Informed Choices Before You Buy:
Choosing the right handgun for personal defense
There are a multitude of considerations when determining your Personal Defense plan. With more and more people choosing to purchase a handgun for personal defense, I believe it’s important to make an informed and practical choice. In this article I will discuss what you can do to make the informed choice for an appropriate personal defense handgun, whether you have never owned a handgun in the past or already own a number of them.
There are hundreds of options to choose from, sizes, shapes, colors, and caliber. It may seem like a daunting task to have to sift through all of that, but in reality it’s not that difficult if you stick to the fundamentals of what is a suitable handgun for you. How do you determine your requirements?
- A handgun that fits your size and strength hands
- A handgun that’s reliable
- A handgun that enables you to accurately hit the target
- A handgun that is affordable for you to practice with
Why is this important? This list most clearly defines what matters most in choosing the best handgun that will enable you to defend yourself. You may have noticed I didn’t mention “advice” that many well-intentioned individuals will offer. Brand, caliber, what it’s made of, technical details, or even a revolver versus a semi-automatic handgun are simply not the key criteria. You may also wonder why I didn’t mention a gun that’s “easy to carry”. I’ll be blunt, carrying a pistol can be inconvenient and uncomfortable. It’s much more important that you buy and train with a gun that fits, is reliable, enables you to be accurate, and will not cost so much you don’t go to the range to practice.
For the sake of this article, I will assume you are familiar with the basic techniques of gun handling, such as appropriate grip, stance, and sight picture. For those individuals who aren’t familiar with them, I will go over it before we go to the firing line or in our course Handgun Fundamentals. (Contact Me if you have questions)
What can you do? When attempting to determine which gun shoots better, I recommend what I have done with a number of my students. There are a few ranges around the Twin Cities metro that rent guns. Try several of them in the same caliber. I typically start with several pistols in 9mm. (They have less recoil than .40 or .45 calibers and the ammunition costs less.) Set a target, one for each pistol, at seven yards. Fire 25 to 50 rounds through each gun at it’s own target. When complete, examine each target. What I predict you will see is that there is at least one target where the pattern of shots is closer together and more on center than the others. You’ll have your answer which handgun shoots the best for you!
Which guns should you try? I would be happy to suggest that you choose one of the common brands of full size striker-fired 9mm semi-automatic handguns such as Glock, Smith & Wesson M&P, Springfield XD or Sig-Sauer. They are practical for many reasons, but they may not fit you. You may be an individual with a physical limitation that cannot manipulate a semi-automatic, or comfortably press the trigger of a revolver with the common self-defense calibers such as 9mm, .38, or larger. You may have to choose a handgun in .22 or .380 caliber such as an M&P .22, Walther P22 series, or Ruger LCP. Carrying any gun versus no gun is always the better choice.
My goal is to save you the trouble of trial and error that many gun owners have gone through buying various guns only to find out they don’t really work well for them. Don’t get caught up in what is “cool”, what your friend owns, what some tacticool web ninja might say, or what the local gun shop may try to convince you. When you think about it, you will be able to quickly reduce the number of options to something manageable, try them at the range, and make your choice.
Ultimately the choice up to you to which handgun will work the best. If you follow the process outlined above, you will be able to make the informed choice before you buy.
The beginning of a good Personal Defense Plan is becoming well informed. As you make the effort to learn and try out your options, you’ll be able to make the right choice when you’re ready to buy a handgun for personal defense. For a more complete discussion, attend a One Defense course Informed Choices Before You Buy or Defensive Handgun Fundamentals. These seminars are free for women.
Please Contact Me for more information about how you can be better prepared. Interested in learning more? Click Here to sign up for our newsletter.
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