San Clemente : Police May Switch to .45-Caliber Weapons

Semiautomatic .45-caliber Smith & Wessons may soon replace .38-caliber revolvers as the Police Department’s standard issue weapon, if Police Chief Kelson McDaniel gets his way.

The fast-moving .38-caliber bullet has higher penetration power than the slower .45-caliber, McDaniel said, but the larger bullet “is more effective against things we shoot at--such as people. A person struck with a .45, it knocks them down and incapacitates them. But once it hits them, it stops. It doesn’t go through and penetrate houses and jeopardize other people like a .38.”

The .45 is the “ultimate in effective firearms in police use,” McDaniel said, but he said it has not been widely used until now because it had to be carried with one round cocked in the chamber--a design flaw that made the guns likely to fire if dropped.

The first round in the new weapon, however, is fired “double action,” McDaniel said, “and affords us the same safety as a revolver.” Another advantage the .45 holds over the six-shooter, McDaniel said, is that the .45 holds an eight-bullet magazine, and the officer will carry two clips with eight more rounds each on his or her belt.

“The men want it and I believe in it,” said McDaniel, who will make the .45 mandatory equipment on his force if his budget request for 58 new weapons--about $400 apiece--is approved by the City Council later this spring. Some officers have already bought the new guns on their own, McDaniel said.

Anaheim is the only other city in Orange County that is switching to the .45 right now, McDaniel said, but he expected other cities to follow suit soon.

“It just makes a lot of sense within the city limits to use something that is not going to penetrate something and kill someone who is unseen by the officer. Hopefully, we’ll never have to use it,” he said.