Recently, a mother in Loganville, GA made the local news by shooting an intruder in her home. She was home with her two children when a man came to her door. She hid in a closet with her children and called for help as the intruder broke into her house, when he opened the door to the closet where she was hiding with her children, he was introduced to her muzzle. In other words when he opened the door, she opened fire.
I paid close attention to this story because it happened not far from where I grew up. It happened near several friends’ homes, a relative was one of the first responders that were called to the scene, and I am always happy when I hear about a homeowner defending themselves against crime.
The night of the shooting, I was asked via Facebook by some friends about buying their first gun. Let me first point out that I am not an expert in guns, but I have worked for several gun retailers as a salesman. During that time I was blessed to learn from a lot of other salesmen about the guns that I wasn't as familiar with. I also had the privilege to help several woman and first time gun buyers choose their first gun. I decided to use this post to share what I told those ladies with the hopes I might to be able to help someone else.
The first piece of advice I always give is to go to a gun shop that does not pay a commission to the salesmen. I'm not saying a salesman that is getting a commission is going to give bad advice, but when the amount of money that is spent affects his paycheck, he may direct you to a higher priced gun.
The next thing you need to do is sit and talk with your husband. Talk to him about your decision to own a gun, but also talk to him about the buying of a gun. Ask him to come to the store with you, but to let the salesman do his job and sell you a gun. I don't know how many times I have had a husband come in with his wife and tell me she wanted a Glock, or Ruger SR9 or another pistol by name, and when I hand the gun to his wife she couldn't even operate it. A semi-automatic pistol takes a little more strength to load than most women will exert on a gun when they are first learning how to shoot.
The salesman is there to do just that, sell you your gun not the gun your husband thinks you should have. Just like every gun salesman in the country, I had an exact set of questions that I would ask the wife. I would ask them in a way that kept her husband from answering them. The questions were a system to learn how much experience she had in shooting, how nervous she was about shooting and carry a gun. When I was finished I could usually pull a gun out of the display case and she would love it. I found that too many times husbands thought they were married to Lara Croft or the female version of John Rambo and in doing so would almost always try to arm their wives with a gun that was too powerful or just too big for them to handle. As a salesman, my biggest fear would to be to allow a husband to talk his wife into a gun that wasn't right for her, and then hearing her name on a news report from not be able to defend herself, because she owned the wrong gun.
I would like to take just a few minutes and give you some tips on how to find the best gun for yourself. First thing, call the gun stores you are interested in shopping at and find out what is their SLOWEST time frame of the week. You never want to shop for a gun that you have several questions about during the busy times of the week. When you know the time their business should be slow, the salesman will be able to spend more time with you and learn what he needs to know to direct you to your gun.
Learn the difference between a revolver and a pistol. I am not going to get technical with this post, because I want you to keep reading but I do have to explain a few things about guns along the way. A revolver is a gun that has a cylinder, that holds the cartridges (it looks like the guns you see on westerns and old police shows). A pistol is the gun that has a flat top, and a magazine holds the cartridges. Not a clip, it drives me crazy to hear politicians, including the President and reporters that don't have a clue what they are talking about; call it a clip.
With a revolver, to load it you open the cylinder put the cartridges into the holes and close the cylinder. That's it you are done. To shoot it you simply cock the hammer and pull the trigger. If the gun misfires (a bad cartridge) all you do is cock the hammer again and you are ready to shoot again.
With a pistol, to load it you remove the magazine and load the cartridges into it. You then load the magazine into the gun, and pull the slide all the way back and let it go. If you have a misfire with a pistol you have to check that the magazine is fully seated, then rack the slide to reload a new cartridge. If you spend enough time shooting and are very familiar with your gun, you can clear a misfire very quickly. That is important if you are trying to defend yourself.
Once you have decided between a revolver and pistol, it is time to decide on the size. You have a choice in handguns from compacts to full size guns. The size will affect everything from how the gun fits your hand, and how easy or hard it is to conceal; to the accuracy and power of the bullet. A good salesman will take the time to show and teach you the pros and cons of each frame size.
When it comes to guns, bigger is not always better. A small caliber handgun with good quality ammunition in your purse or holster is far better than a large caliber handgun that is left at home because you are afraid of it, or it is too heavy for you to carry every day. I bought my wife a .22 caliber pistol and I ended up carrying it most of the time because it was so easy to carry. My point is don't think you have to carry the same caliber gun that your husband does. If you cannot control the gun it will not do its job. A self defense gun is to defend yourself with, that means you have to be able to put a bullet into an attacker. The biggest bullet in the world is worthless if it doesn't hit the target. After I found the type of gun and frame size that was best for the woman, I started zeroing in her best caliber. My rule of thumb I use is, carry the most powerful caliber that you can handle and are comfortable with. I used to sell a lot of .357 magnums to women, because they could load it with a .38 special and still have a .357 when they became comfortable with shooting or if they were heading into the back country where the larger round could be needed for dangerous animals
The last piece of advice I would always give if they hadn't shot very many types of guns is I would tell them to go to a local range that rented guns. That way she would have each type of gun that she was interested in to test drive. I would also tell them to talk to the salesman at the range, and visit at least one other store so they could compare what I had told them to what she would be told by the other salesman. My managers didn't like that last one very much until they figured out that sending them for a second opinion, they trusted me more and would come back and make the purchase.
I hope I have helped you, if you have ever had any questions about buying a gun. It is a big decision to carry a gun, but your life or the lives of your children may depend on it one day so I believe it is important to help as many people as I can.
Never forget though, that buying a gun for self defense and leaving it at home, is like waiting until you get into a wreck to put your seat belt on.
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