Some advice for beginners on choosing a home defense gun

[Raggedyman]

New shooters are often given some pretty terrible advice. Here's an article I wrote for beginners to help them sift through some of that bad advice. I'd like to hear what you think I left out. Any advice for a novice author?

If you are new to firearms, or new to the defensive use of firearms, and you wish to purchase a firearm for the defense of your home, you likely have a lot of questions and no shortage of people happy to give you some advice. They all mean well, and some of them have good advice to give, but much of the advice is contradictory. Take the greasy hillbilly who hangs out in the gun shop and advises people to use a shotgun loaded with birdshot or rock salt (as if that's something you can buy at Walmart) because it "won't go through a wall." If it can't get through two layers of gypsum how could it reliably stop a person from hurting you? Okay, maybe it is obvious that his advice is unreliable, but how do you pick through the rest of the advice given by friends and salesmen?

Let us begin by identifying the question. You are seeking to purchase a firearm for the defense of your home. That means that you want a tool that you can use within the confines of your home to cause potentially lethal harm to another human being. It is worth pausing here to underscore this point. The only dependable way to stop a bad guy is to cause physical incapacitation and the only dependable way to physically incapacitate a person is to cause gross damage to their circulatory and/or nervous systems. This damage has a high probability of being fatal. If you are not comfortable with the prospect that you may kill a person, you should not purchase a defensive firearm.

The rest of the article is hosted here

[sqlbullet]

Overall the article is well written.

However, I disagree with the basic premise that the first home defense firearm doesn't have to be on your person. Home invations are becoming too prevelant. But, I wanna go home for the weekend, so I will try to get back later and defend my statement.

Again, and as usual, the article is well written and provides lots of cogent information.

[Raggedyman]

I agree. I did not mean to imply that you should not ALSO have a pistol and carry it but I did want to draw a distinction between what a handgun is good for and what rifles and shotguns are good for. The right answer is to carry at all times (if you're wearing pants) and to keep a rifle of shotgun accessible. If you believe you may need a firearm to defend yourself, and if time permits, you should retrieve the more effective weapon. If you are attacked without warning, you should use your pistol to defend yourself and her to your long arm if the opportunity presents itself.

[sqlbullet]

Yep.

[4949shooter]

My take on the home defense firearm for a novice shooter is go with a revolver.

[10mmfan]

I have small children so having accessible long arms is difficult for me plus my local ranges don't allow buckshot. For me personally I think the best would be an ar pistol due to it handles like a paintball gun and I've had a lot of experience with those, I use to go every Saturday and Sunday and fire 4000+ a weekend for a few years.

[Raggedyman]

My take on the home defense firearm for a novice shooter is go with a revolver.

Revolvers have all the disadvantages of pistols as mentioned in the article, but with reverb more sharply limited capacity and they are slower to reload.

[Raggedyman]

I have small children so having accessible long arms is difficult for me plus my local ranges don't allow buckshot. For me personally I think the best would be an ar pistol due to it handles like a paintball gun and I've had a lot of experience with those, I use to go every Saturday and Sunday and fire 4000+ a weekend for a few years.

U have small children too. I carry a pistol at all times and when we are home, our home defense rifle hangs from a nail in our bedroom, well out of their reach. When we leave, it goes back in the safe. Of course, we actually watch our kids and we have taught them never to touch guns.

[4949shooter]

My take on the home defense firearm for a novice shooter is go with a revolver.

Revolvers have all the disadvantages of pistols as mentioned in the article, but with reverb more sharply limited capacity and they are slower to reload.

Yes, but they are a better choice for novices.

Novices, won't be making lightening fast reloads, don't rotate their magazines, and have more difficulty manipulating semi automatics.

[pacapcop]

I'd rather see a novice use a .22 then nothing. It's all about surroundings. Here in rural PA home break in's/invasions are more common than dense areas. Then one can super carry. No neighbors left or right alot of times. Meth heads too.

[Raggedyman]

My take on the home defense firearm for a novice shooter is go with a revolver.

Revolvers have all the disadvantages of pistols as mentioned in the article, but with reverb more sharply limited capacity and they are slower to reload.

Yes, but they are a better choice for novices.

Novices, won't be making lightening fast reloads, don't rotate their magazines, and have more difficulty manipulating semi automatics.

Magazines don't need to be rotated and automatics are no more complicated than revolvers. This is one of the great fallacies that is perpetually repeated by gun store cowboys. Handguns in general are a poor choice for anyone, including a novice. Revolvers are no better and have some distinct disadvantages, namely the trigger and capacity. Striker fired autos like Glock, XD, M&P, and similar have shorter, lighter, more manageable triggers and literally three times as much ammo. Then there is the problem of mounting a light. While a handheld light is adequate, a mounted light is far superior and much easier for a novice to manage. There are a very few revolvers with accessory trails, but all the aforementioned modern autos do. And don't start talking about leaving the light on and being a target or the Harries technique. Bunch of hogwash.

[4949shooter]

My take on the home defense firearm for a novice shooter is go with a revolver.

Revolvers have all the disadvantages of pistols as mentioned in the article, but with reverb more sharply limited capacity and they are slower to reload.

Yes, but they are a better choice for novices.

Novices, won't be making lightening fast reloads, don't rotate their magazines, and have more difficulty manipulating semi automatics.

Magazines don't need to be rotated and automatics are no more complicated than revolvers. This is one of the great fallacies that is perpetually repeated by gun store cowboys. Handguns in general are a poor choice for anyone, including a novice. Revolvers are no better and have some distinct disadvantages, namely the trigger and capacity. Striker fired autos like Glock, XD, M&P, and similar have shorter, lighter, more manageable triggers and literally three times as much ammo. Then there is the problem of mounting a light. While a handheld light is adequate, a mounted light is far superior and much easier for a novice to manage. There are a very few revolvers with accessory trails, but all the aforementioned modern autos do. And don't start talking about leaving the light on and being a target or the Harries technique. Bunch of hogwash.

Give it a rest.

We all have our own opinions here.

[Raggedyman]

That last bit sounds real asinine. Didn't mean it that way. Sorry. Meant it to sound like light hearted banter but rereading it, it just sounds rude. I'm sorry.

[4949shooter]

Okay no problem.

[sqlbullet]

Oddly enough, i think the tide has turned on what is hard for a novice to operate.  When I was a kid every cop carried a wheelgun, and on TV cops and bad guys were always swinging out the cylinder on their revolver to check if it was loaded.  It was a familiar operation that everyone understood.

People I have taught lately are completely flummoxed by revolvers.  They have no idea the cylinder even swings out, let alone how to release it.  But they intuitively know a magazine goes in the bottom of an auto, and that the slide has to be cycled to make it "ready to run".  Cause that is what they see on TV these days.

Handguns are not for the novice to use for any practical purpose.  The anemic cartridges for which they can be chambered require multiple accurate hits to be effective, while the short sight radius and pronounced recoil make accurate hits, especially under stress, difficult.

The novice should start with a 22lr.  I prefer a single shot bolt action with a single plane type sight with no magnification.  With this set up, the student doesn't rush shots, doesn't have to focus on sight alignment, and can therefore focus on trigger pull.  Once they have good trigger discipline, I like to step them over to either iron sights on the same/similar gun, or to a 22 handgun with a single plane sight.  Next stop is whichever they didn't take after step one.  After becoming proficient on these three steps, they have trigger control, familiarity with should and hand guns and an understanding of iron sights and single plane optics.

Now that they are no longer a novice, for home defense, I suggest a Glock 19 for your person and a AR-15/Remington 870/Mossberg 500 that your handgun helps you fight your way to.