pushes the release lever forward, and a
barrel held rigidly in place so the pistol won’t jam if a
muzzle-contact shot is attempted.
“Now he was getting back up from the floor so I flipped off the safety on my gun and put it to the side of his head. I kept second-guessing myself. He was getting up and calling out for help from his accomplice in crime. I didn’t know if the accomplice was going to come in the back room so I put the gun to the side of his head and pulled the trigger. Bang the gun went off and he went down to the floor half over a chair. I heard the doorbell ring as the accomplice ran out. I locked up and called 911. He was still where he fell, dead.
The Model 3032 Tomcat is a fast-moving pistol in the gun shops.
Sitting low in the hand, the Tomcat has low bore axis and minimal muzzle rise. The slide abrading the hand is much less a problem than with many other pistols in its class.
“Two days before the holdup I’d just picked up the Tomcat from the gun store across the street. For some time before that I hadn’t been carrying a gun. My 9mm was just too big.”
There are those who like the Tomcat as a police backup gun, too. My friend and colleague Mike Boyle is one of the nation’s top police gun experts, and an outstanding trainer whom I’ve seen teach in such venues as the American Society of Law Enforcement Trainers, and the International Association of Law Enforcement Firearms Instructors. In a roundup article discussing pocket pistols for backup in a police-oriented publication he and I both contribute to regularly, Guns & Weapons for Law Enforcement, Mike had the following to say about the Tomcat in the February, 2005 issue.
“Carried in a Tomahawk holster from Pocket Concealment Systems, the Tomcat doesn’t cramp my style at all. Magazine capacity is seven rounds. I have considerably more trigger time with the Tomcat than the other pistols tested and to date my experience is most favorable. The manual of arms for the DA/SA Tomcat is a bit more involved than the DAOs, but the single-action trigger makes hitting small targets or distant targets easier. On several occasions I’ve watched officers qualify with their Tomcats on the state-mandated course, which includes a 25-yard component. High scores were the rule rather than the exception.
While very compact, the Tomcat has a grip frame that allows two fingers to wrap solidly around it. Some pistols in its class allow only one and perhaps part of a second.
“The Tomcat represents a classic pocket pistol design, which has clearly benefited by the power boost to the .32ACP. As a last-ditch backup, it offers a great deal of potential.” (2) Nothing has really changed since, except for the intro of a couple of still smaller .32s by other makers, such as the Kel-Tec P32.
GB showed in his incident subsequent the efficacy of the muzzle-contact shot. The tip-up barrel design of the Tomcat not only eases loading and unloading for many people, but also holds the gun’s parts rigidly in battery allowing the pistol to fire when it is in hard contact with the target. Many, many auto pistols will have their parts “pushed out of battery” by such contact, and will be rendered incapable of firing. GB’s statement that he had bought the Tomcat because a 9mm was just too big to carry, really says it all. While slightly larger than some of the other new-generation subcompact .32s such as the defining Seecamp, the almost impossibly light little KelTec P32, and the North American Arms Guardian, the Tomcat .32 is spectacularly easier to shoot by comparison. Not in a class with the Beretta .380, by any means, but certainly better in that respect than the other true pocket pistols in .32 caliber.
Personally, when danger threatens I’d like to have the cry of angry 9mm leopard speaking for my side, or the snarl of a .45 caliber lion, or the roar of a .357 caliber Siberian tiger. But, you know, the meow of the Tomcat is still a better sound than the whimper of a victim …
The Meow Of The Tomcat
Beretta is a company that believes, like Burger King, that you, the customer, should be able to “have it your way.” A recent Beretta ad in a foreign gun magazine showed a range of Model 92 options from the old frame-mounted safety style that hasn’t been imported into the U.S. for many years, to the familiar 92FS, the shorter Centurion, and the heavy-duty Brigadier. And of course there’s the double-action-only 92D that’s popular among U.S. police.
Similarly, Beretta USA offers a wide power range to the good guy or gal who draws a weapon in the face of imminent, unlawful use of deadly force. You can respond with the roar of the Cougar (9mm Parabellum, .40 S&W, .357 SIG, or .45 ACP caliber). You can reply with the growl of the Cheetah (.380 ACP).
And now, you can answer with the meow of the Tomcat, the smallest .32 auto that Beretta has offered.
This is not your grandfather’s Beretta .32, which would have been the single-action 1935 model, a solid and chunky gun that was optimistically named the Puma when Beretta sold it here commercially years ago. Nor is it the .32 version of the Model 84, the high-capacity DA first-shot pistol of recent years. Both of those autos were much better in their natural caliber, the .380 ACP. Their recoil was negligible, and they were hell for accurate. Unfortunately they were also big for the power they put out.
The Tomcat, whose name is a quintessential tribute to truth in advertising, is not particularly accurate and, in the feline menagerie of the Beretta catalog, is pathetically feeble. Comparing the Tomcat .32 with a Cougar .40 is rather like putting your own little housecat up against a mountain lion. Consider the following ballistics, courtesy of Winchester:
The Tomcat can be carried three ways with a round in the chamber, though all contravene the owner’s manual. Here is its optional cocked and locked mode …
… here the hammer is down, and safety engaged …
… and here the pistol is off safe, ready to fire in double-action mode.
Mouse Gun Factor
Yeah, I know, I’m the guy who says “Friends don’t let friends carry mouse guns.” Why then am I writing this article?
Mouseguns are a fact of life. There are X number of good people who will carry a tiny gun or no gun at all, either as backup or as first line of defense, and a basic law of life is that “something is better than nothing.” Jeff Cooper once said he’d rather have a hatchet than a .25 auto for self-defense. At belly-to-belly distance, me too, though I’d likely trade the hatchet for my Richard Sokol custom Arkansas Toothpick. However, Jeff was always big and strong, and I am comparatively little and weak. At a range of 20 feet, if the bad guy has a firearm, I’d rather have the mouse gun than the hatchet since I know he can empty his weapon into me in the second and a half it’ll take me
