Author's option: Sweeney much preferred the flat backstrap, finding it more comfortable than the arched one.

Accuracy, soft recoil, high capacity, easy to shoot and non-slip. Stainless slide and an impervious- to-solvents polymer frame. Is there anything missing? If there is, it isn't in takedown. Simply lock back the slide, and make sure it is empty. Remove the magazine. Pivot the takedown lever, unlock the slide stop, and ease off the slide. If you've done it with any of a dozen other pistols, you can figure out how to do it with the FNP.

So, what place is there for the FNP-45? Unless you're built like some of my Chicago-area law enforcement friends (I'm 6'4'', and I'm seen as the small guy), carrying it concealed is going to be problematic. Not that it can't be done, but it will be more work than a more compact pistol would be. As an open-carry, law enforcement or military sidearm, it has all the right stuff. For someone looking for an accurate, reliable, easy-to-shoot .45, the FNP-45 has to rank high on any list.

As a competition gun, it might have some problems. Not because of the pistol but because of the competition rules. As a .45 it would get tossed in against the highly tuned single-stack and hi-cap 1911s. As a DA pistol the other option would be to go up against a slew of light-recoiling 9mms. So if you're planning on cutting a swath through the USPSA/IPSC or IDPA competitions with the FNP-45, think again. No, it isn't meant for competition, it is meant for dealing with miscreants in 230-grain doses. For the comfort of shooting it delivers, I'm really interested in searching for comfortable holsters.

I have been accused of having entirely too much fun at the expense of those in the armed forces tasked with acquiring new small arms. Perhaps that's true, and if so, the armed forces haven't been the first in such a position. The big questions they keep addressing are not "Is the 9mm inadequate?" or "Just how many rounds do we need?" but "How do we satisfy the .45 fanatics without actually giving them a .45?" and "Are you kidding me? Of course a cocked hammer is dangerous."

As high-capacity .45s go, the FNP-45 has a short trigger reach.

Until the various factions in the armed forces come to grips with the desire of guys kicking doors to have a .45 and let the users decide what kind of safety they want, the M9 will be with us. But each time a Request for Proposal floats into public view, those of us who know what we want will have a never-ending supply of high-capacity .45 pistols to choose from. Pick this one and you won't be sorry.