Guns and
self-defense with them have generated more ill-informed passion than almost
anything other than religion, politics, and sex. Naturally, therefore, I felt obliged to
contribute. A lifetime of shooting and
studying the subject has given me some insight.
I do not claim to know everything, but I do know some things. Some of this is my opinion, but it is opinion
based on observations of reality. A
large number of people have asked for my advice on getting a firearm for
personal defense. I hope this clears up
some of the fog.
First,
make sure you know why you want one. Is
it for target or sport shooting? Is it
for personal defense in your home or car?
Is it for concealed carry on your person? Is it for quasi-military action? Is it because you are concerned this may be
your last chance to get one? Each of
these is valid, and each has unique requirements.
Second,
make sure you know why you want one. If
you are thinking about anything involving shooting other people, you’d better
make darned sure you square that idea with your moral structure. There is no way to completely avoid the
emotional trauma of doing such grievous bodily harm to another person, but if
you aren’t fairly certain you have a moral right and responsibility to defend
your own life, even at the risk of taking someone else’s, it will ruin you.
The
rest of this will be based on the assumption that you are thinking of personal
defense.
How
about some vocabulary? I'm not trying to show off or be anally technical, here. There are a lot of terms that have been so abused and misused that a lot of folks have entirely wrong ideas about things. So, here's the short list.
Bullet,
or projectile – the blob of metal that comes out of the muzzle of a firearm and
inflicts damage or harm on whatever it hits.
This is different from a…
Cartridge,
shell, round – the entire assembly of components that includes a bullet,
gunpowder, a primer, and a case to hold everything together. The cartridge does not fly toward the target,
no matter what Diane Feinstein says.
Hollow
point – a bullet that is designed to expand in soft tissue, such as a human
body. It is called a hollow point because
it has a cavity in its nose. In theory,
this cavity fills with fluid upon impact, and causes the bullet to swell, or
expand. The greater diameter of the
expanded bullet increases the energy transfer to the target. They do not explode! Hollow points are used almost exclusively for
personal defense, though some are used in long range rifle competition.
Amor
piercing bullet – a bullet designed to punch through armor, such as a jeep, an
airplane, or light vehicle. It is made
from harder material than regular bullets, though it often consists of a steel
core covered by copper, like other bullets.
An armor piercing bullet does not explode or expand unless it hits
something it can’t penetrate, in which case it just mushrooms. Armor piercing bullets are intended to be the
exact opposite to hollow points. Most
ammunition manufacturers have voluntarily
limited sales of AP rounds to police and the military.
Cop-killer
bullet – a myth concocted by people who think Joe Biden is a paragon of
intellect. There was considerable
hysteria about these in the 1980’s, all of it utter baloney. First of all, any bullet that is of
sufficient mass and velocity will penetrate a policeman’s armored vest. The design of the bullet has nothing to do
with it, nor does the material of which the bullet is made. (I exclude from this bullets made of graphite
or wood, generally called “gallery” rounds, which are made to disintegrate on
impact with a backstop in a gallery.) I
remember seeing people use the phrase “armor-piercing, hollow point cop-killer
bullets,” which is one of the most preposterous obfuscations ever
perpetrated. There is no such thing as a
cop-killer bullet.
Teflon-coated
cop-killer bullet – another mythical item.
Supposedly, coating bullets with Teflon will allow them to penetrate a
police officer’s body armor. In actuality,
Teflon is used on competition bullets in very expensive target rifles (not
pistols) to prevent wear to the bore.
That’s all. The British army did
an exhaustive series of tests in the 1970’s and found that Teflon coating has
absolutely zero effect on a bullet’s ability to penetrate anything. If anyone brings this up, hand them their
sign.
Stopping
power – the ability of a round to knock a man down. Oceans of ink have been spilled in the
discussion of what round has the best stopping power, and the argument rages
on. Here are a couple of points: there is no such thing as a guaranteed ,100%,
one-shot stopper, including the 12 gauge shotgun. Some rounds have a higher percentage of
one-shot stops, and these are to be preferred for personal defense, but get it
out of your head that anything works every time. Shot placement is as important in stopping as
is the power of the round. Men have had
limbs blown off and kept fighting, killing the man who had shot them. Drugs, booze, and insanity have a lot to do
with stopping. A man who is sufficiently
stoned or crazy won’t even know he’s been shot, and won’t drop unless you cut
his spine, blow a hole in his brain, or break major bones, such as the femur. In general, fat, slow bullets have more
stopping power.
