Field Assessment
The Standard Pistol is the starting point. Every protagonist gets one. Every cop carries one. Every low-level cartel worker hoping to move up has one tucked somewhere. It is not the most powerful weapon on the street in Leonida, but it is the most common, and common means you will be on both ends of it constantly.
At close range it does the job cleanly. Semi-automatic, manageable recoil, fast follow-up shots. In tight spaces, a building interior, a parking structure, the back of a bar, it is as useful as anything you are carrying. Past 35 meters the limitations show. Against armored targets you are asking it to do more than it was built for.
Under the new inventory system, sidearms are what you carry on your person at all times. The pistol sits on your hip while the heavier hardware stays locked in the vehicle. That changes the calculus. A fight that kicks off without warning, a confrontation that escalates before you reach the car, that is a pistol situation. Know the range. Know the target. Know when to run.