Home Defense Gun

Every homeowner should consider having a home defense gun. Times are coming when the homeowner will regret not having such a weapon. It may not be terrorists at the door, maybe only a marauding animal. In any case, having a home defense gun will give peace of mind to whoever has one.

The choice then comes to what kind of home defense gun one should have. The primary choices are handgun, shotgun or rifle. The fact is, it depends. The factors to consider are where the home is. Is it a rural setting where there might be animals to defend your family from? Also in a rural setting you may want to keep intruders at a far distance. In this case a rifle would prove valuable.

In a suburban or urban setting, a shotgun might be of more value. The rifle can definitely overpenetrate walls and even travel between houses and hit an innocent neighbor. Pistols can also do this but not is so many circumstances. If overpentration is a worry, than the shotgun loaded with birdshot is the best way to go. Birdshot to the chest will take any intruder down even if they are on drugs or in a blind rage. There is a misconception with shotguns that they cannot miss. That is not the case. Without practice and care, it is quite easy to miss with a shotgun. Also due to the length of the shotgun, many people are disarmed by the intruder before they can take measures to defend themselves. It can also be hard to safely store a loaded shotgun, especially if there are children in the house.

For the reasons above, I tend to recommend a pistol for a home defense gun. There is a chance of overpentration of walls, but in most cases the round will not exit a building. Also there is much less chance for the home defender to have the pistol taken out of their hands as in the case of the shotgun or riffle. The pistol does need practice to accurately engage a target, but any gun needs practice to use effectively.

The best thing to do is to go down to the local gun store, speak to the person behind the counter. Explain what you want to do ask them for a recommendation. I would do this at several stores. Make sure you sign up for a gun safety class if you have never handled a gun before. Even if you are familiar with guns, go down to the local firing range and make sure you get used to your new home defense gun. Start out with dry fire. Then move to live fire, moving very slowly making sure your accuracy stays high. Only when you are constantly dead on, should you increase your speed.

Gun safety is very important for your home defense gun. Guns are very powerful and we have to take the care that is part of gun ownership. First of all, you must consider your gun as always loaded. Back in my Special Forces days, we would recite this every time we went to the firing range. No matter how many times we checked the weapon, we would always treat it in a safe manner. Never point a gun at something you are not willing to destroy/kill.

When firing your gun, either on the range or in defense of your home. You need to know what or who your target is. You have to identify it. You need to know what is in line with your target. Is there something or someone that will jump or dart in the line of fire. You need to know what is behind your target. If the round over penetrates, will something be hit. Always we be deadly serious with your home defense gun.

You need to protect children in your household when you have a home defense gun. Of course children should know basic gun safety and should be taught that guns are not playthings. But sometimes they forget, or you might have visiting children in your household that have not had gun safety training. For this reason, the weapon needs to be secured from the reach of children.

Finally your home defense gun needs to be secure so that it cannot be stolen and used to commit a crime in either your home or another person's home. Keep it hidden and locked up so that it is ready when you need it.

Some basic gun safety will keep those around you safe and your home defense gun ready when you need it.

Nice article over on Safety Solutions Academy. Most home defense guns will end up setting around for months if not years on end before being used in an emergency. You always should do a function check every month or so.1025062463 a99057ea68 Self Defense Handgun Mechanical Function Check

Self-Defense Handgun Mechanical Function Check

One of the primary considerations in a self-defense handgun is the reliability of that handgun. People have developed many methods to determine whether or not a particular handgun is functioning properly, but most of those methods require life fire verification. While this should be done with EVERY self-defense firearm, it is not practical to perform a live fire test after every cleaning and reassembly of a gun.

Below you will find a process to verify proper mechanical function of your self defense handgun without needing to test fire. This process does not guarantee compatibility between your self-defense handgun and your self-defense ammunition that must be confirmed through live fire. What this test does tell you is that you handgun is in proper mechanical order.

source: http://www.firearmstactical.com/briefs25.htm

Function Check

Function check is a manual verification of all the weapon's mechanical features, usually after cleaning and assembly, to ensure the gun is in proper working order. After verifying the chamber is clear, a typical function check might include:

Rack the slide to cock the hammer/striker.

Position the safety lever, if equipped, to the engaged position.

Press the trigger to verify the hammer/striker does not fall.

Position the safety lever to the disengaged position.

Press the trigger to verify the gun operates in single action mode.

Press the trigger to verify the gun operates in double action mode.

Press and hold the trigger to the rear while racking the slide to verify the sear engages and holds the hammer/striker.

Press on the rear of the hammer to verify it does not drop.

Release trigger, retract slide approximately 1/4-inch, press trigger and verify hammer/striker does not drop.

Release slide and verify it locks into battery.

Insert an empty magazine into the magazine well, retract the slide and verify the magazine actuates the slide lock to lock open the slide.

Remove the empty magazine, retract the locked-open slide, verify the slide lock disengages and ease the slide forward.

Point the muzzle upward, insert a wooden pencil down the bore, rubber eraser end first, until it rests on the firing pin hole of the breechface. Press trigger and observe the pencil jump slightly when struck by the firing pin (for large bore autos you might have to wrap tape around the pencil to center it on the firing pin hole)

Additional function checks may include verifying proper operation of:

hammer drop safety

decocker

grip safety

half-cock feature

magazine disconnect

If your owner's manual does not include a function check procedure, you can develop your own procedure using this paragraph as a guide.

The last thing I would want to happen is for my home defense gun to fall in the hands of a burglar. To have your personal weapon used in a crime against someone else is a complete loss of responsibility. So, take measure to make sure your home defense weapon does not fall into a burglar's hands. I like the use of hidey holes.

A hidey hole is a hiding place you have somewhere in your house that you can access quickly but is not recognizable as a hiding place to a potential gun thief. If you ever watched one of those television shows where former burglars cased a house and broke into it as a case study you would have learned that thieves want to get in and out very quickly. If you take the time to hide your weapons they will most likely move on. A hidey hole can be only big enough for a pistol or big enough for you to enter and to store rifles and shotguns. Smaller versions include book safes that resemble a book but hold the weapon. You can also place a safe behind a picture on the wall like you see in the old movies. I tend to like safes with a keypad. That way the weapon is secure but easy to access in a hurry. Bigger rooms can be in a basement, behind bookcases, in spare bedrooms where the doorway had been blocked off. In one of my old Special Forces team rooms, we had a special room entered through a wall locker where we would have an adult beverage or two after training.

Hidey holes can be used for valuables also. Once again, I would use a safe to make sure that they are secured. Make sure the safe is bolted to the floor so that it doesn't become a handy way for the thieves to carry off your things. You don't like to think of your home being burglarized, but being prepared will keep you from losing your own protection.

Take a walk though your home; identify what needs to be hidden. That will give you an idea of the size you need for the hidey holey. Hidey holes are only restricted by your budget and imagination.