Choosing Your Defensive Handgun: A How-To Guide

So you are about to buy a new defensive handgun. This is a big deal, especially for a first timer. You want to get it right. After all, you are spending real money on this – not pocket money or peanut money, that’s for sure. More importantly than the money is that you are going to invest serious time into this; the training, the motivation preparation and, of course, waiting for your license.

So you do your research regarding this purchase. And before long you reach a point that most prospective firearms owners will find – the opinion of other people. You will venture into a strange world called the online firearm forums. In your eagerness to obtain good and solid information, you will appeal to those who have invested their own time, effort and passion into the same journey. This is after all human nature. We crave the simple solution, and will always look for the elusive silver bullet. That one fix for all of life’s problems.

Choosing Your Defensive Handgun – Beware the Opinion of Others

This is of course not incorrect. We should look to others for their input. However, we need to understand our own human nature. The interactivity of online forums is certainly appealing. But it brings with it a certain dynamic which puts bad advice on the same table as good advice. And then puts dishes it all up on the same plate. The immediacy of being able to convey the information is a powerful driver. And unless both those who author the information, as well as those who read it, very carefully analyse it, it can lack the value that a more considered and researched product does.

In essence your Bullshit Detector needs to be dialled to the maximum. You need to know the good steak from the bad brisket when they all have the same face value.

Some people are going to tell you that a 9mm pistol is useless, and that all defensive firearms must be .45 ACP. And preferably launched out of a 1911 personally assembled by the loving hands of Master John Moses Browning. Others again will tell you that the Browning Hi-Power is the way to go. Because various multi-initialed military groups who raided embassies and saved oil rigs used them. And others still will maintain that the .38 Special snubby is going to answer all your prayers when death comes visiting.

Calibrate Your BS Detector

You will find gigabytes of data left strewn on online battlefields, as keyboard commandos clash over caliber, open carry, holster styles, one-up, one-down, and sometimes one-in-between. As entertaining as all of this is, you need to realise that it does not help you one little bit. Online forums are a virtual braai. And the Chairborne Rangers in attendance are merely the verbose, drunken fools who are the rugby coach, president, army general, police commissioner and mayor all rolled up into one sloppy, beer-soaked package.

I hope at this point that you have read my previous article on choosing the correct firearms instructor. Whilst I am not going to rehash what I said, I am going to continue in the same vein. So for those who didn’t enjoy that one, be prepared to be offended again.

Fundamentals for Choosing a Defensive Handgun

I am going to provide a list of fundamentals that you can use as filters for your BS Detector when it comes to dealing with this environment.

There are fundamentals to buying a defensive handgun. Yes: a defensive handgun. In other words, one that you buy to carry every day. And that you will train with, and use as a tool to keep you or a loved ones alive. Sure, you may well use it for sport. And we can unpack that element at another time. But above all, these fundamentals are the primary considerations you should have regarding your purchase. And they will also provide you with a level of context to judge all the static coming your way as you venture through the online jungle.

• Reliability

Above all else, your defensive handgun needs to be reliable. When you are in a fight for your life – bleeding, scared, and gasping for breath – and you hear a *click* when you should hear a *bang*; well, that right there is the most demoralising sound you will ever hear.

So what does this mean in practicality?

It does not mean that if your firearm ever malfunctions that you should bin it. No. What it does mean, is that you must be able to recognise the brand, and know that the firearm in question is renowned for its reliability. Understand the major brands before you go to the gun shop. Retail environments have their own favourites which they push. So look to those brands in front-line use by police departments, protection agencies, high-end security providers, and people who routinely bet their life on the reliability of their weapon. Use this as a benchmark to which you can measure all of the choices that you like. As well as those that others insist are the most best, ultimate pistol ever!

• Ergonomic to Your Lifestyle

Now this is almost as important as the reliability part. So, many people recognise that they need a firearm for their personal daily contingency plan. But once they discover that the firearm is fairly onerous to carry around, they leave it in the safe. Many people say that you need to dress around your gun. Or that it’s meant to be comforting, not comfortable. And that is nonsense.

Those glib answers only serve to display the silliness of that so-called firearms expert. In reality you need to compromise in certain areas. Such as upsizing your clothes, or realising how to effectively carry in a bag holster when appropriate. And adding certain key elements, such as having a really good belt and holster. But from the get-go, select a defensive handgun the size of which will enhance its integration into your lifestyle, and which ensures that the compromises you must make are not too arduous. Doing so will lessen the likelihood that you won’t persevere with that compromise.

I would far rather carry a single-stack 9mm pistol every day, and have access to a higher-capacity firearm at my residence, than go and select a high-capacity double-stack pistol, and after a while realise that I am not prepared to carry it. So when you go to the gun shop, look for the most comfortable pistol in the brand range you have previously identified. And when I say “comfortable”, then I mean comfortable to carry, as well as to shoot.

• Trainable

No firearm in the world is a problem solver – it is merely a tool. And just having it will not be a life-saver. Knowing how to effectively use it with confidence is the life-saving aspect that a firearm brings to the fight. Confidence is built by training. So if your handgun selection isn’t trainable, then it won’t boost your confidence. And it will lessen its viability to play the role as a life-saving tool.

When I say trainable, I mean that you need to be comfortable enough to attend every course you can, and not care that you might roll around in the dirt with it. And drop magazines into mud. And sweat, cry – and yes – even bleed a little bit on it. Also it’s got to be economically trainable. I love the .357 SIG as a caliber. But If I had to take it on a 500 or a 1000 round two-day course, I might have to remortgage my house. If you are going to cry a little inside every time you pull the trigger, then you really want to reconsider what you are selecting.

So check the range ammo prices, and the spare magazine prices. Know that good course attendance and frequent practice is required. And that uses ammo, and is hard on magazines and other critical components of a gun.

• Capable Caliber

This is really a question you need to answer for yourself. I have a Beretta Model 71 in .22 LR. I love this little pistol, and it is as reliable as a Swiss clock. It is also incredibly ergonomic, and it is eminently trainable. It is hands-down my favourite pistol. But I still default to my Glock 19 for my every day carry. Why? Because I have supreme confidence in the 9mm caliber that it shoots. Not because I believe it to be a fight-stopper: no handgun caliber is. But because I know that it checks all the boxes of an effective defensive caliber, and it fits the package that checks all my other boxes.

Get the most effective caliber, based on the realistic understanding of your personal gunfight, that you can carry every day.

Stick to Your Fundamentals

Once you have applied your fundamentals to the range of firearms available to you, you will see that the process of choosing a defensive handgun which ticks all the boxes is not as complicated as you might have thought.

So, go ahead and enjoy the process. Visit the retail stores and scour the online forums. Use this as a reference to measure all the advice that is given to you, but above all make the purchase and get training. Empower yourself to be your own first responder, and the person who will step up to be counted when the worst part of life shows its hand.

Written by Bryan Mennie.

Bryan is a former police officer. He followed his policing career by working in the close protection and risk mitigation industry in the Middle East and North Africa. He currently fills the role of an incident management specialist for a Fortune 50 company.