Need advice on choosing a gun

It is best to have several lines of defense. An outer fence, a dog, a light, locked door, even a locked screen door "slows them down."

It's funny...as I read through your list I was saying "I've got that, and that, and that, and I have that!" WooHoo, I'm a safe person! There was a big man that came to my door fairly late last night. I couldn't see who is was because he was beside my door not in front of it. I got my gun and stood at my locked door and hollered "who is it". He leaned in just a little bit and said "can I use your phone?" I said "sorry, no" He didn't leave for a little bit still. I sat here worried and finally called the police. They got here just a few minutes later and saw him walking off. It still scared me, but knowing I am trained to protect us helped. I'm bookmarking this thread...it has some awesome information that I don't want to lose.

I thought the information was pretty interesting too. I happily took the opportunity to relocate and post it as a service to those who are interested, and hopefully those who have opposite opinions. The evidence is rather compelling, but contradicts what the gunwriters have been asserting for decades now....that light weight, high velocity hollow points out of handguns really work. Handguns are just different than rifles, and a different approach to performance is called for, but even I had great difficulty in breaking old habits, and I'm very glad that I faced the practical facts, and changed my equipment. Being under real peril tends to sober one to the facts, I have found.

If anyone in the gun store or range mentions which cartridge is rated so-and-so percent "one shot stops," smile, and run. Writers Marshall and Sanow have been demonstrated to be actual frauds, and have put bogus, unverified statistics to the previous fictions, and sold a lot of books and articles, and put a lot of trusting people into harm's way. There are several articles about it in the Fackler site. Old ideas die hard, and that is why I put the Garrett test information there too, as further support. Most firearms enthusiasts either do not know this information, or more likely dismissed it because it flies in the face of the promotional tidal wave from the writers, the self-acclaimed "experts." Some writers speak the truth, even if it's old news, notably Paco Kelly, who has real world law enforcement, military combat, and hunting experience, and very clearly states his true experiences in the field with firearms, and corroborates Fackler and Garrett, Jeff Cooper, and several others. They simply note what has worked throughout the generations, and have no pressing passion to reinvent the wheel, just to fill a magazine with something new.

Undoubtedly, sudden and effective stops have been accomplished by high velocity hollow point handgun loads, as originally demonstrated by the Super Vel round 4 or 5 decades ago, but that was in comparison to the notoriously poor performing round nose lead bullet, which created a rather ineffective and narrow permanent cavity. Then "hydrostatic shock" was identified with rifle bullets, along with "temporary wound channels" and both transferred to handgun bullet performance characteristics. Now we know that at handgun velocities, the temporary channel is meaningless, having no or very little effect upon elastic tissue, and hydrostatic shock is so minor at lower velocities to also be almost meaningless. Still, rapidly expanding projectiles are gushed over, even though they most frequently cause under penetration, but with a wide permanent channel....a big, but SHALLOW wound. The prefragmented Glaser "safety slug" is notorious for this. A friend in Corrections shot a large inmate with a 9mm one, square in the chest, from a carbine early this summer. The individual was knocked down, then got up, and was hardly injured. Many otherwise knowledgeable people practice and recommend that one even load their defense shotgun with bird shot also to prevent sheet rock penetration in the event of a miss, along the same line of reasoning as the birdshot filled Glaser and Mag Safe. Dr. Fackler was asked what would happen if an attacker were shot in the abdomen with one. He said "the person would die in the hospital three days later, and the cause would be peritonitis." Not much of a stop.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.