Gun owners?

A .22 is garbage for self defense. Especially to a big person or someone on drugs, it's like a bee sting. The minimum I would ever recommend (and the NRA would back me on this) for self defense is a .38. I have a Glock .40 that I am VERY happy with and use as my self defense pistol.

a good question to ask yourself is ... " do you want something that will just stop an attacker "? or do you " want something that will blow a hole six inches wide in an attacker"? In other words, do you wanna stop an attacker or kill the attacker? All guns can kill but your more likely to blow a hole through someone with a .357 than a .22. Can you live with the fact you killed someone? BTW it doesnt do you any good if you cant control your weapon, sometimes lighter and smaller is the best way to go.

It is really disconcerting to log onto a health and fitness site and see a thread about guns. With pictures of guns.

I know it's not the first thread on this subject, and it won't be the last, but urgh :frown:

It's kinda scaring the crap out of me. I only know a handful of people (relatives) who own guns and those that do use them for hunting, otherwise they're locked safely away.

The whole concept weirds me out big time. They're simply not necessary.

a good question to ask yourself is ... " do you want something that will just stop an attacker "? or do you " want something that will blow a hole six inches wide in an attacker"? In other words, do you wanna stop an attacker or kill the attacker? All guns can kill but your more likely to blow a hole through someone with a .357 than a .22. Can you live with the fact you killed someone? BTW it doesnt do you any good if you cant control your weapon, sometimes lighter and smaller is the best way to go.

You best be blowing a hole clean through someone if you're shooting at someone. Too many sue happy people suing people after breaking into their homes and getting hurt. No maiming.

It is really disconcerting to log onto a health and fitness site and see a thread about guns. With pictures of guns.

I know it's not the first thread on this subject, and it won't be the last, but urgh :frown:

I'm offended by your offense.

I didn't say I was offended, I said it was disconcerting. And I'm sorry to everyone that annoyed, but...

For many of us in countries where gun ownership is not legal or not common, the only time we come across guns is when we read in the papers of someone going on a killing spree - which leads us to associate them with blood and violence and grief. Which in the context of a health forum, is a bit unexpected and disconcerting. .

However, it is interesting from a cultural perspective to see how very normal this kind of chat is to Americans - different countries, different norms.

It is really disconcerting to log onto a health and fitness site and see a thread about guns. With pictures of guns.

I know it's not the first thread on this subject, and it won't be the last, but urgh :frown:

It's kinda scaring the crap out of me. I only know a handful of people (relatives) who own guns and those that do use them for hunting, otherwise they're locked safely away.

The whole concept weirds me out big time. They're simply not necessary.

You have no idea how many rapes are prevented every day because of a firearm, do you? A firearm makes a 100 pound woman just a powerful as a 250 aggressive man. Bad guys are everywhere. They are an evil necessity.

You could get way overwhelmed with the choices to pick a gun for yourself.

You'll need to ask yourself those questions.

Could you picture yourself to kill someone when you are under an immediately danger? If yes then you are on the right track. If not, calling 911 is your friend for now.

The size of gun and weight. You need to put that in the consideration. I am sure you don't want to carry the "brick" of Glock 30 around with you. You would want to carry a light gun so it won't be a burdensome for you.

You will need to pick up the gun and aim at the target quickest as possible to see if the gun is for you (less than 1 sec). If you couldn't aim it well then maybe that gun isn't for you. 99.9% of the time you'll grab the gun and shoot. There won't be a time to give you a 10 seconds to pick up the gun, take safety off (if there is one), take an aim, a breathe, then pull the trigger. It will be all sudden incident, so you might want to put that in your mind.

Could you maintenance the gun easily? If you couldn't maintence it then it isn't for you. Is it expensive to maintenance it? Kimber and 1911 are very expensive to maintenance them. You will have to keep it cleaned and lubed. They are like Ferrari while Glock is like Honda. With Glock, you could shoot 15,000 without cleaning it and it still going strong without a problem. There are several youtubes on that.

Could you afford to feed the bullets to the gun? 10mm, .45 ACP, .357 SIG are the most expensive calibers to feed, unless you reloads.

I strongly recommend you to buy a Glock gun. You could find $400 used Glock 19 easily out there. Glock has only one safety and that is the trigger. If you don't touch the trigger then it is safe. I personally don't like the safety switch on the guns because it takes up one valuable second to switch the safety off during the very critical monment. You might have forgot to turn the safety off during the most valuable monment of your life. There are many incidents that could have saved their life if there wasn't a safety on their guns. There are many professional gun comptiters that forgot to turn the safety off during the comptitietions. That is something you need to consider with the purchase of a gun.

Glock is like an AK-47 in many ways. It is extremely easy to maintenance. There are many modifications to the gun in the market. You could shoot several calibers in a specific Glock model. For example with Glock 30, you could shooot 9mm, .357 sig, .40, 10mm in that model.

The bottom line is that you need to find the gun that you could shoot without considering the gun's safety, fumbling around with it, and very ease to aim and shoot.

Always, when you have to shoot at someone, shoot to kill.

So... you're basically all Americans right?

Not all Americans are so crazy, though. I find this entire thread utterly bizarre. It's so uncommon. I don't associate with anyone who owns a gun or thinks they might possibly need one for any kind of protection.

If it bothers you, why are you in here? Hopefully, it's to get an education, and have an open mind.

There's some good advice in this thread, I'll just throw in a few tidbits and recommendations.

Stick with the established names in handguns. That means Smith & Wesson, Ruger, Glock, Sig Sauer, Springfield, HK, CZ, and Beretta.

I would NEVER recommend the following brands for self defense: Jennings, Star, Taurus, Lorcin, Phoenix, Davis, Bryco, Jiminez, Raven, Charter Arms, and Hi-Point (I know Hi-Points can be reliable, but they're ungodly heavy and awkward. Taurus and Charter Arms have terrible track records for reliability. I experienced that firsthand. The others are total garbage)

I wouldn't recommend a 1911 to a beginner, hence the reason many 1911 manufacturers weren't mentioned above. They are finicky beasts and their magazines are even more temperamental, especially with hollow points.

9mm or 38 special is the smallest I'd consider for concealed carry. My personal carry guns are chambered in 9mm,9mm, .357mag, .45acp, and .45acp.

Home defense is a whole different ballgame, there's no need for concealment so feel free to go big. The 12 or 20 gauge pump shotgun is popular for good reason. My bump-in-the-night guns include an AR-15 and Springfield XD-45 Tactical, both wear weaponlights to identify and blind the intruder.

I know a few manufacturers have come out with uber-compact .380's in recent years, but they generally have miniscule sights, low capacity, kick way too much for their power output, and they have such strong recoil springs people have a difficult time racking the slide.

Hopefully some of that helps. Feel free to message me with any questions/comments.