Deciding on a gun for self defense. (Newbie’s Guide)

First and foremost, let me preface this blog entry with the fact that these are my own personal opinions. I own a variety of guns and have hundreds of friends who each have their own reason that theirs is the best. If you’re a gun-nut, militia-enthusiast, or have your own set of white sheets hidden away for a special occasion this post probably isn’t for you.

Who IS this post for?

Well, I have a friend who called me the other week because she said she knows I’m a “country boy” (actually I think she said redneck) but anyway, said she trusted my opinion on guns because she knows I love to shoot. She’s trying to decide on the best weapon for home defense, not target shooting, and not for sport. She wants something that she will probably never want to go to the range with, never learn to use comfortably, and will always be slightly afraid of. Should this type of person own a gun? Well, some will say no. I personally believe that one should have the opportunity so save one’s life if at all possible and kitchen knives don’t always do the trick. I think anyone purchasing a gun should spend serious time getting to know the weapon. It’s no joke that in the Marine Corps we had to be able to load, unload, and break apart our pistols in complete darkness, and it’s also a skill I think anyone should know how to do. It doesn’t take a gun-nut to get really comfortable with their weapon. It just takes time and practice.

Rule Number 1

Don’t be cheap! If you’re purchasing a weapon for the sole purpose of having to potentially use it to save your life, and if it’s the only one you’re going to have, do NOT purchase the cheapest thing you can find! This is especially true about hand-guns, and more specifically semi-automatics. Most people have heard of the Colt 1911 .45 ACP. It’s a wonderful gun and it’s my personal favorite, though I don’t own one. I don’t own one simply because I don’t have $1,500.00 to shell out on a pistol, but I spent serious money on a pistol I feel to be just as good. My personal home defense gun is a Springfield .45 in the 1911-A1 frame. It’s big, mean, and makes a mean hole. Having said that it’s not the gun for someone who’s not used to guns, and it’s not cheap. There are plenty of cheaper-made manufacturers of the Colt, some being Norenco, Ithaca, and others. It’s my opinion that there is a reason a good colt cost around a thousand dollars and a Norenco cost 350.00 new in the box.

New versus Used:

What’s the best thing about a new gun? No one’s ever fired it but you! What’s the worst thing about a new gun? No one’s ever fired it but you!

New guns tend to be what’s called “tight” meaning they’ve not been broken in good. If you ever played baseball growing up you’ll understand the analogy. It’s great to own a brand new $100.00 ball glove, but they suck until you get them oiled up and broken in well. Guns are the same way. If you’re new to guns and purchasing some sort of handgun, my suggestion is to get a used gun from a local gun-shop. Experts don’t come to a finite figure, but it’s reasonably safe to say that it takes almost 1,000 rounds or more being fired through a new semi-automatic to break it in well. I’d say that number is halved for revolvers. The springs are tight, the receiver might need some wear before it’s smooth, the slide will stick occasionally, etc. All these problems are inherent in new semi-automatic handguns. They’re just usually going to jam from time to time until you put a LOT of rounds through them to break them in. If your handgun jams repeatedly, try different ammunition. Cheap ammo can make the best handgun jam up frequently.

Buying a  used revolver is like buying antique furniture. You admire it because of it’s age and its lasting strength. You can pick up a used Smith & Wesson .38 at probably any gun shop in the country and they’ll fire every single time. They’ll have marks or fades in the finish from 20 years being carried in a holster, but they were probably 20 good years and that gun is just coming into the prime of its life!

Buying a used semi-auto is a different story. Ideally you’re buying from a reputable dealer who’s sold you a solid piece of equipment, but if the price seems TOO GOOD to be true, chances are he knows something you don’t. Again, you’re buying this to save your life, not to target shoot with, so have some trust in the person you’re buying from. Go to three or four gun stores in your area and price shop. In my area used 1911-style semi-auto’s were all around the same price so when I got mine for a comparable price I figured I was getting a decent deal. I didn’t know until I got home that it had never been fired and was new in the box. After asking around to some others in the area who had bought from them I learned they simply have great prices and everyone that used them has been very happy and always goes back there when it’s time for something new. You might not get that lucky in your purchase, but I hope you do!

Reliability:

You’ll hear a term called “jamming” eventually if you own a gun or hang around with people who do. It’s often mis-used in my opinion. There are two main types of weapon’s failure: failure to fire, and breaking. Failure to fire can be caused by two things as well: bad ammo, gun malfunction. That’s pretty much it. Gun malfunctions can be caused by a couple things: stupid handler who’s never cleaned their weapon, poor weapon design, guns modified by people who shouldn’t have tried to do it. Those are the big ones.  Let’s go back to step 1 and cover the basics.