Killing
power – Another irrelevant myth. Ignore
the concept. Bubonic plague has killed
many millions of people. That doesn’t
make it a personal defense tool.
Gun –
a firearm. Contrary to some magazine
writers, it is perfectly acceptable to refer to any firearm as a gun. Anyone will understand what you mean,
especially if you are pointing it at them.
In the most technical sense, a “gun” is a smoothbore, as in a shotgun or
an unrifled cannon. In historical writing, you may see reference to things like
“twelve-pounder gun,” which is a smoothbore cannon that fires a 12-pound round
ball.
Rifle
– a firearm with a rifled bore. If you
look down the barrel of a rifle – look into it from the breech, not the muzzle!
– you’ll see two to ten ridges called “lands,” that spiral the length of the
bore. Rifling spins the bullet and gives
it great accuracy. Rifling does not make a bullet more lethal or
destructive. Technically, any firearm
with rifling can be called a rifle, hence you will occasionally hear of the
giant guns on battleships called, “naval rifles.”
Smoothbore
– a firearm lacking rifling. Shotguns
are smoothbores, as are some muzzleloaders and tank cannon. Like rifles, smoothbores can be anything from
shoulder-held firearms to artillery pieces.
Handgun
– a firearm that is meant to be held in one hand, as opposed to being held
against the shoulder. Almost all
handguns are generically referred to as “pistols,” and I consider this entirely
acceptable unless you in a highly technical discussion with someone who knows
the difference. These terms are included
for general reference, only. Don’t get
anal about them.
Pistol
– a semi-automatic handgun that is loaded with a magazine containing
cartridges. Oddly, single-shot, muzzle
loading handguns were also called pistols.
Revolver
– a handgun with a round cylinder that holds the cartridges and rotates during
operation in order to bring an unfired cartridge into firing position.
Semi-automatic
– a firearm that fires one shot for each squeeze of the trigger. This refers to the way in which the firearm
presents a fresh round for firing. It
has absolutely nothing, whatsoever to do with the destructiveness or lethality
of the round. You have a single-shot gun
and a semi-auto chambered for the same round, and it will have precisely the
same effect downrange, no matter which you fire it from.
Full
automatic – a firearm that will fire more than one shot for each squeeze of the
trigger. These are machine guns, and
have been closely controlled since 1934.
There are a great many machine guns in private hands in the US. At the time Clinton tried to ban them, there
was not a single case of a machinegun being used in a crime by its lawful
owner. They are incredibly expensive,
and most are very bulky. As with
semi-automatic, this term refers solely to the way in which the next round is
presented for firing. It has nothing to
do with the lethality of the round.
Machinegun – a fully automatic firearm that fires a rifle cartridge. Same bullet, same velocity, etc.. Just fires more rounds faster. Contrary to Hollywood and the press, most
machine guns are superbly accurate.
Submachine
gun – a fully automatic firearm that fires a pistol cartridge, such as the 9mm
or .45 ACP.
Okay. Enough of that.
There
are several very dangerous myths about the defensive use of firearms. One is that there is such a thing as a
“woman’s gun.” If anyone tries to show
you such a piece, get away from that person immediately. They are stupid. The effectiveness of a gun is measured by the
effect its bullets have on the target. If
one is to consider gender at all, it must be from the perspective that, should
the gun malfunction or not do its job, women are often less well-equipped to
handle hand-to-hand combat than are men, and therefore need a gun that is even
more reliable and more powerful than a “man’s gun.”
Another
myth is that a smaller-caliber, less powerful gun will be somehow more humane,
or less likely to kill someone. Bull
crap. Such a gun will likely guarantee
that you’ll have to shoot him more than once, and every study on gunshot wounds
says that a single hit from a large, slow bullet is much less likely to be
fatal than several hits from smaller, less powerful bullets. Not only does the number of wounds increase
the chance of fatality, but it wastes ammunition. You only have so many rounds,
and since predators often roam in packs, you might need those extras. I have personally witnessed a biker, who was
undoubtedly drunk, get shot 7 times in the chest with a .25 automatic, and yet
be on his feet when the police arrived, and cheerfully surrender the 10-lb
sledge hammer with which he had beaten to death the guy who shot him.
When
people talk about “killing power,” get out.
An icepick has the same killing power as a cannon. Dead is dead.
