As gun “aficionados” I think we tend to sometimes overthink our carry choices or at least look down upon those that make “lesser” decisions when it comes to what gun a person decides to carry on daily basis. Terms like “mouse gun” as well as “ineffective” and “weak” get thrown around. Some things got me thinking…
I’ve had the ability due to my work to see all sorts of people shot, stabbed, and bludgeoned with all sorts of different things in all sorts of manners in the past fifteen plus years. I’ve seen it real time, right after, and when they’re being cut up on the medical examiner’s table later on. What I’ve learned is that thanks to Hollywood, gel tests, the internet, and books we have very unrealistic expectations of what bullets, knives, and fists do and don’t do.
I’ve seen guys take multiple 7.62x39mm rounds in the torso and walk around fairly unaffected, one-shot stops with 22 LR from a pistol at distance, a guy who shot himself in the head with a 38 Special and then was able to tell me why he did it for 20 minutes before he died, and a guy that was stabbed nine times in the back with a Ka-Bar (and I’m talking deep stab wounds) walk himself into the hospital and completely recover. I won’t bore you with more, but if I counted I’m well into the hundreds of people shot/stabbed/bludgeoned/run over and the one thing that holds true for each one is that each one is completely unique. You cannot predict what force upon the human body (or animal) will do in the real world with all the different variables that may or may not be present, you can only do your best to control the variables you can.
I’ve carried lots of different guns concealed over the years. When I was a freshly minted policeman right out of the academy I would never consider leaving the house without a Glock 22 or at least a Glock 27 and extra mag at bare minimum. Somehow that changed as time went on to a S&W 442 in a pocket or ankle rig with a speed strip or two. Priorities change, as does fashion, our bodies, and for whatever reason sometimes as we age we get lazier with what we carry or at least we reprioritize. Where we go and what we “plan” on encountering sometimes affects what we carry, but the rule of thumb is at a bare minimum you should have some type of firearm if you legally can.
I’ve seen recently the argument on here that you need enough gun to take on multiple suspects such as during a terrorist attacks. Personally, if I could, I would have a rifle or shotgun on my person at all times, but the reality is that I cannot logistically do that. Yes, I know the quips from Jeff Cooper and Clint Smith about caliber and size, but realistically most people don’t wear 5.11 pants everywhere they go and dress around the gun they carry all the time. We often find ourselves at formal functions, our kids’ games, the neighbor’s house for an evening beer, out mowing the lawn, and a myriad of other places where carrying around larger guns becomes difficult. Many people just leave the Glock 19 or (insert other pistol here) home “for just this one time” and go unstrapped.
I bring all this up because of a rookie female cop I think of as a little sister. She’s small, I mean a very tiny girl, and bought a S&W Shield as her “off-duty” gun (she carries an M&P in uniform). Not a bad choice. But she is so small (5’3” under 100 lbs…and of course stylishly dressed with tight jeans and shirt) that she can’t carry it on her person, so it lives in a purse (the Shield looks almost full size when she holds it). She recounted to me the other day about running into a store “really quick” when she was off-duty. No purse, so no gun. Of course, as luck would have it, a parole she had arrested a few weeks prior was in the store. The interaction went fine, but all the “what if’s” started to happen.
I asked this young lady why she doesn’t just buy a smaller gun she can keep on her person all the time. She told me that she had tried shooting a Ruger LCP and found it to “too hard to shoot” (recoil). I suggested a 25 ACP or 32 ACP and she groaned and started to recount the “mouse gun” stories like we have all heard in the past. I then asked, “Would you have felt better with any gun than no gun?” The response was, “Well, yeah.” There you have it.
We look down on little guns like Beretta Jetfires, Keltec P32’s and the like because there are better options. But the reality is that having an option is better than no option at all. A Baby Browning 25 ACP has proven for over a century to be extremely reliable, easy to shoot, and small enough to literally go anywhere…even on a small lady’s person. We just think less of the round it fires. Thousands upon thousands of people have died though due to that diminutive caliber, and many lives have been saved because of it. In fact, I think I may have to pick one up to let my little sister try out…
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Originally Posted by KevH
