General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I went to buy a gun yesterday. [View all]sarisataka
(19,204 posts)When people ask me about which gun they should buy I ask the following questions:
How familiar are you with guns? If it is a novice (and it usually is) I tell them you must be willing to learn to handle a gun confidently. It is not necessary to like them nor it is a bad thing if they still make you a little nervous. You just cannot be fearful. It is like handling a dangerous power tool, say a chainsaw. It may make you nervous to use it but you must handle it with confidence in yourself that you are in control.
Why do you want to buy a gun? Assuming the answer is self defense the follow up is are you prepared to handle the consequences of causing the death of a person? A gun is not to scare people off (though it is ideal if that happens) it is to stop and attack on your person. In stopping that attack you very well may end up killing them. There will be blood on your carpet, blood on your wall and quite likely blood on you. Expect to be arrested and have to go to trial where your every action will be questioned and second guessed. There will be nights you will lay awake rerunning that mental movie through your head second guessing yourself. You will find yourself a good therapist.
Not you may own that gun for 50 years, shoot it several times a year to keep the confidence in handling and never have to point it at a person ever. Congratulations, your life is good. But someday you may find you are pointing that gun at a person. You need to be mentally prepared to judge if your life is in danger, you are in the right to pull the trigger and there is no other option- you will have less than a quarter second to answer these affirmatively.
Oh and one last thing. You must invest in a device to secure your gun so absolutely no one else can touch it without your permission. If there is a worse scenario than having to defend yourself, it is knowing that another person used your gun to cause injury or death because you had not taken every precaution to prevent them from getting your gun.
I would recommend taking the course. It will help you decide if the choice is right for you. If the instructor is preaching faux badass bullshit that you must buy a gun, the commies are coming for you or it will somehow much you tough, leave and find a different instructor. A good one will teach you the skills but let you form your own opinions of what is best for you.