I have never in my life derided the 9mm ctg. However, I have never been a believer in the "heavy for caliber" 147 gr. loads as IMO it only turns the 9mm into a lumbering .38 Special. Many today say that this newest Generation of 147 gr. 9mm bullets (primarily the Fed. HST) are different. That may well be, however I don't know enough about them nor have read of many Street result accounts either. I do know that in the 80's the Federal 9mm 115 gr. +p+ BPLE changed the playing field starting with the ISP and then the BP like no other semi-auto ctg. before. Yes, the .38 Super trumped it in velocity, but there was no real effective JHP in its early conception. The BPLE started dropping bad guys like cholera. The reports were overwhelming from those who saw firsthand. Interestingly, the FBI chose to ignore this and relied upon the totally flawed "Computer Man" theory that resulted in the wretched 1st Gen. of 147 gr. 9mm JHP's, with Win. leading the way if I recall.

Today, there seems to a more general push back to a "medium" weight 9mm JHP with the superb Speer 124 +p Gold Dot leading the pack and Win. has since introduced that weight as well, while still keeping their legendary 127 gr. +p+ JHP in the lineup.

It is clearly deductive reasoning that tells us that velocity is a factor in the 9mm's success as one only has to correlate the blatant difference between a .38 Special 125 JHP and a .357 Mag. 125 gr. JHP. Something happens when a certain threshold is broken. Some say that is circa. 1,300 fps for a handgun round. Some say that is total malarkey. However, no one can deny the stellar Street results of the 9mm 115 gr. +p+ JHP nor the .357 Mag. 125 gr. JHP and in the end, reality trumps theory. Would you rather trust your safety & well being to a round that has thousands of incidents verifying its credibility, or would you rather choose one that some Poindexter who flies the "brown bomber" all day at a desk theorizes is better for you?