Thread: Gun advice needed

Originally Posted by Servant4Christ

Check out Defensive Carry forum. A wealth of info there!

DefensiveCarry Concealed Carry Forum

I definitely recommend this site.

Here's something to consider in between the choice to carry a gun or pepper spray, have you considered the possibility of a Taser. They're not too expensive, I think the base model package starts at $399. Is it legal to carry a Taser in your area? We live in Arizona, which is an open carry state, so most of the time I don't even bother to carry concealed- which is legal here without a permit. My wife is does not want to carry a gun, but her mind is open to owning a Taser.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

For the lady find a used Kahr P380. Depending on the day I carry that or a Kahr MK40 all of the time. Of course knowing how to use whatever it is proficiently is paramount.

The Keltec 380(P3AT) is damn nice as well, fits in the palm of my hand and is quite accurate. I made a trade for mine, but usually I believe they run in the 275-300$ range.

Originally Posted by nun2sharp

The Keltec 380(P3AT) is damn nice as well, fits in the palm of my hand and is quite accurate. I made a trade for mine, but usually I believe they run in the 275-300$ range.

I bought one for my dad a few years back for $250. They're really nice when you put the finger extension on the mag.
The Ruger LCP is pretty much identical but is a bit smoother on the fit & finish.
The upside of those little things is that Taurus makes a .22 (bobcat, iirc. I bought him one of those to go with the p3at) as ammo is cheaper for practicing draw drills and that kind of stuff.

Sig Sauer makes a nice small CCW 380, even has a match barrel. Very small pocket pistol, almost too small for my hand. My dad (retired cop) has a Kahr 380 he likes a lot with a laser sight. Again pocket pistol size. The new 380 defense ammo is much better than the older stuff. The other think you have to keep in mind with a larger caliber is that the ammo was designed to burn in a larger barrel. You get a lot of muzzle flash from powder burning in the air and your ballistics suffer badly. A 380 will hit as hard as a 9 or even 45 fired from a tiny barrel. The most important thing is fit. She needs to put hands on them to find what fits her hand the best. An ill fitted grip will render the best firearm useless.

Buddy of mine has had a kel-tec 380 for years and is very happy with it. I've shot it and it is good. Twenty some years ago I was tattooing a South Beach police detective and I asked him what he carried. He told me a Sig 9mm. Then he told me that his partner carried a 380. I told him I heard they don't have 'stopping power.' He said his partner had killed a perpetrator with the 380 a couple of weeks before. I've seen , on the TV show Cops, a guy hit with tasers multiple times and he kept coming. Maybe the exception rather than the rule. Pepper spray might stop a perp or it might just make them mad. As much as I would hate to do it a hollow point delivered center mass will beat those alternatives every time if your life and limb depend on it.

Seen many people beat to a pulp for using pepper spray. Not something I would want to bet my life on when the time counts.

A .380 with good hollowpoint ammo has better real world stopping power than a .45 with ball ammo.
The gun I carry most often is a Sig Sauer P238. I love that little sucker.

I am surprised that no one has mentioned the Ruger LCP yet. It's a great little gun, and it fits your budget.
Like most pocket pistols, the recoil is fairly sharp on the LCP but it is accurate, inexpensive, and tiny.

Some good good and helpful points mentioned in this thread are:

1. The need to develop proper mindset, which I would define as clarity of intent and consequence, when carrying any weapon.
2. The need for effective, extensive and ongoing training with any weapon that one intends to carry.

Other points I don't find quite as helpful are:

1. The suggestion of non-lethal force options as an alternative to lethal force carry. Although they may be used as an adjunct, chemical or electric weapons obviously won't do the job in situations where lethal force may be required to save one's life. Tasers, for example, are a great tool for police officers to effect control of a combative suspect - with another officer standing ready to use lethal force if needed! In the right situation, pepper spray can be great (I've successfully used it myself), but I've also seen it work only marginally well or be entirely non-effective.
2. The age-old argument over which caliber has the most "real-world stopping power". The success or failure of any defensive action with firearms is only marginally dependent on the caliber of the bullet used - factors such as shot placement, the amount of hits to vital areas and the aggregate trauma as well as specific damage these cause weigh far more heavily. Some men have survived multiple wounds from a .45 while others have been killed with single shots from a .38... and vice versa - go figure!

As a NRA certified pistol instructor who has frequently worked with female shooters, I've also learned that the "smaller is easier and better" rule, often employed by gun-store experts when selling firearms to women, is highly inaccurate. The truth is that small pistols like e.g. the Keltec P3AT and Ruger LC9, while certainly being easy to conceal, have low ammo capacity, and are quite uncomfortable to shoot. I just worked with a woman today who found the Walther PPS in 9mm no fun to shoot, actually somewhat painful, even though the slim grip seemed well suited to her hand. She opted instead for a medium frame Glock in 9mm (G19), which looks a little big for her hands, but which she was able to shoot much more effectively. If a gun is no fun to shoot, it may end up simply not being carried, or, worse yet, there may be a potentially fatal hesitation to deploy it in that crucial moment...

The above-mentioned Sig is a sweet pistol, but at $600 out the door, more than I want to spend on a pocket/purse gun. Given the choice, I would go with the compact 9mm Glock (G26), however, that will still set you back at least $450. Closer to your price range at app. $350, I would consider the Bersa Thunder Ultra-Compact 9mm. I have personally had very good experiences with Bersas. If the 9mm version (which has a mag capacity of 13 rds.) is still not affordable, an excellent value at $250 is the Bersa Thunder Concealed Carry in .380. The capacity is only 8rds., but this is one compact .380 that is very nice to shoot, ergonomic, accurate, and highly reliable.

I have taken a number of women (anti- gunners) to the range for a little "familiarization" with firearms, despite their first impressions of the 1911 which looks too big they seem to love it once they get a few rounds downrange. But for the most part it has to feel good in the hand, if it doesnt you will be "fumbling" with it.