The critical factor in a gunfight is not how dead you can kill him, but
how fast can you incapacitate him. The
first and greatest objective of a gunfight is to stop the fight, NOW! Put him on his back and out of commission
NOW! That leaves you free to engage his
buddies, run like a rabbit, shoot him again, cut his throat, or, if you are of
saintly inclination, take his weapon and administer first aid. But before you have ANY options, AT ALL, YOU MUST
STOP THE FIGHT! Big and slow stops
the fight. Period. The biker mentioned above would probably have
died – sometime.
Now
for some basic physics. Don’t freak out;
this is going to be very general. There
are at least three factors in what they call “terminal ballistics,” or what a
bullet does to the target. One is the
diameter of the bullet – called “bore size,” or “caliber.” Another is the velocity of the bullet, and
the third is the design of the bullet.
The
bigger the bore, i.e., the larger the caliber, the more energy will be
transmitted to the target. One caliber
is 1/100th of an inch. A .50
caliber bullet is ½ inch in diameter. A fat bullet has more surface area to
shove through the target, which means it has to displace more tissue, which
means it transfers more of its energy into the target.
Penetration
– how far a bullet will go into a body – is more a function of mass than of
velocity. At rifle velocities, you might
get decent penetration with a lighter bullet, but at handgun velocities, you
need mass. (“Rifle velocities” tend to be in excess of 2000 feet per second, or
2000fps. Handgun velocities are usually under 1000fps, and almost never over
1200fps.) If your bullet has too much
penetration, it passes through the target and wastes its energy on whatever is
behind it, including walls and other people.
If your bullet has too little penetration, it may be stopped by a heavy
leather or down-filled jacket. The
bullet must get into his vitals and either paralyze his nervous system or break
major bones.
Too
much velocity can cause overpenetration.
To demonstrate this principle, set a glass on a tablecloth and jerk the
cloth from under it. If you jerk fast
enough, the glass will stay right where it is.
In terms of ballistics, your bullet drills a neat little hole, and the
guy may not even realize he’s been hit.
Big
and slow stops the fight. Period. It has been proven in every gunfighting
environment from barrooms to battlefields.
In my opinion, the .45 ACP (for Automatic Colt Pistol) is the ideal
combat cartridge. It’s almost ½” in diameter, and travels under 1000fps in most
variations. There is no reason a person of normal strength and dexterity can’t
handle a .45. The .40 S&W is also an
excellent choice, being only slightly below the .45. The .357 magnum is a crushing defensive
cartridge, but generates substantially more recoil and is prone to over
penetration. A .38 special in one of the new defensive loadings is little below
the .40, and produces far less recoil than a .357.
Why
is velocity not as important as bore size?
Put a vase on a tablecloth, then jerk the tablecloth out from under it
very quickly. The vase remains, right?
If a bullet is going faster than necessary, it can pass through the target
without imparting much energy to it, and just like that vase, the guy is still
standing there thinking, “That bitch shot me!
[pause] I think.” Rifles shoot at much higher velocities
because they are meant to shoot at longer ranges. A defensive handgun should shoot around 800
to 1100 feet per second. A rifle is, by
far, more powerful and effective at stopping people than is a handgun, but they
are much less handy in confined spaces, such as your car or a hallway, and they
are impossible to conceal. The role of
the handgun in combat is absolutely valid, but is also very specific: short range, instant access, and
concealability.
There
is an old saying that if you expect trouble, take a rifle. Another says to use your pistol to keep ‘em
off you until you can get to your rifle. If someone offers to coach you, watch
for indications that they may be giving you rifle advice for a handgun situation.
Imagine
your assailant having a target on his chest, with his heart and spine being in the
center, with concentric rings around it.
A big ol’ fat .45 bullet might be able to deliver a paralyzing shock in
the 2nd ring out, where a small bullet, like from a .22 caliber,
might have to be in the very center to have the same effect. Power and/or bore size will not compensate
for poor marksmanship, but it will give you a little bit of an edge. Nothing is certain in gunfighting noise, but,
in general, a bigger, more powerful bullet is less demanding of precision
shooting. This is why you need the most
powerful weapon you can physically handle.
Ah. I almost forgot recoil. Newton said, “For every action there is an
equal and opposite reaction.”
When you fire a gun, the bullet accelerates very rapidly inside the barrel. That acceleration produces force in the opposite direction. That force is recoil, or “kick.” Recoil takes some getting used to, but there is simply no way to make a bullet go fast enough to do its job without some recoil. At any given velocity, heavy bullets will kick more, and for any given bullet mass, higher velocity will kick more. The idea is to find a cartridge with that combination of mass and velocity that will do the job without hurting the shooter.
