Smith and Wesson 539

The first gun I ever bought for myself was a Smith and Wesson 9mm handgun. I think it was 1984 and it was the dawn of the modern age of 9mm. I'm not talking about German Lugar's or NATO or the Government stupidly moving from the .45 ACP to 9mm.

I'm talking about Miami Vice.

Suddenly 9mm's and short shotguns were cool in a big way. Bigger and cooler than any guns in TV or movie history. Tom Selleck in Magnum P.I. never wrapped his 1911 .45 in cool like Tubbs and Crocket did for their guns. Others tried: Starsky and Hutch, Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry, Charles Bronson in Death Wish and Elizabeth Kaitan in Assault of the Killer Bimbos. They never made the gun into another character on screen like Miami Vice did.

The S&W 539 I bought as my first was a limited edition. It still holds up, after all these years. It still shoots like a dream even after thousands of rounds.

--My pastel green suit, not so much.