The facility where we did the accuracy testing allowed only 20 yards of shooting distance, not the usual 25. The test pistol had a Para-Ordnance barrel, not the match grade Bar-Sto of which Laughridge is so justifiably fond, but Bill had honed the factory barrel, recrowned it to eleven degrees, and installed a National Match barrel bushing. As a result, we found ourselves getting groups under 2 inches. CCI Gold Dot 185-grain JHP put five shots in a group measuring 1.48 inches, and Federal's Personal Defense 165-grain JHP delivered a 1.51 inches five-shot group.

This has made the double-action-only auto a very strong presence in American law enforcement today. This is why our two largest police departments, NYPD and Chicago PD, authorize only DAO pistols. This is why our largest agency, the US Border Patrol, went DAO when they adopted the Beretta 96D .40 caliber pistol. And it is why the Glock took off and became the most popular American law enforcement sidearm hands-down only after the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms officially determined its patented Safe Action design to constitute a double-action-only mechanism.

Enter the Para LDA, clearly double-action-only in both the mechanical and operational sense. With its light, easy pull, it is one of the most shootable such guns, and many have called it the most shootable DAO autoloader. This has been a cornerstone of its popularity.

I tested Bill Laughridge's Cylinder & Slide Shop CST-1 custom LDA with Bill and Frank Belsky. Frank is an attorney who has done his share of firearms liability cases, and is a Vietnam combat vet and several time graduate of the prestigious Chapman Academy of Practical Shooting. His perspective on this issue is very much worth listening to.

Said Attorney Belsky, whose 21 years of trial practice include nine years as a prosecutor, "I think that for the average individual, the LSA would be a superior weapon because its design helps prevent accidental discharge. It has an excellent trigger, particularly after Bill is done with it. Even with only five pounds of pressure, it's long enough that it's most unlikely to unintentionally discharge." Part of Laughridge's custom work is an action job that brings the six to seven pound pull of an LDA down to five pounds.

Continued Belsky, "I think for any person not deeply familiar with the cocked and locked pistol, and not constantly training with it, the LDA makes a lot of sense, especially after Bill Laughridge has gone over it."

Police departments who've examined the LDA see its rationale. The North Attleboro (Massachusetts) Police Department has adopted the Para-Ordnance LDA as their standard issue duty weapon. The state of Kansas has two uniformed state police agencies-one in essence is a highway patrol and the other is a more traditional SP organization. Each is separately budgeted. Both issue .45 autos. One issues the Glock 21 and a 12-gauge pump shotgun to each trooper. The other, apparently with a proportionally more substantial budget, has adopted the Para-Ordnance LDA pistol and a .223 semiautomatic rifle for all armed personnel.

We have seen an increase in the last couple of years in the number of police officers murdered with their own handguns or those of their partners. In none of the cases that I'm aware of at this writing were the police handguns involved carried "on-safe." Over the years we have seen countless cases of police officers' lives saved when