What gun should I get

[polar chicks]

My hubby got me a Sig Sauer 380 a few years back and I just love that gun. I know you said you were a Marine so you will probably be cool under pressure, hubby is also a Marine. He thought this gun was good for me because I dont like the safety on a gun. I think if an intruder came in I would panic from waking up from sleep and forget to click off the safety and be at a disadvantage. So the point and fire guns are the ones I choose, plus i'm not packing this gun around so safety is not really an issue for me and no kiddies are around either.
I did have a dog come around over the summer and I was outside with my chickens. I was running around the house looking for a gun and could not even think about where a gun would be. Hubby had 3 in the house plus mine. The first gun I grabbed was the Mossberg 12 gauge pump action shot gun so even under pressure I forgot all about my 380. Luckily when I went back outside the dog had left and I stopped shaking about 20 minutes later. Talk about your first combat rush.

 

[kbarrett]

I've been following this thread with much interest. DH would like to get a gun for home protection. There are many reasons, he fears it won't be as easy to get one soon, he worries about the possible rise in crime as the economy worsens and mostly he just plain worries about us as he's gone most of the week.
As for myself I have concerns about having a gun in the house with a small child. I have a pretty healthy fear (possibly a phobia) of guns in general though my father & brothers were avid hunters and I was around them as a child I don't know how I would react having to handle one. For those of you that do have children what precautions do you take? When you go to purchase a gun do they let you test them out? As you can probably tell I have much research to do on this subject.....

 

[P@P@2four]

Hey ...

I've been thinking the same thing here. My wife is a pretty good shot and we have a 9mm in the house already, but well as someone else said, handguns can give a different "kick" than say a rifle/shotgun.

I'm thinking about getting her an FNH FiveseveN ... it fires a shortened "rifle" round at super high velocity, but has the kick of a .22. I've always heard the whole "knock down" power thing, but accuracy and a lot of rounds sort of makes up for that ... less kick more rounds per second ... plus the gun still packs a significant punch.

they are expensive though so that's kind of keeping me from getting one at the moment.

Good luck in your search and let us all know what you find.

 

[Buster]

I carry a .44 magnum for a side arm for bear when I hunt, but for home defense and a carry gun for every day stuff I would recommend a Springfield Arms XD .40 or .45. They are GREAT guns. Those are the next two guns that will be in my home. The .40 for my wife (she has her heart set on that caliber) and the .45 for me. We've shot a lot of semi-autos trying to decide which to get and that is the best bang for the buck in my opinion. (Sorry about the pun.) It would be well worth your time to look into them.

 

[Ellie_NY_chick]

I know it's been said already, but there must be a reading comprehension problem. Please - can we keep this on topic and keep the hystrionic politics out of it? If you want to keep your unfettered right to bear arms AND ammunition (as I do) then I would strongly suggest voicing your wishes loudly and often to your senators and congresspersons.

For me, there's nothing better than a nice S & W snub nose 38. It's easy to handle and reliable. It's the first gun I ever shot, and my grandfather taught me, so call me sentimental.

kbarrett, as for small children, all I can offer is how I was raised. It seems crazy to me now, but my grandfather actually used to give us unloaded guns to play with when we were little kids. "Don't point them at anybody" would be all he'd say! He showed us how to make bullets, and he'd take us to the firing range. I don't know how young I was, but I was very small - maybe 5.

We were taught all about guns - how to shoot them, clean them, but most of all - HOW TO RESPECT THEM. There was never an accident and we wouldn't have dreamed of touching those guns without permission.

I think if I had little ones in the house, I'd invest in a gun lock or a gun cabinet. Of course, that won't help you if you're too nervous to find the key if someone breaks in. The one time I did need to protect myself from an attack, I was shaking so bad I couldn't even get the switch pushed over on the can of pepper spray I had before the guy was grabbing at me. It fell on the ground. Luckily he was scared away by my screaming and didn't grab the can to use on me.

There just are no easy answers, are there?

 

[purplebaby]

Quote:
we have a great wall safe that is your fingerprint as the key... so i cant forget the combo!

 

[chickiebaby]

Okay, you people are totally scaring me. A few thoughts:

first of all, the phrase "New World Order" is from the Bush administration (41, that is) and has nothing to do with the incoming President or anyone associated with him.

second, our President-elect and your Commander in Chief, who was, by the way, supported by the majority of top military men from Colin Powell (Iraq) to Wesley Clark (Bosnia), is really not out to take your hunting rifles away.

