Why no stanag , ,

, for handgun mags?

Most double-stack 9mm service pistol mags are so damn close , most can't tell the diff. I've got some USGI M9 mags , and they are ever so close to my CZ-75 and Star 30M mags. I think only latch position is different.

Unless I'm mistaken a STANAG is a requirement to met for NATO interoperability purposes. So there's a STANAG for 9mm NATO cartridges and other things but I believe it doesn't run across non-military equipment. If I'm wrong I'd appreciate an explanation.

No , you're correct , BUT , M16 rifle magazines are STANAG as they interchange with many other countries non-M16 rifles. I have some steel British SA80 mags which works great.

Sure, but that is probably as much tied to the 5.56 NATO cartridge as to the magazine itself. Nuts even the Korean Daewoo rifles use standard M16 mags.

And the STANAG handgun cartridge in the 9mm NATO.

Found this on another forum:

First: STANAG mags are not exactly a standard, even in NATO countries. Beryl, AUG, FAMAS (no one important uses stanag-ed G2) , and G-36 - all use different systems.

But to answer your question: pistols are so utterly unimportant that any attempt to standardise them would be pretty much pointless. While much has been said about how rifles are unimportant, in the end soldiers in a war go therough lots of ammo and magazines . So there are benefits in being able to use the same logistic system as your allies.
Pistols, on the other hand rarely even leave the holster, even during the high intensity combat. Any siuation where you would be forced to share pistol magzines with allied units is pretty much unimaginable.

The second thing is that while statndardising rifle mags would be, at least in theory relatively easy-ish (for example there are stanag adapters for both G-36 and 5.56 AK-family guns) , any attempt to standardise the pistol magazines would require to redegisn and replace the entire frame.

Agreed with OP.

I've wondered about the lack of mag standardization across the pistol market. Most are so close they may as well be the same. Even across the same manufacturer.
Did the P320 REALLY need to use a different mag than the P226? Why couldn't the P229 just use shortened P226 mags, instead of whatever weird, two-seperate-designs-based-on-what-frame-229-you-have, bullshit they had going? Just take a P226 and cut the grip shorter, there, you have a P229. Why was that so hard?
Some specific reason the Beretta APX couldn't use M9 mags? The grip geometry isn't a hell of a lot different.

I thought every gun uses Glock mags now.

I've modified cheap beretta mags to fit in other pistols, including Springfield xd and sccy by cutting secondary mag catches in them.