Best Pistols for Self Defense

[rdonovan1]

I was just wondering if anyone might happen to know what some of the best pistols are for self defense.

I am just curious because recently I stopped over at a local gunshop and was looking around at some of their guns just to get an idea of what is available and as to what some of the prices were as I am eventually planning on buying a pistol to help protect me better. At least long enough until I can find other and less lethal ways of defending myself better.

Ordinarily I would ask my mother's boyfriend about this stuff as he knows a lot about guns and is an avid collector of guns, but because he does not like either me or my aunt and because he is so controlling of my mother that really is not much of an option.

All that I know for sure is that I need to find some way of protecting myself better because just yesterday for example someone came knocking on my door while I was on the phone trying to help my mother with a computer problem that she was having.

When I answered the door I was thinking that it was one of my friends, but when I opened the door and looked outside I did not see any of my friends at all. What I did see is some guy that I have never met before in my life sitting on the stairs near my apartment asking me something about chips.

I ignored the guy and went back to my conversation with my mother and while I was on the phone this guy decided to walk right into my apartment without my permission. I don't know about anyone else but that tended to upset me and concern me greatly as I don't know this guy from a hole in the wall. All that I know is that if I had a gun, then I would have been well within my right to shoot him under the laws of the state that I live in as I have no way of knowing what this guy's true intentions are or even if he was armed or not.

I don't know about anyone else, but I tend to think that if someone here were in that same position then they would be thinking and feeling the same way as I did yesterday when this guy came barging into my apartment without my permission. I could be wrong however about that though.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

I suggest that you not concern yourself with a firearm. IMHO, you have no business owning one at your stage in life. I would not recommend one to you under any circumstances. Sorry, don't mean to be rude, but that's how I see it.

 

[rdonovan1]

I suggest that you not concern yourself with a firearm. IMHO, you have no business owning one at your stage in life. I would not recommend one to you under any circumstances. Sorry, don't mean to be rude, but that's how I see it.

I am just curious as to why you would say that and as to what suggestions then you would have that I can use to defend myself.

Although I would like to be a black belt in a martial art, I have not reached that stage as of yet and I know that if I don't do something to defend myself then people can and will continue to try to take advantage of me and that is something that I just cannot allow at all as I have already been through quite enough.

 

[Deaf Smith]

rdonovan1,

How old are you?

May I suggest this. You need more awarness to keep yourself safe. This is ten times more important than weapons.

Like answering the door. Or walking the streets at night, or how to talk to strangers and still keep a safe distance.

The handgun is the last resort, not the first. Keeping yourself safe takes far far more than a weapon.

Deaf

 

[K831]

I am just curious as to why you would say that and as to what suggestions then you would have that I can use to defend myself.

Although I would like to be a black belt in a martial art, I have not reached that stage as of yet and I know that if I don't do something to defend myself then people can and will continue to try to take advantage of me and that is something that I just cannot allow at all as I have already been through quite enough.

I am very short on time right now, and I certainly don't speak for Bill, but I'll see if I can maybe give you some things to contemplate;

When I answered the door I was thinking that it was one of my friends, but when I opened the door and looked outside I did not see any of my friends at all. What I did see is some guy that I have never met before in my life sitting on the stairs near my apartment asking me something about chips.

I ignored the guy and went back to my conversation with my mother and while I was on the phone this guy decided to walk right into my apartment without my permission.

1.)I would say one of your biggest problems with self defense is your level of awareness. Consider the story you shared above. I cannot imagine opening my door without some idea of who was on the other side. Further, I cannot imagine simply disregarding a strange individual who knocked on my door, sat on my steps and engaged me in a strange conversation regarding chips. Then, to close the door and leave it unlocked so that the individual could walk in?

My point isn’t to be harsh, but to illustrate that the situation should never have happened. Considering where you level of “threat awareness” seems to be, a firearm would only make matters worse. Consider training yourself in this area first. Start with some good books like “The Gift of Fear” etc.

All that I know is that if I had a gun, then I would have been well within my right to shoot him under the laws of the state that I live in as I have no way of knowing what this guy's true intentions are or even if he was armed or not.

2.)Perhaps so, but your attitude is a little casual regarding the use of lethal force for most “gun people” to look past and start recommending guns. Don’t take that to mean I wouldn’t hesitate to use such force on an intruder, but your post doesn’t show the experience/awareness/maturity I would expect most on this site want to see before offering advice. Again, nothing personal – we all must take steps to improve in this area.

Although I would like to be a black belt in a martial art, I have not reached that stage as of yet

3.)See my point above. If training empty hands to a degree of efficiency (not necessarily a black belt) is not something you can do right now in your stage of life, than there is no way you have the time/money/discipline to learn to use a hand gun for self defense.

