Originally Posted by
country1
There are so many incorrect statements in this post.
Fist of all, she needs to take a personal protection course that does not involve firearms. Look into taking some type of martial arts. Doing some strength training is also a good idea. Second, if she is going to handle a firearm, she should take a safety course first and work with a certified instructor. Once the fundamentals are down, take advanced courses. Proper instruction, training and practice are very important. You don't want to get shot because she was afraid of the intruder coming into the apartment.
A snubby is made for experienced shooters, not novices or the occasional shooter. Inexperienced shooter with a snubby equals a frustrated shooter (hard time hitting a 10 inch circle at 10 to 15 feet). The key is to hit your target every single shot, not fire hoping to hit your target. Where will the bullets that missed the target end up? Scary thought, especially in an apartment environment. A revolver with a 3" to 5" barrel can make a good house gun. You lose velocity and sight radius with the subby and gain muzzle flash and muzzle blast.
I personally would not own a firearm that had a magazine disconnect for personal protection at home or a carry gun. You have have the semi-auto shotgun, I will take a pump action.
Either you misunderstood the FBI agent, or they do not know much about firearms and their proper use for personal protection. I have witnessed many LEO and military who are not fundamentally sound in shooting a handgun. When they are taught the proper fundamentals, they are amazed at how much their accuracy and target acquisition improve.
Whose post had the incorrect statements?
To verify, YES, the FBI agent said to fire the gun empty. His point was that home invasion usually involves point blank shooting. A BIG room in a house is 20ft in one direction, so unless both the shooter and the assailant are standing with their backs to the walls, home invasion shootings will happen within 10ft.
Secondly, as a 15+ yr veteran of multiple martial arts, I very strongly disagree with you about the girl taking martial arts. "Strike and Run" self defense classes are MODERATE benefit, but in a home invasion situation, I'm not buying it. Training in a true martial art will give her a false sense of ability. This isn't a 1985 womens self defense video, it's real life. Having trained many martial artists myself over the last decade, unless this girl/woman is on the large size, then martial arts will be useless. A 200lb man with no training WILL overpower a 150lb or less woman. Period. The same would be said for a 150lb man, in my honest opinion. MAYBE you get lucky and the assailant doesn't have much perserverence and a broken nose will deter them, but in my professional opinion, if a 50+lb weight difference is involved, unless she's a blackbelt, she will not win. Martial arts for women is great for sport, but don't be mistaken that it'll save their life, Nike will save their life before Ninjutsu.
As far as "snub nosed" 2-3" vs a 3-5" revolver goes, now you're just splitting hairs. If she's inexperienced, she's not going to be very accurate with EITHER gun. I don't care whether it's 2" or 8", unless she practices with a handgun, she's not going to be very accurate. On the other hand, we're talking about 5 shots within 10ft. Either the guy is going to advance or retreat, but we're talking 10ft. If he runs, she wins, if she advances, then her 25yrd groups won't matter much anyway.
My philosophy for home defense is to kill the intruder, but if SHTF, don't get killed with your own gun. If I surprise you at night in your bedroom and you jump up for your shotgun, even as a MAN I guarantee you will not get a shot on me. Having been in exchanged fire situations in the past, the ONLY focus is on the gun. I'm grabbing your gun... Your long, unweildly gun. Even on a 20" shotgun, once I grab the barrel, it's useless to you. Whether it's a long gun or a handgun, I want the gun to be able in my hands, and disabled in his. Whether it's EMPTY, or has the mag removed, if I lose control of my gun, I don't want an intruder to be able to use it against me.
Additionally, a girl defending herself in the dark isn't an LEO. Her use of a gun is to defend herself and not get killed in the process. She's not going to maintain a sustained gun battle with an assailant, and an assailant isn't going to sustain a gun battle against her. A "wake up to a man in the room" situation is a race between her waking up and realizing danger, grabbing the gun and getting it on target and getting a shot off before the assailant covers 10ft... test it against your wife sometime. Use a kitchen timer, when it beeps, have her go for a brush on the nightstand, and you dive at the bed. Try it 10 times and keep track of who wins... You'll be surprised. I've demonstrated this same act using paintball guns.
I DO agree with you, however, and maybe you misunderstood my point, that a pump shotgun would be a much better choice than a semi-auto. I OWN semiauto shotguns for hunting and 3-gun competitions. The point of my post was that semiauto shotguns DO NOT make good home defense guns for female shooters. But then again, I'm still never convinced ANY long gun is better than ANY handgun for home defense.
Read some statistics on home invasion shootings, then compare it to your own notes. You'll be surprised what the last 20yrs of police reports will tell you about the necessary weapon for home invasion defense.