Hello!
Please educate me...
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Just adding another "Glocks are not illegal in MA" vote, the roster impacts only what a dealer is allowed to transfer to you.
I would not discount a Glock 19 from the support (holsters, aftermarket stuff) and availability of regular capacity magazines standpoints. Just work it into your list and evaluate along with everything else, rest assured you will be able to find one without grabbing your ankles and waiting for someone to bless you with a used one at 50% markup.
That being said, I have owned a VP9, P320, and G19 (no FN509), and here are my thoughts.
VP9 fits my hand like a glove, it doesn't take much to adapt to the paddle. I feel like it has a reasonably nice trigger out of the box. Downsides are support options (holsters, accessories)/lack of normal capacity magazines and the fact that 4k rounds in, I have ground an angle into the slide where the slide release sits so it intermittently does not stay back. Been lazy about sending it in but while I am overall happy with it, I will be selling it after I get it back from service.
P320 shoots OK, some people will downplay the whole bore axis thing but after shooting the G19, I cannot keep it near as flat as the Glock. In all fairness, I haven't put them on timers next to each other (muzzle flip doesn't matter, sight tracking and return is what matters), but it just felt sloppier shooting. Trigger is OK I guess, much more well-defined wall compared to say a Glock. Much like the Glock, don't discount trying to source one without a thumb safety (spoiler alert again: you can). The existence of the thumb safety doesn't bother me on principle, but in practice the wings are very wide (both sides due to ambi), and they make it a chore to activate the slide release and with a (what I consider normal) overhand grip if the safety is ON (pushed up) I wind up smashing my fingers and heel of palm into the damn thing racking it. It's not sharp but it impairs functionality for me. I assume I can retrain myself to grip it gingerly just so, but it's a data point. I really like the FCU concept where I can have different grip modules (stippled, stippled that I messed up, Talon Grip, regular, large for my gorilla sized friend, etc). Overall good gun, no malfunctions but I am selling it on.
G19 has the support (holsters/aftermarket) and normal capacity magazine availability if you hate money and that's important to you. I can't stand the way Glocks look but after messing around with them that has fallen off my priority list. Strangely I still hate the way the thing looks but it just doesn't bother me because I like shooting it. Grip angle difference (which I was initially worried about) made no difference, I don't have a big problem going back and forth between the two prevailing grip angles (Glock vs. everything). Things to note are that the stock sights are just placeholders. The Gen5 mag well cutout bothers my pinky. Not enough to not shoot it but enough that I would look for the newer MOS model without the magwell cutout on the front strap. The Gen5 oxide (cosmetic part) of the finish almost wipes away, like a couple boxes of ammo in it looked worse wear-wise than my 6k round count pistols. From my understanding the actual case hardening is still intact, there is no functional impact, but if looks are important be aware that it is way different than the other Gen finishes. This goes for slide and barrel. Maybe you're the other way and like the worn effect, in which case a couple boxes of ammo will give you the look you want!
I cannot stress enough how amazing a red dot on a pistol is, it's not just for good shooters, in fact if I could teach everyone on a dot pistol I would. You get feedback from the dot that you don't get from irons. Looking at the dot, you feel like you have the shakes and can watch it dive out of the window when you are doing the "mix dummy rounds in for malfunction clearance/trigger control diagnosis" drills. I would completely discount the "slower to acquire up close" or whatever, it goes away pretty quickly. For good shooters it's like cheating (you are eventually seeing a red line as the dot tracks up and back down onto target, and timing your trigger break to catch the falling dot as it lands back on target, it's surreal), for newer shooters I feel like it accelerates the learning curve of getting all the skills that make up the "break the trigger without disturbing the sight picture" action if you are willing to pay attention to what the dot is telling you. Also something not often mentioned or explored is the fact that the dot is in focus at the target. No more blurry target, no more eyes fighting for dominance, you just look at the target and float the dot over it. Don't look for the dot at the location of the window, then the target AND the dot are fuzzy. Look out at the target, it's almost like a laser is being pointed at it.
I have an RMR with a custom pocket milled by ATEi, but unless you hate money I would go with an G19 MOS or P320 RX. The only real downsides to the MOS vs. milled is you have truly clown shoes suppressor height irons to even see them due to the height of the adapter plate setup, and people have complained about the screws backing out. Third hand information but I have heard screws from a company called Battlwerx (haven't looked into this) can help with this. Wouldn't discount a P320 RX with a Romeo on it, will be way less expensive.
Do not discount 9mm for home defense. I've done a fair amount of research and my conclusion is that any perceived difference in terminal performance has been essentially been erased by advances in projectile technology over the last 20 years. Pick a good round off of the
list here, find out where to source a bunch at reasonable prices (targetsportsusa.com), and call it a day. In my opinion caliber selection and projectile selection is like way the hell down in the weeds compared to competency and training and a gun that minimized non-bang events when the trigger is pulled. Basically pick anything 9mm, .40, .45 (some sources include .380 but the advantages to me seem shruggable enough that you need a really really good reason to go for it, the terminal ballistics are not on par with the other common calibers). I'm not a 9mm fanatic, in fact I think any of the common calibers are fine defensive rounds, it's just that everything else sacrifices something (cost, capacity, projectile selection) that there's no real need in my eyes. If you want to dig in a little more, lucky gunner labs has a bunch of ballistic testing on gel. I think it has its flaws but it's a pretty reasonable database to look through.
At the end of the day, my earnest advice is to buy any reliable 9mm handgun, seek quality training (Sig Academy is a great local resource, start with Handgun 102 if you have shot before, understand and practice muzzle and trigger discipline and can work safely with a holster and can generally hit what you're aiming for, start with Handgun 101 if any of the above don't apply), and take what you learn from your training to the range and get a couple thousand PURPOSEFUL (trying to learn/improve something rather than just poking holes in paper with no defined goals) rounds through the gun. Be uncompromising about safety and good habits, and you will be light years ahead of most of the people I see at the range or courses, never mind the common armed citizen that's done nothing but get a license and a gun. Continued below, the forum cut me off...