re: If you always wanted a 1911 but could only have one handgun for eternity.....

As a mid range .40 yea, that's apples to oranges though. A hot +p 155 grain 40 round is going to hit harder than the hardest hitting 9mm available.

And yes, both will kill you dead, but comparitively speaking when talking about the ballistics on cheap-mid range- and top shelf ammo the 40 outperforms the 9mm when it comes to ft. pounds of energy at every step.

The tradeoff is fewer rounds and more recoil