The following is an article that I wrote a year or two ago and posted on Facebook. I'm just re-posting a slightly updated version of it here for wider distribution...
As firearms instructors, we really try very hard to not sway somebody’s opinions or influence their choice in firearms unless they specifically ask us for advice. In INPAX Defensive Handgun classes, we have a policy of working with whatever a student brings to class. If they have a gun that they like or have some attachment to, we’ll train them to use that gun safely and as effectively as possible. Many students choose to take that route, while other students who are new to shooting come to class with no gun at all – they rent one of ours (Glock 17) and ask questions prior to picking up a gun of their own. We encourage everybody to try as many different options as they can before making a handgun purchase. Handgun selection is a very personal choice and there are many important things to consider prior to making a purchase such as (but not limited to):
- What do you plan to do with the gun, how will it be used? Is it a home defense gun only? Is it something that you plan to carry – and if so how?
- How does the gun fit your hands?
- How small/large is the gun and how easy will it be to manipulate? What about manipulating it under extreme duress, high adrenaline and possible sweaty/bloody hands?
- What type of sight configuration does the gun have?
- What caliber ammunition does the gun use?
- What is the ammunition capacity of the gun?
- What type of action does the gun have (single/double)?
- Does the gun have a manual safety and/or other controls such as a decocker?
- Quality of the gun
- Cost (of course). Are you paying for a name or are you truly buying a high quality and practical tool? Similarly, a price that’s “too good to be true” usually is. Steer clear of deals that you just “can’t pass up”.
- Etc., etc., etc.
We see many trends in firearm selections that are reflected
by what people are bringing to class at any given point in time.
Typically, this is directly related to what gun shop employees recommend
to new shooters as a “good gun to start out with”. Unfortunately, those recommendations
are rarely given by a professional trainer/shooter and are quite often
influenced by an illogical and unrealistic set of reasons for the
recommendation. We don’t mean to put down anybody who sells guns for a
living (thank God we have those people who help support the industry and
encourage people to exercise their right to self protection). But nonetheless,
it’s worth pointing out that we see trends developing over time and people
often tell us that they made their firearm selection based on the strong
recommendation of “the guy at the gun shop”. They are often told things
like:
- “These guns are highly reliable and extremely popular due to the quality and accuracy“
- “This is the gun that all of the police officers carry off duty“
- “A smaller gun is better for women or for somebody who wants to carry concealed“
- “You can shove this gun in your pocket/purse/bag and not even notice that it’s there“ (I can’t stress enough how stupid/dangerous this comment is)
- “.380 is just as effective as any other caliber“
- “You’ll never need more ammo than what this gun carries.“ You’ll often hear dumb cliché variations of this such as “If you can’t get the job done in [X] number of shots, then you can’t do it at all.”
- “You definitely want/need to have a manual safety”
- “Revolvers are king because they never jam” You’ll often hear variations of this such as “Semi-autos aren’t as reliable as revolvers”
- “Plastic guns are more susceptible to damage than a metal gun”
- “Revolvers are better guns for women”
- “You want a long, heavy double action trigger so that you don’t accidentally fire when you don’t intend to”
While the people giving such advice may be giving it with
the best of intentions in mind, all of the above is terrible advice and often
leads to inexperienced shooters making expensive decisions that they learn to
regret once they receive practical shooting instruction.
Again, we don’t mean to villainize the guy at the neighborhood gun
shop. People get bad advice from all sorts of places – family members or
friends who are “experts”, Internet discussion forums, magazine articles, the
local gun club, or even the elite tactical operator who served a dozen tours
(supposedly) in a theater of combat. The bottom line is that nobody can
tell you which gun is exactly right for you, given the variable factors that go
into such a decision. And here’s a shocker for you… that includes us.
We don’t claim to be the be-all/end-all source of expert information that
should influence your decision. At the end of the day, you will probably
discover that there is no one-size-fits-all firearm choice that will address
all of your needs. Just like any other tool, there are some that are good
for a certain function and some that are good for others.
So what does all this mean? What DOES INPAX recommend
and what are some of the platforms that we’ve seen people show up to class with
that they usually end up regretting? Which types of guns often prove to
be troublesome and difficult to train people on?
Well… we see lots of tiny little .380s (or similar) guns
being pushed these days. These guns are almost never a great choice as a
primary weapon system and especially for a new shooter. They are often
too small to load safely/quickly under stress. The safety and other
mechanisms are often very difficult to manipulate and introduce safety concerns
of their own. The same is true for the tiny little slides on these guns.