Jamming refers to the bullet not properly leaving the gun after the shell was fired. Simply stated, revolvers can not jam. That’s a +1 in their favor for me if I’m a new person considering a handgun. The shells stay INSIDE the chamber the whole time so there’s no way for the gun not to fire the next round during normal operation. If you hit a “dud” (a defective shell)  you simply pull the trigger again and ignore that shell and fire the next one.

Semi-automatics can jam all the time! New semi-autos tend to jam a lot until they get worn in well. ANY semi-automatic will usually jam if you “limp-wrist” the weapon, and that includes shotguns as well. (this is actually a malfunction, but is often referred to incorrectly as a jam, so I included it here.) This is (in my opinion) the most common cause of  jams with new users of semi-automatic weapons. Yes, how you hold the gun MATTERS to the gun! Limp-wristing (or holding the gun limply in your hand and pulling the trigger) doesn’t stabilize the weapon during the time that the slide is cycling. Holding the gun in a firm two-handed grip will almost always correct this malfunction. I’ll skip the “why” portion of that unless you really want to know…

Breakage: Any gun can break if mistreated, dropped, or manufactured poorly. Springs can be worn out, firing pins can wear out, moving parts can break. These are all rare instances though and won’t usually be a problem for the average user. And these aren’t things you can correct when you need the weapon in a hurry. If it breaks, use it like a hammer and beat your attacker to death with it and worry about the gun later. A broken gun is useless so you might as well not worry with it here.

Failure to Fire: This means exactly what it sounds like: for whatever reason you pulled the trigger and nothing happened. This is almost always due to bad ammo, or else you’ve got a broken firing pin. If you pull the trigger a second time and nothing happens, change ammo. If it happens a third time, you’ve got something wrong that needs a gunsmith to examine.

Choosing the Right Ammo

Just like with a gun, the rule about frugality holds true with ammunition as well. For God’s sake don’t buy Wolf brand ammo for home defense! I personally keep Federal .45 hollow-point rounds in my pistol when it’s being carried for defense or home on the night-stand beside me. Why? Because it’s good ammo, always works, and the hollow-point round coming out of a .45 is going to stop absolutely anything coming in my house with the exception of a large bear. Nobody gets up from a .45 hollow-point…ever! It can punch through most any body armor, through the door of my truck if needed, and a human body is like butter to it.

However, when I’m target shooting in the yard I’m certainly NOT going to shoot Federal’s all day when they cost almost $1.00 per bullet. That’s when I buy some Remington or Winchester ball ammo, and yes occasionally even that Wolf crap… I’m just shooting targets so cheap is OK.

If you want to know more about hollow point versus round point bullets when choosing your own, here’s an interesting 2 minute video comparing the two in a Colt .45 1911.

Choosing the right Style Gun:

Rather than covering all the possibilities here in text, I made a few short videos for my friend that I’ll share here, detailing the differences between Revolvers and Semi-Automatic handguns.

Revolver:

Semi-Automatic:

 Shotguns:

When it counts:

It should be stated that I’ve never had to pull my gun for self defense against a human being. However, I have put myself inside the scenarios to see what it would be like from the ballistics standpoint and what you should be able to expect.  Here is what you should know if you ever have to:

1) They are loud.

2) They are REALLY loud.

3) I’m not kidding.. they’re REALLY REALLY danged loud!

You might think this is funny, and I guess it kind of is, but there’s one thing you should do if you’re serious about home defense. Shoot the gun! I don’t mean take it to the firing range, put on your safety glasses, adjust your hearing protection, and fire down range at a paper target. I mean find a reasonably safe scenario where you can fire your weapon semi-indoors without any of those benefits because that’s how you’re going to have to do it in real life!  Don’t do it often and don’t do it in an unsafe manner, but you need to know what you’re putting yourself into when you consider the reason for purchasing this weapon. Just try purchasing a blank  (a bullet with no bullet. lol) and do it once. Dont’ ever ever ever fire it near another person indoors. You’re setting yourself up for a lawsuit for hearing loss if you do.

My .45 is so loud that standing behind it firing it makes my ears hurt after the first trigger pull. I LOVE it when people stand up beside my firing arm, almost to the direct right of the weapon, because they want to “feel” what it’s like. I’m not really sure why people do that…  Just that three feet makes enough difference to temporarily deafen you completely in one ear and partially in the other! If you were to ever fire it inside a house, condo, apartment, or God forbid a car or closet, it’s a whole different ball game. The roaring pain that will assault your head from both sides will likely make you drop the gun on the floor and slam both hands to your ears to try to stop the blinding pain that just flashed through your skull. There is no pain you’ll ever experience like it. It’s like God just decided to give you a migraine from Hell!

