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Miscellaneous See other Miscellaneous Articles Title: Answering Some Well-Asked Questions About Personal Defense Answering Some Well-Asked Questions About Personal Defense Jeff Yago, Backwoods Home’s energy writer, recently completed a couple of concealed carry handgun courses. The classes apparently left some questions hanging in the air, and Jeff passed along a request through Dave Duffy for those questions to be addressed in this space. Here goes. Question 1: “What are the basic differences in handguns to help determine which is better for home defense, ease of operation (single versus double action), male or female, caliber, number of cartridges?” The question covers a lot of ground, so the answer has to be a bit basic. A double action revolver with swing-out cylinder is easier in terms of administrative handling (loading, unloading, checking, cleaning) than any semiautomatic pistol. This is a decisive advantage for new shooters, or those who don’t spend much time maintaining their handgun skills. Many of today’s auto pistols are extraordinarily reliable, but if you compare all revolvers with all “automatics,” the revolvers win out in terms of certainty of firing without malfunction. Revolvers are also less maintenance intensive: they don’t need constant lubrication because they don’t have the long bearing surfaces that are at work within an autoloader’s mechanism as it is operated. The downside of the revolver is less firepower: in the calibers you’d want for self-defense, cartridge capacity is somewhere between five and eight. Even with a speedloader, a revolver is slower to load and reload than is the semiautomatic, with its fast-inserting cartridge magazine. Under stress, you want to shoot the revolver double action, which means a long, heavy trigger pull for every shot. Most auto pistols are “self-cocking,” so at least after the first shot, and with some designs even with that first round, you have a shorter, lighter trigger pull that is easier for most people to manage when trying to shoot accurately at speed. The semiautomatic generally holds more cartridges and is faster to reload, and can be had in models with a manual safety catch feature. This device can slow down an unauthorized person who doesn’t know that particular gun, gets his hands on it, and tries to shoot it. Many cops, and some armed citizens, are alive today because the homicidal felon who got their gun away from them and tried to shoot them with it didn’t know how to release the thumb safety. Male or female? It’s less about gender than about hand size and shooting experience. A home defense gun is a “pool weapon,” like the shotgun in a police patrol car that’s on the road for three shifts a day: multiple individuals may be resorting to the same weapon. This means that the gun’s size and power have to be tailored to the smallest, least physically capable shooter who is authorized to use it. A large man can easily shoot his wife’s short-stocked 20-gauge shotgun or her slim-gripped SIG P239 9mm, but she will be awkward, clumsy, and poorly prepared to defend herself with his long-stocked 12 gauge, or his fat-handled .50 caliber Desert Eagle, which also requires a long finger to properly reach the trigger. How many cartridges? I personally like a high capacity semiautomatic for home defense, because when you grab a gun in the middle of the night there isn’t always time to grab spare ammo. However, the fact is that the overwhelming majority of home defense applications of a gun are over in less than five or six shots. The revolver has a good history in defending home and hearth. I would recommend the .38 Special (revolver) or 9mm Luger (auto) as minimum caliber in a defensive handgun. The smaller the caliber and the heavier the gun, the lighter the recoil; the more powerful the cartridge and the lighter the gun, the harder it will “kick.” The rule of thumb is that you should choose the most powerful gun that can be controlled in accurate rapid fire by the least physically capable person who is authorized to use it. The .40 and .45 caliber semiautomatic pistols aren’t hard to control with proper techniques and a good level of familiarity. Larger caliber revolvers kick more and require more training and practice to control and hit with at high speed. Question 2: “(Please discuss) basic types and calibers of ammunition, and which is better for home defense, target practice, varmints, etc.” Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 9.
#2. To: Eric Stratton (#0)
(Edited)
I"m not as famous as he is. But I have only 4 simple rules. 1) If I have to pull a firearm on someone, he will be shot. There will be none of this "pointing it at him and hoping he is is pacified" crap like he says n the article. Because by the time you shoot him, he will have already demonstrated his imminent threat to you or others. Otherwise you have no business even putting that weapon into your hands. 2) I will shoot him until the gun doesn't go "bang!" anymore. Just because someone is shot does not mean they are down for the count. He can still kill you. 3) Buy something that will do the job reliably (re: kill) and 4) practice. That's all. IMO too many worry about caliber, revolver vs auto, .45 vs 9mm (if you want to see the shit fly, go to a firearms board and tell them that .45 ACP is better than 9mm or vice versa, and anyone that thinks otherwise is deluded...) , and other useless shit. For some reason, people avoid the obvious topic of killing and concentrate on other peripheral factors. Killing is what it is all about. If you can't kill, then you might as well save your money for other things and leave the self defense firearms alone. .
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It's called "brandishing". It looks like each state has its own definition of that term. But it's a legal no-no. You can also learn disarming techniques. Most criminals are stupid and make mistakes that you can capitalize on. If he gets too close, you can take the weapon or disable the weapon, and kill him from there. I dont know if I could do that though. I hope I could but you never know. .
#16. To: PSUSA (#9)
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