Writer for the Weekly Standard Discusses America and Guns. He notes how our history is tied to gun ownership and gun usage.
My favorite excerpt is below, but there isn't anything in the article that I do not agree with.
But the most famous of the many legendary Browning creations is a Colt: the .45 caliber pistol known as the 1911, which became a ubiquitous element in the American military from the time it was introduced until it was replaced, by a Beretta 9 millimeter for reasons that still seem flimsy, in 1985.
The 1911 is solid, tough, dependable, easy to take apart and clean, and beautiful in an exceedingly unlovely way. It is as American as Coca-Cola. The legend of the 1911 is vast. The gun was even said to have been used by an American aviator whose plane had been shot up in a dogfight. He was hanging in his parachute and his Japanese enemy was coming back to strafe him. So he took out his pistol and shot down the Zero. Hard story to check, but the fact it was ever told says a lot about that pistol.