matt1608

I have been looking for a pistol for shooting pleasure and home defense for a while, and recently found a nice looking m&p .45. Ammo cost will not be a worry as I will be reloading most all of my shells. Any input, good or bad, is greatly appreciated!

Hskr4x4

I have an M&P 9mm, M&P 45, and the M&P15X assault rifle... I think the M&P is one the the best guns I've ever owned (hints owning 3 now) the gun will do everything you want it to do and more. Plus you gotta love the 3 grips it comes with. Every now and then the gun dealers in your area sell used and in great condition for about half the cost of new if you decide to go that route btw. (I only buy new personally)

matt1608

Guys I appreciate your input greatly. I was going to go purchase the gun today but I ran out of time, so now I have to talk dad into going and getting it for me seeing as I'm having acl reconstruction in the morning and will be quite immobile for a while. Now just to come up with a way of transforming 9 boxes of .40 s&w ammo into .45 acp....

Hskr4x4

Rumor has it on the M&P you can just get the 40cal barrel and put it in the 45 and now you have a 2 in 1 gun. Id clear that up with gun shop 1st. Ive heard from a few people it works like a charm though

Nwapache

I have an old school S&W 645, and its my favorite work horse pistol. I've put thousand of rounds through it, and my hogue grips are worn smooth. I don't think you can go wrong, they know how to build a pistol!

Southern Girl

I have the M&P 40 and I LOVE IT! Very great quality weapon! Go for it!!!

Valkyrie1911

So you have a select fire weapon made by S&W? I highly doubt it....

Sorry, but that's one thing that I always have to correct people on, not to be an ass or anything. AR15s are not assault rifles. They are aemi-automatic rifles. AR does not stand for assault rifle, it stands for Armalite Rifle, the company that bought Eugene Stoner's design. AK47s are not assault rifles, nor are FN FALs, AK74s, etc. The only assault rifles are select fire (semi/3 round burst/full auto or a combination thereof) weapons and can not be owned by civilians*.

* Anything made pre-1986 IRRC can in fact be owned by civlians, as they are granfathered into the NFA (National Firearms Act). However the amount of paperwork that needs to be completed as well as the cost ($20-$30k for an M16) makes it near impossible to get one. I am not an expert on civilian owned full autos, so I may be missing a few details, but that about sums it up.

Valkyrie1911

Wanted to put this seperate from my other post:

As to the OP, I do not personally own an M&P 45, but I do know several people who own them and use them as home defense/carry weapons and they love them. M&P gained popularity when Travis Haley and Chris Costa, from Magpul Dynamics, used them in their training videos. S&W has since increased quality and they are really a great gun for the price. I wouldn't hesitate to buy one.

Nwapache

Troll threadjacking alert....

Imrahil

Technically you are correct. When the term was first adopted "Assault Rifle" only included select fire weapons, however today the term has been broadened to include any military rifle that has been modified to fire in semi-automatic mode as well, e.g. AR-15. The reason for this is because of the Assault Weapons ban that was passed in 1994 which banned many features commonly found on military type rifles. This slight change has led many people to class anything that would be deemed an Assault Weapon as an Assault Rifle. The ban included these features:

Folding or telescoping stock
Primary pistol grip
Forward grip
Threaded barrel (for a muzzle brake or a suppressor, commonly called a silencer)
Barrel shroud

I am assuming that you can see where the confusion came from.

Hate to bust your balls here, but you are wrong on more then a few points (and since you decided to bust his why should I spare yours?). The AK-47, AK-74, and the FN Fal are all Assault Rifles. Some are produced in a civilian version though that is not considered an Assault Rifle.

As to the NFA items, well you are pretty close. The paperwork is not all that involved, especially if you form a trust and allow the trust to purchase the firearm. Last time I filled out my paperwork it took me about 3 minutes, and that is because I write slow.

Anyone who is paying $20k-$30k for an M16 is either buying an amazingly mint firearm that is still in the box or is being robbed. Mine cost me $12,500. You can still get certain weapons that are NFA for a fraction of that, some as low as $2k - $3k.

The National Firearms Act of 1934 was passed to control and restrict weapons that were capable of fully automatic fire. It wasn't until the Firearms Owners Protection Act (FOPA) of 1986 that it became illegal for civilians to own any newly manufactured machine guns, that is unless you either qualify as law enforcement or you are a Special Occupational Taxpayer such as a dealer.