Darren Roberts
Get the right CCW weapon
There is alot of excitment about small frame large caliber sidearms that are being manufactured and sold with the ever expanding CCW market as the prime target. While these weapons are easy to conceal, will they do the job intended when you purchase them.
When considering a CCW weapon you have to choose the best weapon FOR YOU. You will want to test fire various weapons and compare by size (barrel length), weight and caliber. A simple method for equal comparison is listed below.
These drills are designed for standard target at 20'.
1. Clear and fire - what is the time it takes you to clear your weapon from its usual concealment spot and fire a shot on target. It is important to draw your weapon from where you will most likely be carrying it. The likelyhood of having your weapon in your hand at a time of attack is very small.
2. accuracy - Most individuals at the begginer and novice stage of experience do not realize how inaccurate small framed weapons are.
To test accuracy - After drawing and getting your first hit on target, continue to fire and count how many rounds are placed on target in three (3) seconds. Small frame, short barrel weapons will fall short in this catagory.
3. Knock down power - The majority of situations where an individual will be using a sidearm as primary defense is in an area less than 30ft from you to an assailant. This distance only allows for 1 to 2 shots from even experienced shooters. If you take your score from time to target and accuracy charting you will find that it usually translates to maybe 1 shot on target before your assailant reaches you. That is if you can even get your gun cleared. So while the pink .22 and .32 handguns are "adorable" they simply do not have the One Shot Stop factor needed in a real life and death situation. Add to that the extreme recoil of smaller framed weapons the chances of getting off a second accurate shot is near immposible. The first shot has to count.
1. Clear and fire
This has to do with situational awareness, skill, and . . . . . . .
You are out of time! You need to shoot, right now!
You can not react if you are not aware.
2. accuracy
Rather than small framed weapons are inaccurate, I think it would be better put that it is harder/more difficult/time consuming for a person to gain enough skill to hit as well with a small frame handgun than with a larger one.
(With enough practice I can draw and fire 5 rounds of .38 special from a S&W Model 60 into a 8" center of mass circle at 5 yards in about 2.5 seconds from a random signal.)
3. Knock down power
I suppose you actually mean stopping power. Remember physics, equal and opposite reactions and all that.
I do get your point though, which is "Choose enough gun for the job".
Unfortunately people internalize all of their experience in life to some extent. Even those experiences which are purely fictional, as in movies and television. By the age of 21 Americans have seen thousands of people shot and knocked off their feet, blow up, and instantly killed by any imaginable assortment of firearms and projectiles, in the movies and television. Even though we know this is fictional, we still (to some extent) internalize these experiences and they influence our expectations on how an adversary should react to getting shot in a defensive shooting. Many people fully expect that if they shoot someone, that is all it takes to win. Problem immediately solved.
They fail to take into account that the primary mechanism of incapacitation of a bullet is hemorrhaging and resulting blood pressure loss. This takes time (many seconds, which is a long time in a gunfight) depending upon the degree of hemorrhaging caused by the bullet or bullets. I submit that all defensive handgun cartridges are under powered. That is why it is taught to shoot twice (for some cartridges and training three times) to center of mass, assess and proceed as necessary.