I know that if I don't do something to defend myself then people can and will continue to try to take advantage of me and that is something that I just cannot allow

4.)I agree completely. You do need to do something. But purchasing a handgun, and putting it on your hip or on your nightstand is not sufficient. You must change your level of awareness first. Learn to handle situations verbally and look at your physical training as a whole… don’t just buy a gun.

I don’t know if some of these things are what Bill was thinking or not…. But I hope this helps.

 

[rdonovan1]

rdonovan1,

How old are you?

May I suggest this. You need more awarness to keep yourself safe. This is ten times more important than weapons.

Like answering the door. Or walking the streets at night, or how to talk to strangers and still keep a safe distance.

The handgun is the last resort, not the first. Keeping yourself safe takes far far more than a weapon.

Deaf

I am 40 years old and I fully agree with you that I need a lot more awarenes to keep myself safe. I also however need some way of defending myself not only phsyically, but also verbally as well.

I am working on the verbal and psychological aspect so that people do not find me as much of an easy target and that is why I study things like psychology, NLP, hypnosis, sales and marketing and everything else that I can get my hands on to defend myself from verbal and psychological attacks.

It however has not been very easy for me because it seems like everytime that I try to do something positive with my life and to defend myself I am immediately attacked by someone saying that I am being too aggressive and hostile.

If I come off sounding that way, then it is not on purpose at all. It is just that I have seen and heard a lot of stuff over the years and I am not taking any wooden nickels or crap from anyone.

I think things might be a little easier for me if I had a job, had money coming in and I could do a better job of doing things like taking care of my overall health and fixing things like the damage that people have caused to my car for no reason at all. It also doesn't help when I have been having problems with some of my computers and when I have been the victim of several romance scams.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

I am 40 years old and I fully agree with you that I need a lot more awarenes to keep myself safe. I also however need some way of defending myself not only phsyically, but also verbally as well.

I am working on the verbal and psychological aspect so that people do not find me as much of an easy target and that is why I study things like psychology, NLP, hypnosis, sales and marketing and everything else that I can get my hands on to defend myself from verbal and psychological attacks.

It however has not been very easy for me because it seems like everytime that I try to do something positive with my life and to defend myself I am immediately attacked by someone saying that I am being too aggressive and hostile.

If I come off sounding that way, then it is not on purpose at all. It is just that I have seen and heard a lot of stuff over the years and I am not taking any wooden nickels or crap from anyone.

I think things might be a little easier for me if I had a job, had money coming in and I could do a better job of doing things like taking care of my overall health and fixing things like the damage that people have caused to my car for no reason at all. It also doesn't help when I have been having problems with some of my computers and when I have been the victim of several romance scams.

You do not need a firearm. Please do not buy a firearm.

 

[rdonovan1]

You do not need a firearm. Please do not buy a firearm.

No offense intended at all, but what else can I do to protect myself then?

I don't know if it matters or even if it will help, but for over 5 years I drove a truck over the road and had to put up with a lot of crap from dispatchers and basically minimal pay.

During that time I had a chance to see and hear a lot of crazy stuff while I was out on the road and that is not to mention the romance scams that I ended up getting caught up during my attempt to find true love.

During that time I spent a lot of time trying to study the dating, mating, and relating scene in an attempt to improve myself for the better.

When I moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico I met a guy that I thought was my friend and whom I thought would undertand what I was saying about the dating, mating, and relating scene but instead of understanding he basically turned around and backstabbed me and then wanted to physically fight me one day while we were at the job site.

When I moved here initially my thought was to make more of a life for myself so that I could actually go out and practice what I had been learning, but due to one of the companies that I was working for at the time that did not happen. As a result I changed employers because I thought that the new employer would not only pay me more, but would also allow me to have more of the work/life balance that I desperately needed.

That however did not happen because like so many trucking companies out there they can and did lie to me even before I got in the door about what they would give me. This is something that is very common in the trucking industry as more often than not many trucking companies will tell you what you want to hear just to get you in the door because they are desperate. Once you get in the door however you more often than not find out that what the recruiters were telling you was nothing more than a big fat lie and that is why there is such a high turnover rate in the trucking industry.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

No offense intended at all, but what else can I do to protect myself then?

Nothing you described, in this post or any of the others, requires the use of a firearm. That you don't see that is the reason I don't think you should have one. You are describing yourself over and over as life's victim; and you think having a gun is going to fix things? I think there are a lot of things you could do to seek some assistance in learning more about your problems and addressing them. I wish you the best of luck.

