One size DOES NOT fit all

You have just been hired by a law enforcement or security agency. One of the very first things they do is issue your uniforms and your duty weapon. They want your uniforms to fit so you project a professional appearance for the public. Then they give you the same duty weapon every one else carrys. Sometimes it seems like they care more about how you look than how safely and effectively you can do your job. What's up with that? And the arguments are, well, everyone needs to carry a standardized weapon. (Translation: the more you buy the better the price.)Sometimes there is the "We need all the knockdown power we can get". The "well, if you can't shoot the thing, you shouldn't work here and my personal favorite, "Well, we might get in a shootout and need to share ammo." Huh? Unless you are part of a unit that never goes any where with less than two people, this doesn't make much sense. And if you are exchanging gunfire, giving away your ammo is probably not going to happen because you are a little busy using it yourself. If you are not using it, then you probably don't need you weapon either, in which case your felow officer might want to take both your gun and your ammo. First of all because your weapon may already be loaded and second, because you don't want to let it fall in to bad guy hands. Your bad guy might have need of any extra weapon or actually have ammo that fits it. You also don't want to leave it laying around for a civilian or a criminal opportunist to pick up. If you do generally work alone and you get in to a situation, your backup is probably going to be from another agency which may or may not carry the same weapon and/or caliber you do. Well so much for sharing ammo. As for knockdown power and accuracy, I'll agree that I want the bad guy to go down and stay down, which has to do as much with hitting your target in the first place as well as how powerful the bullet is. Thing is a gun that fits well in your hand goes along way toward improving your aim. If you are comfortable with a weapon, chances are you are going to carry it on and off duty which means you are more likely to have it when you need it. Bottom line is a .38 that you carry everywhere has more tactical value than a .45 you don't carry anywhere.