Left-side view: a typical control layout--magazine catch, slide lock and safety.

In police jargon, "CCW" rings as familiar as GTA (Grand Theft Auto), DUI (Driving Under the Influence) or ADW (Assault with a Deadly Weapon). CCW stands for Carrying a Concealed Weapon, and without proper licensing, it's a violation of the law in almost all jurisdictions. But there's good news, too. Some 33 states now have procedures in place that permit citizens with no criminal record and proper training to carry a concealed handgun.

So it's no small wonder that Para Ordnance, the Canadian-based maker of some fine .45 pistols, has tagged its newest model with the CCW moniker. That's exactly the role for which this pistol is intended. After due consideration and evaluation shooting, it becomes obvious that a great deal of thought went into the equation. This is a well-thought-out pistol.

The .45 ACP Para CCW was built with features calculated to produce an optimal concealed carry pistol. It's made entirely of stainless steel, and most of the basic design is a rendering of John Browning's classic 1911, suitably altered in size. The major difference is in the LDA trigger system. Since Para Ordnance makes single-stack LDA pistols with four different barrel/slide lengths and three different magazine/butt lengths, the company had a menu of established options from which to choose in producing its flagship CCW pistol.

DIMENSIONALLY DISCREET
How about barrel and slide length? This pistol comes with a 4.25-inch upper, which is about an inch shorter than the original full-size Government Model. There is no doubt but that the longer pistol is superior in a shooting situation. The longer barrel gets more from the ammunition, and the longer sight radius means faster, more precise sight alignment. However, the modern trend is toward somewhat shorter guns, even when they are full-size police holster pistols. With training, shooters can master the fast and accurate use of a slightly shorter gun. And since the longer ones are more difficult to carry and deploy under stress, the CCW's dimensions are nearly ideal.

The gun's weight is 34.6 ounces, which is on the heavy side. But premium stainless steel is substantial stuff, and Para uses it for a reason. It's strong, and that means it's a gun that will last a lifetime and keep on shooting. This is a defensive pistol, and that's a role that requires frequent, intense practice sessions. Shooting gets fast and furious in a well-organized training program, where the ammunition is full-power stuff. When the gun is a light one that knocks you around a bit, there is a marked tendency to cut the training short. Serious business demands serious practice. You need a comfortable heft to your defense gun, and the CCW gives it to you.

The Para-Ordnance rear sight is rugged, quick to acquire and boasts a Novak-like profile.

ERGONOMIC ENHANCEMENTS
Anyone who carries--and effectively conceals--a powerful handgun discovers one thing almost immediately: The butt is the hardest part to hide. Barrels and slides tend to ride along the leg or waist, but the handle wants to stick out. That's particularly true when you use a holster that's designed to position the butt for fast access. From the standpoint of effective concealment, the less butt there is, the better. That's why Para's designers went to a butt section that's noticeably shorter than a regular M1911 size. It is long enough to take a special seven-round magazine, giving the Para CCW a total on-tap capacity of eight rounds of .45 ACP ammo. If that is insufficient to resolve your difficulty, I doubt if any handgun will be adequate.

Consider another fact about developments in 1911-type pistols. For the past few years, the guns have been growing longer in a rearward vecto because we have been equipping them with ever-greater grip safeties--so-called "beavertails"--to keep the hammer spur from biting the tender web of the shooter's hand. When there is a spur on the hammer, a modern grip safety makes a lot of sense. But the Para CCW is a DAO system that can't be cocked. Therefore, there is no need for a spur on the hammer, and the maker doesn't provide one. This means the grip safety can be radically abbreviated. Not only is the rearmost portion of the grip safety rounded off, but the tang portion of the receiver has also been cut back. Both surfaces present a radiused, snag-free contour. You can actually grasp the pistol and fire it with the web of your hand slightly above the top edge of the grip safety.

Despite its DAO trigger system, the Para CCW also features a manual safety.

With all of these features in place, we have a fine all-stainless concealed carry handgun. At its widest point--across the grips--the pistol measures 1.10 inches. The grips, by the way, are ultrathin plates of checkered cocobolo with handsome Para-Ordnance medallions. The magazine also features the company logo and fits flush with the bottom of the butt--no cheating with an extended floorplate to squeeze in the last round. The magazine well is beveled slightly to ease speedy magazine changes. A flat mainspring housing gets what appears to be about 20-lpi checkering.

To make the gun just a little more carryable, Para installed a safety with a no-more-metal-than-necessary pad. Note also that both upper and lower faces of the safety lever are grooved, making it an easy one for most shooters to manipulate. On the slide, the maker pays a great deal of attention to the contours of the ejection port. The lower rear corner has been scalloped gracefully to keep your brass from being battered in the ejection cycle. There is another practical touch at the lower forward corner of the port. It's a semicircular relief cut that eases the problem of removal of a live round from the chamber.

The Para CCW's grips are thin rosewood, checkered in the ever-popular double-diamond style.

You can't leave a physical description of the Para CCW without mentioning the sights. They come with the inevitable triple-dot arrangement that is so popular. In profile, the rear sight is very much the classic Novak, but when you examine it from any other angle, it is obvious there are many differences. The Para sight, which also is to be found on other of its models, is round on top with a laterally serrated rear face. It would seem to be remarkably snag-free. Like the front sight, the rear sight fastens securely to the top of the pistol's round top via precisely cut dovetails.

STRICTLY BUSINESS
I fired the CCW with several kinds of full-power JHP and FMJ ammunition. Two things came out of this experience. First, the pistol performed without any malfunctions of any kind. Second, the accuracy level looks like it is going to be every bit as good as a combat pistol needs to be. I would like to have done a full-blown accuracy evaluation with the Ransom Rest, but the weather in northern Nevada was not cooperating. We had several weeks of snowy weather as the story deadline approached. I got out for one decent session of hand-held shooting with a foot of snow on the ground. I know the gun is accurate because I had little trouble producing good 25-yard groups with 230-grain Speer Lawman FMJs and Black Hills' "blue box" 200-grain remanufactured SWCs. I then spent some time bouncing a 12-ounce Coke can at ranges out to 30 yards; the sharp contrast between the bright-red can and the white background made things a lot of fun.

However, this pistol is not intended for playing in the snow. It is a business gun, designed for crisis resolution at close range. In the CCW, we have a pistol long enough to be easy to use but not so long as to be impossible to conceal. The CCW is on the heavy side--easy to handle in long practice sessions--but not so heavy as to rule out habitual carry. There are handling features that ease the shooter's use of the gun and cosmetics that are a meld of traditional and progressive. It is a handsome pistol, but it is first and foremost a fighting handgun, intended to be there when you really need it.