 

[Tames D]

I mean no disrespect but your too cynical. Try taking a more positive approach to life and I think you'll find it gets alot easier and people will treat you with more respect.

 

[rdonovan1]

I mean no disrespect but your too cynical. Try taking a more possitive approach to life and I think you'll find it gets alot easier and people will treat you with more respect.

You might be right about me being cynical and you are probably right about me being more positive about life and that is exactly what I have been trying to do.

With no disrespect intended at all, it is difficult to do when you live in a high crime neighborhood and when you often run across people that are either more cynical and negative than I am or that are so screwed up that they for some reason cannot tell the difference between right and wrong.

Sometimes it is because of drugs and sometimes it is due to them having severe psychological problems that they could use the help of a professional psychotherapist.

Some people however are just naturally so mean spirited and tend to lack decent morals and values that they really don't care as to who they hurt or for what reason.

While I can't prove it at all I suspect that the people that vandalized my car in February of 2008 were the same two girls who were basically prostituting themselve's out in 2007 and whom I stupidly fell for their tricks.

While I can't do much about what they were doing, I at least could have been a lot smarter and more aware of what was going on at the time and for that I accept full responsibility for as I should have caught it a lot earlier than I did.

While I admit that I have my problems, I am not the only one that has problems as we all have our problems of one sort or another. Some however just have more than others, and more often than not instead of accepting responsibility for their own actions and behavior they tend to like to play the play blame game and as a result they tend to expect other people to solve their problems for them.

I know that I am not perfect at all and that I can have a very short temper, but unlike a lot of people that I have come across in the past I try not to play the blame game at all by understanding and accepting my own faults and by trying to do what I can do to correct my own faults so that I am not making the same mistakes twice.

 

[Andy Moynihan]

Before you do *anything* further I strongly recommend picking up Jeff Cooper's book "Principles of Personal Defense". At this point that'll help get you mentally where you need to be before you do anything else.

Right now you need to sort out hardware( Awareness, correct mindset and so on). Software (unarmed defense, tools, firearms, what have you) must come later as software cannot run without hardware, to use a computer analogy.

 

[Grenadier]

I am eventually planning on buying a pistol to help protect me better. At least long enough until I can find other and less lethal ways of defending myself better.

It doesn't work this way.

If you are not willing to accept the fact that using a firearm in a defensive situation could very well result in lethal consequences for someone, then you should not get one of for defensive purposes.

Don't bother with the "less than lethal" ammunition types, since they can certainly be lethal as well.

You really should read Colonel Cooper's book, as Mr. Moynihan has suggested, before you make any further decisions.

 

[blackxpress]

No offense intended at all, but what else can I do to protect myself then?

I don't know if it matters or even if it will help, but for over 5 years I drove a truck over the road and had to put up with a lot of crap from dispatchers and basically minimal pay.

During that time I had a chance to see and hear a lot of crazy stuff while I was out on the road and that is not to mention the romance scams that I ended up getting caught up during my attempt to find true love.

During that time I spent a lot of time trying to study the dating, mating, and relating scene in an attempt to improve myself for the better.

When I moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico I met a guy that I thought was my friend and whom I thought would undertand what I was saying about the dating, mating, and relating scene but instead of understanding he basically turned around and backstabbed me and then wanted to physically fight me one day while we were at the job site.

When I moved here initially my thought was to make more of a life for myself so that I could actually go out and practice what I had been learning, but due to one of the companies that I was working for at the time that did not happen. As a result I changed employers because I thought that the new employer would not only pay me more, but would also allow me to have more of the work/life balance that I desperately needed.

That however did not happen because like so many trucking companies out there they can and did lie to me even before I got in the door about what they would give me. This is something that is very common in the trucking industry as more often than not many trucking companies will tell you what you want to hear just to get you in the door because they are desperate. Once you get in the door however you more often than not find out that what the recruiters were telling you was nothing more than a big fat lie and that is why there is such a high turnover rate in the trucking industry.

Welcome to the world, my friend. The kind of things you are describing are par for the course for most of us. Life is filled with disappointments. Other people can be the biggest disappointments of all. Goes with the territory. Please don't take this the wrong way but the thought of someone with your outlook carrying a loaded firearm gives me a bad case of the willies.

My suggestion would be for you to get some counseling to help you learn how to deal with your frustration. Also, if you're really interested in MA find a good dojo and start training hard. You might be amazed at how much better you feel about things after a good karate workout.

MA is not so much about learning how to defend yourself (although that is part of it) as it is a lifelong journey of self improvement which can help you gain inner strength as well as outer strength. It will help you gain a more positive outlook which, seems to me, is something that would help you immensely.