Barack Obama (Barry to his friends) is a CONSTITUTIONAL LAW PROFESSOR, people. He has spent his life defending the Constitution, which happens to include a certain amendment dear to your hearts. President Bush was unable, when asked, to name parts of or recite any of the Constitution at all.

That book Obamanation was written by a wing-nut paranoid, lawsuit prone moron - read the wikipedia entry on the guy.

You chicken people are too smart for this trash talking nasty stuff.

Independence and self-reliance are dear to the hearts of many of us. But id-ing ammo is meant not to stop you purchasing it, but to stop thugs from shooting people and being untraceable. Because "guns don't kill people; people kill people." Isn't that what you like to say?

President Obama is not personally or politically interested in stopping you from deer hunting. (Though he and I might both agree that wounding wolves from a helicopter for fun and leaving them to die a painful death ain't exactly, ah, sportsmanlike; I hope some of you hunters agree)

Mods, I truly love you and I hope you don't shut this down pronto, which has happened to me before. Dissent is important -and American. The violent innuendo of this thread is not okay with me.

 

[Rosalind]

Quote:
I have a Rossi 0.38 and you know what, it does the job. I have lousy aim no matter how much I practice, I just don't have the coordination, so I need something big enough to do the job but not so big that I'd be killing the neighbors three blocks away if I miss. I highly recommend a revolver as a first handgun. I am just extra stupid or something, I wouldn't want to deal with a stuck cartridge in a semiauto in the middle of the night or in the dark, especially not in an emergency situation. Revolvers don't have that problem, they are more reliable and less maintenance. DH has a couple of semiauto hand-cannons, but he is a MUCH better marksman than me, and needs something that heavy-duty in case of bears.

I'm a big dumb softy, if a bear comes at me I just throw a sandwich as far away as I can and hope the bear chases it. Or else hide behind my guard dog. I gotta say, what REALLY works at dispatching errant neighbor dogs is a big, ferocious dog of your own. I've had much better luck siccing my Pyrenees on intruding critters than running to get the gun, ammo, etc.

 

[Reinbeau]

Quote:
We're not afraid he's going to take our hunting rifles away, he wants to take away our handguns. Can't be permitted.

Barack Obama (Barry to his friends) is a CONSTITUTIONAL LAW PROFESSOR, people. He has spent his life defending the Constitution, which happens to include a certain amendment dear to your hearts. President Bush was unable, when asked, to name parts of or recite any of the Constitution at all.

Barack Obama rails against the 'constraints' of the Constitution. He studied it to find ways around it. He doesn't want to abide by the wise words laid down hundreds of years ago by men who were trying to protect us from people just like Barack Obama and other lovers of big controlling government.

You keep saying he doesn't want to take away our 'hunting rifles'. That isn't the point. He wants to remove our means of self protection, something many, many, many of us hold very dear. You're right, we are smart enough to realize what's going on, and we want to be sure he doesn't get his way.

I'm sure the mods will shut this down now, and it's too bad, it should have been about what gun to buy, not how to save our rights to buy them. There is no 'violent innuendo' here, people who are scared of guns think any discussion of guns is 'violent'. They are tools, and yes, we do say guns don't kill, people kill - and they use many methods besides guns to do it. Piling more and more costly laws onto legal gun owners isn't going to solve anything, hasn't yet.

To the OP, before this gets locked - I've got several, a S&W 1911, a Glock Model 23, and a Kel-Tec .380 - the Kel-Tec is my personal carry, but that 1911 is a very accurate gun, tons of fun to shoot. We've got two of the G23s, when we're out in the woods together we carry them, interchangable mags comes in handy.​

 

[LoneCowboy]

Yes, I'm totally scared too. First thing the scares me is there are people out there who think the consitution is about hunting rifles and not balance of power.

The second thing is that people don't know what stay on topic means. So I'll attempt to stay on topic, even though I went to government school

Jody, you've got lots of good advice on guns. My main advice to you is stick with a name brand like Kimber, Glock, S & W, Springfield etc. The most important thing is that gun works when you need it too. I wish you were closer and I'd let you try out lots of different options. Good luck