Posted on 01/04/2003 9:30:05 AM PST by buffyt
We go armed
By Allison Pollan The Facts
Published January 04, 2003
Like many women during the holidays, Sandra Kozak received jewelry from her husband. He also gave her a semiautomatic Bersa Thunder .380 pistol.
Kozak, 24, said her husband gave her the gun so she could protect herself against intruders. She is often at their Freeport home alone with their two young children during his extended shifts at work.
Im having to stay at home with two babies, Kozak said. Its just for my safety because there was a break-in next door to where we live.
Kozak, who never had shot a gun until a private lesson Friday, plans to apply for a concealed handgun license, and next week she plans to take the required class to obtain it.
Learning gun control
Gary Broadus, owner of Brazosport Security & Self-Defense Institute, gives Sandra Kozak of Freeport a gun safety lesson at the Greenwood Gun Club near Brazoria Friday. Brazoria, Galveston and Montgomery counties are among areas in Texas with highest gun ownership per capita.
If her license is approved by the state, Kozak will join the ranks of Brazoria Countys more than 4,100 concealed handgun license owners.
Currently, there are more than 222,800 concealed handgun licenses active in the state, 4,174 of which are in Brazoria County, according to Department of Public Safety records.
Brazoria County is among Texas counties with the most licensed gun holders per capita.
Slightly more than one in every 100 adults in Texas can legally carry a pistol. In Brazoria, Galveston and Montgomery counties that ratio is three in every 100 adults.
According to December DPS statistics, cities having the most active concealed handgun licenses include Alvin, with 815 licenses; Pearland, with 1,215; the Lake Jackson area, with almost 600 and the Angleton area with about 420. The Freeport area, which includes the cities of Jones Creek, Oyster Creek, Surfside Beach and Quintana, had almost 600 permits, state records indicate.
The Brazoria area had 253 active licenses, the Sweeny area had 121, the Danbury area had 52, the Manvel area had 140, the Rosharon area had 143 and the Clute and Richwood area had about 170.
To obtain a concealed handgun license, Texas residents must pay a $140 fee, provide identification and fingerprints and take a handgun course.
Anyone with a felony conviction, certain misdemeanor convictions, pending criminal charges, drug or alcohol dependency or certain psychological diagnoses can not get a license. Also, people with defaults on taxes, governmental fees, student loans or child support are not eligible for a concealed handgun license.
Area law enforcement officers said while the numbers may be high, they have not encountered problems because of people carrying concealed handguns.
The licensed handgun owner ... has not created a problem, to the best of my knowledge, in Brazoria County so far, said Charles Wagner, chief deputy for the Brazoria County Sheriffs Department.
Wagner attributed the high number of licensed handgun owners to the countys rural nature.
You have the people that are out in the countryside, out where the roads are a little more lonely, Wagner said. They might feel they want the gun along for protection.
Wagner said the countys significant number of outdoor sportsmen also might be a cause for some concealed handgun licenses.
Theyve got licenses so they dont have to worry about carrying the gun back and forth to the range, he said.
Alvin Police Chief Mike Merkel agreed sports enthusiasts and people seeking protection were the key component for the countys high number of licenses.
I think one of Americas No. 1 fears is the fear of being victimized, Merkel said. We spend a lot of money buying security-related items or equipment ... and there are many of us that have never been victimized, but its a preventative kind of measure we use to feel good about minimizing the risk, should there be a risk.
Merkel said Alvins high number of licenses also might be because Alvin Community College teaches handgun licensing classes.
Gary Broadus, who teaches one-day handgun license courses in Clute, said more than 3,000 people have taken his courses since 1996.
The main reason Ive seen people get the license is the right to go ahead and carry the gun in the car while traveling, Broadus said.
Broadus said the majority of people who take the class are men aged 35 to 40, but women are increasingly becoming licensed.
After Sandra Kozak fired her first rounds into the target, each bullet hitting within the targets chest area, she said she was glad for the experience.
I was nervous, Kozak said. It gave me a little rush.
"Brazoria, Galveston and Montgomery counties are among areas in Texas with highest gun ownership per capita."
If you work at it, you can even enjoy shooting full power .44 magnum loads.
T'would have been better. But he was probably worried about recoil. Remember she had never shot a gun before in her life, and the .380 is adequate if provided with the proper ammunition. However a nice compact polymer framed .45 with a ported barrel would have been a better choice. Maybe even a .40 S&W. I've got a witness polymer compact in .45 ACP with the ported barrel, and it generates less felt recoil than old slabsides (1911A1) even though it weighs about 2/3 as much. A glock or other type without a exposed hammer might be a better choice for a neophyte though.
I am half-deaf from shooting with no hearing protection when I was a kid. I just didn't know that gunfire could hurt your hearing.
You where probably standing too straight, not leaning forward into the shot, maybe even leaning back a little. This happens with a shotgun that doesn't fit properly. Unless you and your husband are near the same size, mostly in terms of arm length, it would probably be best to have his and hers shotguns rather than "ours". If you must have only one, have it adjusted to fit you, as too short is easier to adjust to than too long, especially in a home defense type sitituation as opposed to shooting fast moving aerial targets.
The only problem is for some women, a .45 is just too big around the grip frame for proper grasping. Also, a .45 is a difficult gun for most people to learning to shoot.
My opinion is: a .22 LR handgun is the best gun for learning to shoot. Then, I would consider stepping up to a center-fire handgun for a defensive gun. My own preference is for a 9mm or .40 caliber chambered Glock (provided that thorough safety training is given). The 9mm frame handguns fit my hands better than the .45 caliber handguns.
A word of caution, the 9mm handguns must be loaded with a good quality defensive load, such as Cor-Bon, instead of the economy grade ammunition loaded with full metal jacket bullets.
For practice sessions, it is absolutely essential to wear adequate hearing protection, ear plugs or muff type hearing protectors. Personally, on some occasions, I will wear both ear plugs and muffs.
Sounds like the chief deputy is still not quite yet fully convinced.
In revolvers, good choices for a concealment gun are the Ruger SP101 and the .357 chambered S&W Ladysmith (or its equivalent in the regular S&W line) in stainless steel. Both of these guns are chamibered for .357 magnum, which means you can shoot .38 special loads for practice. You can use either good .38 special +P loads or full .357 magnum loads for defensive purposes. Use the 125 grain bullet loads for defensive purposes, they have a much better record for one-shot stops.
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