Please don't buy a gun. The decision to end someone else's life should be taken with grave seriousness. You have to be absolutely certain there is no other possible resolution. It's far too easy to pull the trigger and, once the bullet leaves the chamber you cannot get it back. Sounds to me like, in your frame of mind, it would be too easy for you to make a fatal mistake that will ruin not only your own life but many other lives as well.

 

[jarrod]

there is another very worthwhile book called "the gift of fear' by gavin debecker. i think the information in it will do much more to protect you than a firearm at this point.

jf

 

[rdonovan1]

there is another very worthwhile book called "the gift of fear' by gavin debecker. i think the information in it will do much more to protect you than a firearm at this point.

jf

I've never heard of that book before, but I have read the book 'Feel the fear and do it anyway' by Susan Jeffers.

I don't know if you ever get to watch the t.v. show Monsterquest, but lately they are talking about killer chimps right here in America.

I also don't know if you have checked out the 'Awareness and self defense' thread, but if you have not then you may wish to check it out.

 

[jarrod]

killer chimps? if you are seriously concerned about killer chimps, you are never going to feel safe anywhere.

jf

 

[rdonovan1]

killer chimps? if you are seriously concerned about killer chimps, you are never going to feel safe anywhere.

jf

I thought that the show was interesting to say the least. They have had other shows on before relating to things like the Loch Ness Monster, Ogopogo, UFO's, and even Bigfoot.

Out of all of them I only tend to give Bigfoot any credence at all due to the evidence that is out there suggesting to his possible existence and the fact that he has been seen and talked about long before we even developed the technology of film and in area's where it would be pretty stupid of someone who is trying to do a hoax because some of the area's that he has been seen in and time frames are so remote that it is very unlikely that they would be seen by someone other than the hoaxer.

Two states that I know of currently have laws protecting Bigfoot as well. One is Skamania County, Washington and the other is Whitehall, New York.

I find the subject interesting, but not quite as interesting as human nature and that is why I tend to stuy things like psychology, NLP, hynosis, business, sales & marketing and other related topics as I am really interested in what makes people tick and as to why they do what they do.

From what I have studied a lot of what people tend to do is based upon emotion and instinct and that is stuff that was not only well understood by the Samurai, but is also the subject of study by both the scientific community and the business world. It's also why marketers tend to know what buttons to push in you to get you to want to buy something like a steak. They tend to understand this stuff and as a result they have become very good at things like influence, persuasion, and even subliminal messaging. The know for example that if they want to get you buy a steak or anything else, then all they have to do is push the right buttons in you to get you to go buy what they are selling. They know that in the instance of steak that it is not the steak that makes you want to buy the steak, but the sizzle of the steak.

The place the they tend to use it the most often though is at the movie theater as they know that at some point you are going to want something to eat and drink during the movie and that is why they flash images of things like popcorn and soda up on the screen as that is their attempt to get you to go out into the lobby and buy that type of stuff. It's a sales tactic that they use and it is and has been proven to be very successful.

The Samurai also understood to a degree how the mind worked and that is how zen came about and that is the whole point of visualization. Chuck Norris is also very familiar with it and he even wrote about it in his book 'The power within'. He stated that on more than one occasion he would sit on the sidelines and watch the fighters in the ring battling it out and in his mind he would visualize himself up there fighting even before he got into the ring and the result was that because of that he often won the fight because he mentally rehearsed it in his mind on multiple occasions before he even got into the ring and that tended to help him to anticipate the kick or punch that his opponent was going to throw at him next.

 

[BLACK LION]

You asked a specific question and you deserve a specific answer...

1. Try some local shops and run through as many pistols and shotguns you can.... find one that fits you... maybe they have the exact same gun for rent on the range so you can try before you buy...

I would start with a pump action 12 ga. for an all around role... I would be more leary about shooting a handgun or rifle in an apartment...

A mossberg 500 is inexpensive and allows for many different configurations...they are also better made now than they used to be...
Since you have internet access...I would get familiar with the 5 rules of firearm safety and dig up as many training clips you can find for whatever platform you decide to go with wether its pistol or shotgun or both....

As far as pistols are concerned, I am partial to XD pistols for thier ergonomics, safety and accuracy... I also only do .45 acp and no less...

 

[Bill Mattocks]

You asked a specific question and you deserve a specific answer...

The answer virtually everyone gave was quite specific - this person should not buy a firearm. I think the reason everyone gave that answer should be glaringly obvious. Everyone has done an outstanding job of keeping our personal thoughts to ourselves here, while trying to be gentle and still direct and emphatic.