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You have a 50/50 chance of getting a serviceable pistol if you go Kimber.

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If that were true they would have been out of business years ago.  They make 60K +/- 1911s a year, sure they put out some dogs but they also put out a hell of a lot of 1911s that work just fine.

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Nobody can anticipate the stupidity of the legislature, but If I was to act in accordance with your fears, the last thing I would be purchasing would be 1911s. With the exception of their single action "cocked and locked" carry, there is not a more benign automatic made due to their features (Long time military/civillian use, small capacity, sporting history, etc). Evil rifles, and longarms with certain features, along with higher capacity automatics would make the first targets to the legislature. Instead, I would check those things off the list first and use that time in order to learn more about 1911s so that you can become a better consumer and pick what works best for you.

Kimbers make production pistols, and any example of a production pistol ranges from absolute crap to an amazing sidearm, with the vast majority hovering within or slightly above/below the "average" margin. Few if any will assert that Kimber makes the worst production pistol, but few will assert they make the best either. When they make a conforming pistol, the buyer generally seems extremely happy with Kimbers, and like any other company, when they drop the ball, the customer becomes very unhappy. Kimber has suffered a rather blemished reputation over the past two years, give or take, of producing more non-conforming pistols than the consumer is comfortable with. In other words, EVERY company drops the ball on X% +/- a few points, but it seems as though Kimber has been "+ a few points more than the consumer will credit a company".

Other points to consider:

- Kimber's customer service has been reported as good, fair and crap, which leads me to believe that it's "fair". Para Ordnance was a company that started suffering a similar reputation for quality, but they also had the crutch of excellent service. Para's service has dipped and few informed consumers buy Para anymore. It may be a stretch to say that Kimber has sunk to the levels of Para, but if the ball is going to be dropped a couple of times in the game, you'd hope your team has someone who is very skilled at recovering fumbles.

- Kimber has a swartz safety installed in all but a couple of its pistols. This is a safety that was not contemplated in JMB's design, and at a minimum is a worthless part that complates things. At the worst, it's a part whose malfunction can be tragic if it occurs at the wrong time.

- Kimber makes tighter guns. There is something to be said about a well-built tight gun, but if the gun is less than well built, it is prone to have more reliability problems than a looser one. Most people tend to prefer the semicustom outfits do the tight guns due to their greater attention to detail instead of the hit or miss QC of production companies. More importantly, these tight guns require a break in period, whereas looser ones like Colts don't. So you may be prompted to shoot 500+ rounds before following up on a problem you experience. 500 rounds isn't cheap. That's another thing you'll have to consider with a tight production pistol... a potential added cost before anything gets fixed.

Take this as neither a condemendation nor an endorsement, but an invitation to learn more about Kimbers and the other choices before committing.

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I have a TLEII and have had zero problems.

with one malfunction

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I personally have had experience with kimbers' both customer service and product.  I own a kimber eclipse pro II.  For a while when the firearm was new after my break inn period, I had several fte issues.  I kept getting stovepipes.  This was narrowed down to the external extractor design that kimber tried.  The custom shop sent m numerous external extractors to remedy the issues and no luck.  Every time the firearm came back they said it was test fired with a variety of ammo and the issues did not duplicate.  Famous questions were, was the gun properly lubed and if I was limp wristing the gun.  Lol.  I know how to properly grip a 1911.  There were lots of issues I have heard of on 1911forums as well.  I believe all the new productions are back to the original design 1911 with internal extractors.  After dealing with kimber for many months and horrible customer service experience, they in the end replaced my slide on my kimber with the internal extractor design.  Since then I have yet to experience any issues.  This experience left a very bad taste for me with kimbers.  I love them and I would trust my life with my daily carried kimber, but my customer experience was not good.  A lot of people have never had any issues with the custom shop at kimber, however some like myself went down a long road to get issues taken care of.  In short if you do go with a kimber, STAY AWAY from the external extractor slide.  The 1911's true original design did not use an external extractor.  It worked like it should.  The external extractor was to blame for a majority of the issues kimber customers were experiencing.  Especially since their external extractor design did not work well.  It was a hit and miss, some people have never had issues whereas some did.  I do hope that their customer service has changed.  My gun came back to perform as it should have in the first place, however due to careless handling at the custom shop my gun has marks from individuals who were either careless or did not know how to handle a 1911.  I wrote many letters and spoke to kimbers vp of sales.  No positive response.  Good luck with your purchase.  Not to scare you with my post, just some information you might want to know.  Like I said I would trust my gun with my life and my families if I had to depend on it.