the more popular pistols seen in cop holsters? You bet! It is just a matter of administrators and trainers taking a close look at it and understanding what the gun really represents.

It is a "safe," accurate and easy to use system that has 100 years of proven street and battlefield history behind it. How many other pistol designs can say that?