LB: Alright Christian, the Browning Hi-Power/SA-35. Why does it hold a special place in your heart?
CC: It’s the first handgun I ever got my hands on at the age of 17. I used it in 1993 straight out of training. Deploying to Northern Ireland, learning to shoot it was part of the induction course into the Parachute Battalion. You had to use the Hi-Power because as part of our role in Northern Ireland we’d sometimes wear plain clothes. Not in specialist covert activities, just more like escort duties. That was my first exposure to the pistol.
LB: The last article was drawn from your experiences as a boy fantasizing about all these wonderful movie guns. Do you remember when you were waiting in line to get issued your pistol and being like: "Oh my god, I finally get to have one!"?
CC: It did feel really cool to get my hands on one and have the lessons. We were professional about it. To me it was just another tool, but it did feel good to have the gun, and if necessary, to be able to use it. That said, it felt quite strange carrying it concealed for the first time. Remember it’s the UK—we’re not really exposed to guns very much.
LB: After you left the Parachute Battalion, that wasn’t the end of your relationship with the Hi-Power was it?
CC: No, around 1999, when I was serving in the Pathfinders, we started getting issued the Hi-Power as a secondary weapon. These pistols were very old and way past their "use by date" in my opinion. So, the frustration was that they were not that accurate—or not as accurate as they should be.
LB: They were just clapped out and shot out?