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Choosing a handgun for self defense

(Disclaimer: Any use of gender in this post is merely for ease of typing. Where male is indicated, female may be inferred.)

Congratulations! You have chosen to purchase a handgun to protect you and your family against what we all hope never happens. This post will not deal with shotguns, rifles, target shooting, or the pros and cons of OC vs. CC, or merely collecting guns. This is a guide to choosing the right handgun for the purpose of defending yourself.

First of all, you have to make the conscious decision that when you buy a weapon, you are going to be able to use that weapon to defend yourself. This is not a decision to be made lightly. The realities of armed combat are so different from that which you see on TV. If a gun is used in self defense, it’s not nice and neat, with everything cleaned up by the end of the commercial break. A person that you shoot may scream out his dying breath at you, cursing you, crying for his family, or scream out in frustration.

Or, you may never know that you actually hit him, and merely be told later that he died. There are legal, moral, and emotional issues that will hit home like never before. You may do everything right, and still wind up paying money for lawyers, and riding an emotional roller coaster that you’ve never hoped for. Plan for it now.

So, why do buy and maybe even carry a gun to defend yourself? Because it is your right. It is the right of each and every citizen in this country to be free from terror, to be free from being a victim, and to protect himself. The United States Supreme Court, in the Heller decision, spoke specifically about handguns, and their ease of use, “while holding a phone in the other hand to dial 911.”

The types of handguns that are commonly used in the United States are revolvers and semi-automatic pistols. Not very many people use percussion capped handguns for self defense. The revolver is a handgun that, as it’s name implies, has a revolving cylinder which contains the cartridges. It may revolve clockwise or counter-clockwise. The semi-automatic pistol is a magazine fed weapon, using a feeding system that holds the cartridges separate from the handgun until loaded in and chambered.

What system will work best for you? There are some more questions that must be asked to arrive at the answer. Are you planning on carrying this weapon with you at all times, or is this a “nightstand” gun? Will you be the only person who has the authorized access to it? What is the physical size and strength of the people using it? What kind of training are you willing to take? How much are you willing to practice with this weapon?

If you are planning on carrying this weapon with you at all times, then you must be willing to maintain the weapon on a more regular basis then if you are merely keeping the weapon as a strictly “home defense” weapon. Carried weapons collect dust and dirt, and are more exposed to the elements then those that are stored at home. Regular cleaning and lubrication are important to ensure that the weapon will work when you need it.
If more then one person has authorized access to the weapon, then you must consider the strength and size of all. A six foot four, two hundred and eighty pound male, such as myself, may be able to handle the recoil and size of a .44 magnum Desert Eagle handgun, but a five foot three inch, one hundred and fifteen pound elderly female, such as a grandmother, may not. Furthermore, such an elderly female might not even be able to handle the recoil spring of a smaller semi-automatic, such as the Kel-Tec P32, which has double recoil springs, and may not even be able to load the weapon for use.

Training may be as informal as taking the gun to the range twice a year and firing a box of ammunition through it to maintain familiarity with the weapon, or as formal as taking several of the excellent classes as those offered by facilities such as Insights or Gunsite or Front Sight. The cost and ease of purchase of the ammunition for your weapon is a factor which should be considered when considering a self defense system. Nine-millimeter ammunition is much easier to find in multiple loadings and bullet types then is .455 Webley.

Safety and proper storage of a firearm and the ease of readying it for use should also be considered. A home with young children will require more care, in the form of education and safe storage, then one with a single occupant, although both should consider the possibility of someone accessing the weapon without permission, such as a burglar, and take steps to ensure that their weapon does not fall into the wrong hands.

Once you consider all of these factors, then one should look at what they want in a weapon. Do you want light weight, high ammunition capacity, high velocity, low recoil, ease of use, low maintenance, and the ability for your gun to make a good fondue? So do I. But no handgun is perfect. And a compromise on one aspect of a weapon, such as weight versus ammunition capacity, may mean the difference between you having the gun when you need it, and having it stored somewhere that it in effect, does you no good.

I know that I am not alone when I say that any self defense handgun should be in a caliber of no less then .380 ACP. Some will say that a .32 or even a .22 is as good as a .45 ACP, but real life has shown that even the vaunted .45 ACP is not always guaranteed to stop a fight. And while a .22 or .32 may eventually kill your attacker, you don’t want it to be after he has stabbed you to death.

A revolver has many good aspects to it, such as the fact that it can be left loaded for long periods of time without worry about magazine spring issues, it doesn’t have to be manipulated in a way that a semi-automatic pistol does, and cleaning doesn’t involve as much disassembly as a semi-auto does. It also may not be as picky as to the ammunition that you use in it. And, if you pull the trigger of a revolver and get a “click” instead of a “Bang”, it is easier to just pull the trigger again, as opposed to the manipulation that is required to clear a malfunction in a semi-automatic pistol.

But a semi-automatic pistol, in some cases, carries more ammunition, has a slightly longer sight radius and barrel length, and is usually slimmer, which makes it somewhat easier to conceal. More accessories, such as sights, grips, lights, magazines, and lasers, are available for semi-automatic pistols then for revolvers.

Of course, budget issues are something that must be considered in these tough economic times. That being said, there is nothing more expensive, in terms of life and safety, then a cheap gun that fails to work when you need it to. Therefore, if it is in any way possible, save a few extra dollars to buy something that you are positive will work when and if the unthinkable happens.

Once you have found a weapon that you think will work best for you, go to a gun range that rents firearms, and see if they have that model. Or, go to a group shoot that members of this forum host on a regular basis. Try out the firearm that you plan to purchase, and make sure that you are able to use it. By this, I don’t mean that you hit the X-ring on every shot, but make sure you can manipulate the weapon, its safeties, magazine or cylinder release, trigger, etc., in a reasonable fashion. Make sure you can handle the recoil of the gun, and reload it, and everything else that you will want to do with it, before you buy it. Doing so may help you avoid a mistake and a negative experience.

Again, now that you have made the decision to protect yourself, you owe it to yourself to make the right decision on the weapon that you buy. Good luck.