An historical question.

unspellable · 04-30-2007, 02:11 PM

I wouldn't call a 380 a mouse gun either. But I've ran across mention of smaller being carried by German officers. Everybody draws their own line between mouse guns and service guns. In Europe the 380 and 32 enjoyed more popularity for open carry than here in the US.

I wouldn't knock mouse guns either, sometimes for concealment you are obliged to go to a 32 ACP, like it or not. But if it's open carry, then you might as well step up to at least a 380. If you expect any reasonable probablity of actually using an open carry gun then I'd say 9 mm Parabellum is the minimum. During WWII there wasn't much available between a 9 mm and a 45 in the self loader line, so it would boil down to a 9mm or a 45.

04-30-2007, 02:11 PM	#9
unspellable User Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Iowa Posts: 768 Thanks: 0 Thanked 19 Times in 11 Posts	I wouldn't call a 380 a mouse gun either. But I've ran across mention of smaller being carried by German officers. Everybody draws their own line between mouse guns and service guns. In Europe the 380 and 32 enjoyed more popularity for open carry than here in the US. I wouldn't knock mouse guns either, sometimes for concealment you are obliged to go to a 32 ACP, like it or not. But if it's open carry, then you might as well step up to at least a 380. If you expect any reasonable probablity of actually using an open carry gun then I'd say 9 mm Parabellum is the minimum. During WWII there wasn't much available between a 9 mm and a 45 in the self loader line, so it would boil down to a 9mm or a 45.