The Px4 was originally developed as Beretta's entry into the competition to replace the M9 pistol (also a Beretta product, a militarized version of the Model 92FS) as the standard sidearm of the United States armed forces. The United States armed forces then decided not to replace the M9 pistol, and Beretta decided well, fine, we'll just sell it on the civilian market, then.

As can probably be told from the pictures, the Px4 is a polymer-framed pistol, a construction method many manufacturers are using nowadays. It uses the same range of double-action trigger mechanisms as the Model 92; this particular example is the default or "Type F" configuration, in which the decocker and manual safety are the same control (engaging it decocks the hammer, if cocked, and prevents it from being recocked, although, interestingly, a double-action trigger pull will still move it; it just doesn't fire when it falls again, presumably because the firing pin is also blocked or disengaged).

It's an interesting gun mechanically, since it uses a rotating barrel lockup rather than the usual Browning-style tilting barrel, and the styling is quite a departure for Beretta's usually-hyper-traditional designers. The polymer frame comes out of the box with a short under-barrel rail, suitable for attaching a tactical light or laser sight, and (as DJ alludes to in the episode) the grip ergonomics are very good, particularly as there's a modular piece that can be swapped out to optimize the fit for different hand sizes.

The real gun is available in 9mm Parabellum, .40 S&W, or .45 ACP. The Evangelion version is based on 36-centimeter naval artillery (that's 14" in Church of England)—the same bore diameter as the guns on many of the best-known battleships of the interwar period, e.g., Britain's King George V class, Japan's Kongō and Ise classes, and any number of US battleship classes before the Colorado class brought in 16-inchers (in response, as it happens, to the Japanese Nagato class).

No one really expected Beretta, known in the 21st century as a small-arms manufacturer, to be up for making artillery-scale EVA weaponry—which is why Misato et al. were able to get the new pistol cannons built on the sly, but they actually have a long and distinguished history in artillery; they developed the first breechloading cannon in the 1600s.

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
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