About 40 years ago, I took an oath to protect and defend the people of the United States of America as a police officer on the streets of cities and rural areas of this country. After vocational training and later becoming a sworn officer, one of the obvious skills I had acquired was weapons training. For the very first day I got into these firearms skills courses as well as practical live fire training I owned and carried some type of Smith & Wesson firearm as my chosen duty weapon. Why the Smith Handgun Family? Because they are well built, work well in terms of functional reliability and, in fact, I have trusted with my life more than once. But you must carry your gun with any custom leather holsters to keep everything safe and sound.
The question posed in this review is, when choosing the best handgun for home defense, which direction would I go in the selection process? The truth here is simply this. Due to several major factors in the selection process here, there isn’t just one choice, but narrowing the subject down to its bare bones, at least three weapons should be considered in this case. These three guns, in my opinion, are Smith & Wesson products applied to two different handguns, and Taurus-built weapon systems applied to gun number three. Each weapon has very specific differences, and depending on the individual using the weapon, success or failure can be at the forefront of the matter.
Statements to reflect when choosing a home defense handgun.
Training is needed
First, handguns as home defensive weapons are a good choice if several elements in terms of training have been undertaken. While sometimes the use of a handgun by a totally untrained individual turns out to be successful, in all cases it is not the result desired by the homeowner. Therefore, what I will review here in terms of weapon selection also requires that the owner of such a weapon receive training as soon as possible.
Over the years I’ve been involved in this area of firearms, and I’ve seen would-be fighters turn into a pile of soft clay when pressure is put on them in training for good perform. As an instructor during my years of training as a police officer, I couldn’t even come close western holsters to putting enough pressure on the trainee shooter to simulate a real firefight or a defensive home business.
Conclusion
This level of stress is off the beaten path in the real world. The new home defensive shooter must quickly understand that you fight like you train and you must train like you fight. The main thing here is simply this. No amount of training leads to a quick death under the right conditions in a firefight. Fact number one here is always to assume that the bad guy who walks through your front door is armed.
Factor number two is that a shootout will last three seconds, and 2.5 shots will be fired in most cases, which is why you want to be the winner. This means time spent on the task is a major consideration here, and you don’t have much to adopt a defensive posture. Third accuracy counts, and again, practice comes right into play. Accurate shooters practice, and “blam blam” shooters send a lot of wasted lead and often get killed in the process.