They often have lousy sights and a very short sight radius. They
often don’t fit some people’s hands/grips very well. And of course… they
shoot .380 rounds. We are lumping all tiny little “pocket guns” into this
category. Generally speaking, small/light guns are not wise choices.
People often assume that these guns will be easier to shoot/control and
exactly the opposite is true. Larger/heavier guns absorb recoil more
effectively, are easier to hold with a proper grip, hold much more ammunition,
are easier to load, have a more effective sight system, and usually support
accessories such as lights.
We also see some revolvers come through classes. Not a
high percentage – maybe 10% or less. A revolver can be a good firearm for
certain applications and may have some points of consideration that deserve
attention. Every platform has pros & cons. But this article is
focusing specifically on gun choices based on bad advice. Unfortunately,
revolvers sometimes fall into that category. These days, people who enthusiastically
push revolvers as a wise choice for a primary weapon system, are usually
operating off of a very old and out-dated set of opinions and largely
inaccurate data. Yes, revolvers CAN and DO jam. They are not immune
to such problems. And clearing such a malfunction in a revolver is not
always as simple as pulling the trigger again – as the so-called “experts”
would have you believe. A jam in a revolver could render the cylinder
inoperable in such a way that it won’t rotate until carefully (slowly) cleared
in a way that would essentially take the gun (and possibly you) out of the
fight. Revolvers are typically heavier than most modern semi-autos.
They carry a much lower ammunition capacity than most modern semi autos
of similar physical size. They are more difficult and slower to reload
than a semi auto. Yes, you can learn to do it quickly but it takes much
more training/practice and will probably require the use of speed loading
devices.
Then there are the guns that people bring in and say “this
was my grandfather’s gun”. These are often in poor condition, use an
uncommon ammunition caliber, and are manufactured by a company that’s no longer
in business. These guns often have control mechanisms in non-standard
locations and are difficult to manipulate safely/quickly. We see a lot of
malfunction issues with guns in this category.
The purpose of this article isn’t to insult anybody giving
advice, put down anybody’s choice of firearm, or infer that only our
choices/recommendations are what you should consider. It’s simply a
summary of observation based on what we’ve seen students struggle with when
they come to class with various types of guns. We didn’t cover everything
that we run into – just hit some of the major trends. We are more than
happy to work with whatever you bring and will train you on whatever platform
you choose.
That being said, people do often ask us what we recommend.
The INPAX firearms team members all carry Glock 9mm firearms as our
Standard Operating Procedure. There are many reasons for that selection
that we can’t cover comprehensively here in this article. We’re not
trying to turn everybody into a Glock fan or a 9mm enthusiast. But we do
have some general recommendations that we cover in more detail during our
Defensive Handgun classes. Our high-level recommendations for defensive
handgun features are:
- 9mm or above. Obviously, we’re not recommending that you carry a.44 magnum. 9mm, 10mm, .40, .45, .357 SIG are all good choices.
- “High capacity” magazines. This term is a bit of a misnomer and reflects the current state of politics concerning firearm ownership/rights in the U.S. What is often referred to by the media as “high capacity” actually means standard capacity. Our advice on this is simple… you can never have “too much” ammo. Nobody ever survived a gun fight and said “man, I wish I didn’t have all of that ammo on hand. Next time I think I’ll cut it in half and see how that works out”. Choose a platform that affords you the most ammunition that you can realistically carry. If it’s a home defense gun that you won’t be carrying, why would you not choose a large high capacity platform? If you are more worried about fashion than having an effective practical defensive concealed carry firearm platform, perhaps it’s time to reconsider your priorities.
- Double action only. Yes… we know that this one will draw some heat because people have their own preference on this. If you do, that’s great and it probably means that you’re an experienced shooter who is proficient with a particular platform. Stick with it if that works well for you. But we often see people struggle with double/single action guns that have two different trigger experiences to deal with. This is not a good platform for building muscle memory and conditioning. We recommend guns with a consistent double action trigger pull that is present in many modern semi auto platforms.
- No manual safety. It would be unwise to delve deeply into this particular topic in this article. My advice to you is to join us for one of our training sessions to learn more about this specific recommendation.
Do you have an opinion/recommendation of your
own? Let us know. We are not opposed to differing opinions and we
welcome friendly discussion. Whatever you happen to choose, we strongly
recommend that you train extensively with it and remain proficient. And
MAKE THAT TRAINING COUNT! Practice doesn’t necessarily “make perfect” –
but it does “make permanent”. Make sure that you seek professional
training, preferably with INPAX, to ensure that you’re building proper skills
and not reinforcing poor/dangerous technique.
No comments:
Post a Comment