The 9mm Parabellum—A Perfect Home-Defense Cartridge? Part I

Anytime you dive into the merits of something that’s been declared “the best,” you open up a can of worms. Or a Pandora’s box. Or a Pandora’s box full of cans of worms. Sure, there can be an ample list of facts supporting that something is indeed (or at least probably) the best, but there’s also subjective opinion involved in (and often not just a little bit of politics).

So it is with discussions about firearm cartridges. Suffice it to say that gun people have been arguing about one cartridge being better than another pretty much since Jean Samuel Pauly and François Prélat, Swiss and French gunsmiths, respectively, their heads together in 1808 and designed the world’s first self-contained cartridge.

The Great Cartridge Wars

Long ago, in a galaxy far away, when I worked as an editor with several of the NRA’s widely-read publications, one of our freelance authors penned an article entitled “Why I Hate the .30-06” for the gun-rights organization’s flagship magazine for hunters, American Hunter. The .30-06, in case you don’t know, has an almost Holy Grail status among cartridge historians, law enforcement, military professionals, hunters, and competitive rifle shooters. It’s not that it’s the best or can’t be bested, but it’s been so good at what it does for so long (it was developed by the U.S. military in 1906), that the bar is high for cartridges seeking comparable reviews or improved performance. So, for someone to say they hated it? Talk about a furor. That article appeared in print some 20 years ago, and I can still go to a trade show or gun show and hear people talk about it—Remember when ol’ what’s-his-name talked about hating the .30-06? Best/worst article I’ve ever read!

Such discussions are fueled by intense passions, and that’s clearly the subjective part of declaring something to be top of the heap. You don’t reach Hatfield/McCoy or Ford/Chevy status without having passionate supporters on either side. Too, it’s hard to get passionate about something if it doesn’t work.

And, with that, let’s chat a bit about the 9mm Luger and why it may be as close to perfect a home-defense cartridge as you can find. We’ll start with a bit of background on the cartridge here, take a look at how you can prevent being confused by other 9mms, and then cover why it’s a sound, reasonable, and practical choice for a home-defense gun (and why we designed the Biofire Smart Gun™ around America’s most popular handgun cartridge).

It All Began … .

Today’s modern 9mm cartridge was birthed in 1902 by a man named George Luger. Luger was born in Austria and spent much of his childhood in Italy. Educated in Germany and Austria before he attended what is now known as the Vienna Business School, he joined the Austrian-Hungary Army after college graduation, where he earned a reputation for his excellent marksmanship. He also became a firearm instructor, which is apparently where his fascination with all things firearms really took root.

Sometime after he’d left the military, Luger was introduced to Ferdinand Von Mannlicher, one of the world’s most notable contributors of firearm designs; the rifle bolt actions that carry his name have been coveted by hunters and military personnel for more than a century. Together, Luger and Von Mannlicher worked on a firearm magazine design, and Luger went on from there to eventually design the Pistole Parabellum. That pistol is commonly known today simply as the Luger pistol, and depending on when it was produced, in what caliber, and how many of a particular series were produced, they represent some of the most collectible pistols in the universe; an ultra-rare model in .45 caliber once sold for a million dollars.

Where does “Parabellum” in the original pistol’s name come from? Parabellum was cobbled together from parts of the Latin phrase Si vis pacem, para bellum: If you wish for peace, prepare for war. Knowing that, it’s no wonder it was a favored gun of various militaries, including those of Switzerland, Portugal, the Netherlands, Bolivia, Bulgaria, and Bolivia, though its favored status by the Germans during WWI and WWII leant it an unfair notoriety.

If you’re connecting the dots, you can now see why the 9mm cartridge you’re familiar with as primarily a pistol cartridge comes in boxes labeled both 9mm Luger and 9mm Parabellum. You will also see it as 9x19mm Parabellum or 9x19mm Luger. The Connecticut-based Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers’ Institute (SAAMI), the American safety, reliability, and interchangeability standards developer for ammunition, and the Commission Internationale Permanente pour L’épreuve des Armes à Feu Portatives—Permanent International Commission for the Proof of Small Arms (CIP), the international standard bearer, recognize the cartridge as 9mm Luger.

We know that history isn’t everybody’s cup of tea, so we’ll leave this very brief background of the 9mm cartridge where it is and move on. Coming up—when a 9mm is and is not a 9mm.