When you fire a gun, the bullet accelerates very rapidly inside the barrel. That acceleration produces force in the opposite direction. That force is recoil, or “kick.” Recoil takes some getting used to, but there is simply no way to make a bullet go fast enough to do its job without some recoil. At any given velocity, heavy bullets will kick more, and for any given bullet mass, higher velocity will kick more. The idea is to find a cartridge with that combination of mass and velocity that will do the job without hurting the shooter.
Here’s
one of my favorite myths: “A .45 kicks
so hard it will split your head if you don’t lock your elbow.” Baloney.
I have held my .45 with my thumb and two fingers as I pulled the trigger
with my left hand, and it just spun in a circle and came right back down into
my right hand. Now understand, there was
only one round in the weapon, and I was standing on a pad to protect the pistol
should I drop it.
The
two most dangerous, but widespread myths concern warning shots and the value of
“flashing” your gun. People will tell
you that you don’t even need to get bullets for your gun; just show it to ‘em,
and they’ll run. Bullshit and more
bullshit. People have two basic reflexes
when threatened: flight or fight. If you show your gun to a flight person, you
might – MIGHT – get away with it, but that reflex can be overridden by drugs,
booze, or utter terror. If you have a
fight person, you are going to have to shoot him, anyway, and maybe even sooner
than otherwise. I have stood, gun in
hand, in front of a young man who had ripped his shirt open was screeching at
me, “You think you’re bad, old man?
Shoot me, motherfucker! You ain’t
got the balls to shoot me! Come on, you
white motherfucker! Shoot me!...” and so
on and so forth. I ended up having to
shoot him, anyway, because he was full of angel dust and Budweiser, and totally
unaware that I had beaten him to within an inch of his life.
Warning
shots are much the same. This is for anyone who still thinks Joe Biden is not the
idiot’s idiot. People will tell you
that if you fire a shot into the air, the bad guys will run. Bull….
Well, you get the picture. A
warning shot gives away the fact that you are armed. It allows him to say he heard a shot, thought
you were shooting at him, and was therefore justified in blowing you away. If you were hidden, it gives away your
position. It endangers innocent
bystanders because, even though you were warning the bad guy, that bullet
thought it was on a deadly errand, and it WILL go somewhere. Even a shot into the air has to come down
sometime. Finally, a warning shot expends a round, and you might need that
round shortly because the bad guy might have friends, you might miss when you
fire for effect, or he may be stoned enough that your fire doesn’t have the
desired effect. If the situation
warrants busting a cap, put it in his center of mass.
In
general, you want to get the biggest gun you can handle, and most high-quality
arm you can afford. A $1500.00 Kimber or
Wilson is a superb arm, indeed, but a $400.00 Taurus or Springfield is just as
effective. If you can afford the Kimber,
go for it, but most folks can’t. Put the
money you save on the gun into practice ammunition and a good training program.
Get a
gun you are comfortable with, that is, with one that fits naturally into your
hand and feels good. There is a sensual
element in the feel of the right pistol.
I felt it the first time I ever picked up a single action Colt cavalry
model. It was instantly an extension of
me. You’ll know it when you feel
it. If you like a gun, you are more
likely to practice with it, and that increases your odds of hitting what you
mean to. Remember, though, that the
smaller the caliber, the greater the importance of accuracy. No matter how good you are in practice, you
will not be anywhere nearly that good in a fight. Your target will be moving, maybe lunging or
even shooting at you, you will be blown sky-high on adrenaline and stress,
you’ll have tunnel vision, and you’ll go deaf.
Your entire nervous system shunts all resources to whatever is necessary
to stay alive. You’ll forget to breathe, blink, or
swallow. The muscle patterns inculcated
by practice will take over. If you
haven’t practiced enough, all of the distractions will still apply, but you
won’t have the established patterns to rely on.
Going
to the range once a month is not enough.
Once a week is a minimum for the first 1000 rounds, and a good coach is
above price. Make your practice
realistic. Almost all gunfights occur at
less than 10 feet, and a lot of them inside 5 feet. Getting your gun out and into play is the
first problem you will face, so study and practice how you will store or carry
it. Spend money on a good holster. Carrying it in your purse is a good way to
lose it to a purse snatcher, or be caught fumbling among your makeup while he’s
wailing on you. Have a way to store it
safely when not in use, especially if you have kids around, or if strangers are
frequently in your home, but remember the point of having the gun, in the first
place is to allow you to do deadly harm; a gun that is 100% safely stored is
likely to be inaccessible when you really need it.
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