Hey everyone,
I’m in the process of buying my first handgun for home defense.
What are some things you would recommend I purchase to complement the gun in terms of maintenance, storage, and other must-haves or even nice-to-haves?
Already on my list is a carrying case, fire-proof safe, dummy rounds for dry-fire practice, and a good pair of ear plugs for the range. Not sure if I should throw in a speed-loader with that or not. I feel like I’m missing some stuff, hence this post.
For the future, I plan to build the gun out. I have already decided on purchasing an optics-ready pistol, so I can throw a red-dot on it down the line, and also a light.
Looking forward to your responses, cheers!
Ranged self defense weapons are decidedly better as they don’t require you to be in range of a threat to utilize them. Be that a firearm or even just pepper spray.
Are you familiar with the Tueller Drill? It is also called the 21 foot rule. Basically it is the distance that a melee weapon is effective. Look there are a lot of variables when it becomes real world, but it has been shown empirically that to draw a fire a gun successfully requires the attacker to be greater than 20 feet away. Btw 20" has the attacker almost touching the gun as you fire. When talking purely about home defense it seems very likely that any encounter will lead to a grapel. Personally I won’t want a gun in the mix at that point.
And for the what if you are already drawn and ready to fire argument. That seems like an edge case to me. The home is a “safe place” for our brain. It is where we relax and let our guard down not where we expected to be attacked.
Yes I am. I don’t think the circumstances behind that are directly applicable as it is focused on drawing from a holster (rather than a low/high ready) which isn’t applicable in most home defense scenarios.
In a hypothetical where someone has attempted a break in on my residence while I’m inside I’ve probably realized before they know where I am.
The Tueller principle states that they can get you within 21ft…if you don’t move. It is taught to military and police officers not to say “so you may as well not even have these guns we’re giving you,” rather to say “move laterally as you draw if possible.” Often accompanied by phrases like “move off ‘the X’” (“the X” referring to the spot you’re standing while the encounter/your draw starts.)
Furthermore even then I’d rather be able to shoot from a thumb pectoral index and use my left as a leveraging arm if need be than be in an entangled fight over whatever contact weapon he brought, and that’s assuming I’m lucky enough that the violent intruder doesn’t have a gun of his own, which is frankly a bold assumption. Also assumes he’s alone and didn’t bring the typical 2-4 friends.
Feel free to make your own choices regarding self defense, by all means, but you fundamentally misunderstand the Tueller principle.