While watching the Outdoor Channel on TV I ran across a short commercial featuring Larry Potterfield of MidwayUSA.com. He was demonstrating how to rate your concealed carry handgun. It was an interesting way of rating the defense factor of the gun and its owner. The system is based on the owner’s ability and type of gun used for defense, it measures the response time to for the first bullet to hit the target, the number of successive shots on target in the first 3 seconds. Points are awarded for the first shot, then the number of on target successive shots, then a lookup chart is provided that gives the knockdown factor of the bullet used. The total score is the rating of the shooter’s skill and gun capability combined. The system provides a basis for comparing your weapons results to others in the list. I like how this works, it removes the subjective or opinionated information from the equation and provides an objective score.

Well I’ve discussed a shotgun, handgun and I guess another handgun as a solution to self defense for the home. The choice of a semi-automatic pistol was the best for me. The physical size, stopping power and ability to hang a light on it were all pluses in my book. The fact that I can easily and safely store it also helped my choice. There is also something to be said about its portability. I confine that discussion to a different posting later and while I didn’t discuss cost, a handgun is likely to cost more than a shotgun. But that didn’t factor in my decision.

There are many reasons to have and not have protection for one self. In the end it made sense to me to have something for the home where I can defend myself and loved ones and do so effectively. To purposefully arm oneself for defense is a personal decision, with many possible consequences, only after one has conducted their own research should they decide whether gun ownership is for them.