Hand gun selections.

Please see my disclaimer below. (search keyword disclaimer)

I have been asked a few times from different people "what handgun is best for me." This very question has been asked to fire arm professional 100's of time. While I am not an industry leading expert, I can read. More importantly I can compile. I thought I would post the list of considerations a person must look at when purchasing their firearm. These arent in any particular order.

1) You must consider what the fire arm is to be used for. I have a .22lr for target/sport shooting. It is a very good source of cheap recreation and its good to practice sight alignment, trigger control, and other fundamentals. It is not, however, general considered a good self defense tool. Although most experts agree something is better than nothing.

2) Caliber. I don't think any one factor causes more controversy in firearm discussions. The general rule is: Get the largest caliber firearm you can control, and get solid hits time and again. For me that may mean a .357mag (Ill come back to this) but for some one of smaller stature that may mean a .40 s&w, perhaps even 9mm. I would not consider any caliber smaller than a 380 for personal defense. The biggest gun in the world wont do you any good if you cant hit the target. But as I said previously anything is usually better than nothing.

3) Your location. I said some one like me would be able to fire a .357 mag accurately and consistently but that doesn't mean it would neccessarily be my 1st choice. One word: overpenetration. After a legal shooting a few things are going to happen one being that you are going to go to court and you are going to have to explain every single shot you fired. That's going to be a very bad situation if your .357mag or .44mag went throught the badguy (who you may have been legally entitled to use deadly force against) through the window and out into little Johnny who was riding his bike down the street. Even if you dont hit some one, a cival trial for property damage would be bad enough. (Begin Tangent 1)There are several types of amunition that can help prevent this frangible ammuntion designed to fragment and disperse upon impact, or hollow point bullets. Let me get one misconception out of the way conscerning hollow point bullets, they are not "cop killer" bullets. In fact they are nearly useless against the body armor most of our law enforcement professionals use. That was a media campaign launched by anti gun activists. You can do your own research into that. Hollow point bullets expand upon impact helping to disperse its energy. This does two things, increases stopping power against an assailant and reduces the likelyhood of the bullet over penetrating.

To be continued!! (I need to fix dinner)

4) Fit.

5) Price.

6) Commitment.

7) Safety

8) Utility