If you ever fire a larger caliber gun indoors, you can expect to be immediately and completely deaf for the next five minutes. Think about it. If it’s dark, you already can’t see and now you can’t hear either. Chances are the bad guy isn’t wearing hearing protection so he’s stunned too, but you seriously will most likely either completely or partially drop the gun the first time you do it. If you ever fire a handgun from inside a car, especially a large caliber gun like a .40, .45, etc you can expect immediate and most likely permanent hearing loss in one or both ears. Don’t be fooled and think it’s like something you see on TV. One shot is all it takes to ruin your hearing for life. On the other hand, not knowing what a dangerous weapon will do in a scenario can be just as dangerous!

There are some general rules of common sense that apply here.

Smaller caliber guns are less noisy. A .22 is a mere buzzing knat compared to a .45 and a .38 is just “kinda loud” even indoors. You can fire a .22 indoors and most likely won’t hear it over a loud TV show in the next room, so mix the warnings above with a little common sense.

Smaller caliber “usually” means smaller kick. A .22 hardly moves in your hand when you pull the trigger. Some .45′s leap left because of their ejection port style. Mine leaps back against my palm, which I like the most because it allows me to re-aim quickly.

Any bullet will kill you. You can defend yourself  just as effectively with a .22 as you can a shotgun. It’s all a matter of how familiar you are with the gun. A shotgun is going to lift someone off their feet and throw them into a wall, but only if you actually hit them with it. Otherwise you blew a hole in your sofa and now you’re 1 shot less than you were a moment ago and if you’re a 105 pound girl wielding a Mossbern 12 guage you probably have to get off the ground before you can fire again anyway! Usually shotguns are 1 shot take-downs. Not many people get up from that.

Comparably a .45, .40, 9mm, or similar larger caliber pistol will usually put someone “down” on the first shot. You can shoot an arm or leg or knee and still drop your target even though you’re not likely to kill them.

A .22 won’t knock down a six year old, but it’ll still stop an attacker. My suggestion is (and you’d have to check with your state’s laws) that you keep firing until you hear it click empty. I heard an old story about a man who shot a guy 14 times and when he went to court the judge said “What in the hell were you thinking to shoot the assailant fourteen times, Sir?” The defendant responded “I was thinking I should have bought a third clip, your honor. I only had two!”

A gun in the hand of an untrained person is worse than no gun at all: This is probably the most important piece of advice I can give anyone. IF you decide to purchase a gun (for self defense) then you’d better know how to use it. Chances are the guy who already has three felony armed robbery convictions who’s breaking into your house already does. A gun in the hands of someone who’s not familiar with it just gives an attacker the opportunity to take it away from you and use it against you. If you think you can’t pull the trigger when your life is in danger, then don’t bother buying a gun unless you just want to target shoot.

Gun and Ammo Storage: This is an old one that people have been tossing around arguments about since gun legislation has existed. Do you keep your gun loaded beside your bed or locked in a safe, unloaded, with ammo stored separately?  It’s your choice and it’s ultimately up to you to decide what’s best for you and your family. In my family every single person in the house knows how to load, unload and fire every gun we have.  My 14 year old daughter can reliably hit a target 100 feet away with a 1967 sniper rifle and never break a 3 inch spread. That’s better than most adults I know. The point is, they know what they can do. They’ve seen the damage they can cause and they know they aren’t toys.

As I write this my .45 is sitting three feet from me, loaded, with 1 in the chamber. I’m not a gun freak who thinks someone’s going to break in at any minute, but I AM a smart enough individual to know that it takes about 10 seconds to get out of the bed and to a gun safe, then about 10 seconds to open the safe, then 5 to ten seconds to find the hopefully loaded magazine and insert it, then 1 second (and a loud noise) to cock the weapon. You can walk across my entire house in about 10 seconds… so if I do the math… the mere idea of having an unloaded gun means I might as well have a baseball bat instead. Conversely it takes me about 1 second to reach my pistol on the night stand, 1/2 second to pull the hammer…. that’s it. You decide what’s right for you.

 So what do I get?

We’ve mentioned all the possibilities that make sense for home defense; revolvers, semi-automatics, shotguns. So, here’s my personal synopsis and recommendations.

Revolvers: (6 Points)

• + Easy to load, fire, unload, and clean.
• + Very difficult to mess up.
• + Very portable, easy to stash away safely.
• + Takes no room to maneuver the weapon.
• + Can’t Jam
• + Usually available at a price most people can afford. ($200-$300)