Stack the Deck

Last night I had the pleasure of teaching a group of 8 women. During the class, we discussed briefly why we recommend a larger gun over a smaller gun.  I admitted that I had at one point purchased one  of the smaller semi-automatic handguns, a Sig Sauer p328 to be exact.

It was my "pretty" gun.  And it was indeed pretty.  I loved it!  But I didn't feel confident in using it for self-defense.  I never carried it.  Not even once.

Let me tell you my story....

I grew up in southern Indian where everybody is pretty much expected to own a gun.  I grew up around them but never had much interest in them.  Guns were not good or bad, they just were part of life.

When I married my husband, he had grown up in northern California and had no exposure to guns at all and was not a fan.  His position was that, "we will have no guns in our home".   For me, that was an odd way to think, but it wasn't an issue because I didn't feel a need to own a gun.  I live in a nice neighborhood.  I have good neighbors who do a good job of looking out for each other.  I am married, so there is a man around the house.  The police station is just a few streets over from my house.  I raised two boys, so there were 3 males around the house for a time.  One of those boys grew up to be a police officer so for a while, a cop lived at our house.  I don't go to dangerous places and I don't hang out with dangerous people, so I was the lady who always felt safe ... until I didn't.

Some years ago a man started attending our church who had a really nasty criminal past.  We had to set some pretty firm limits with him in order to protect our congregation, particularly our children.  He did not take very kindly to that.  In fact, he became so enraged that a man in our church had to identify himself as a police officer and escort him off the property.  This man was very, very angry .. at my husband.

And I began to wonder ... what would I do if he came to our house sometime when my husband wasn't around?  I thought I would feel better if I had some way to defend myself if I had to.  So my husband who had always said we would not have guns in our home, looked at me and said, "You should feel safe in your own home, go buy a gun."   And I did.

I bought a Smith & Wesson .38 special, snub nose revolver. 

I knew that now that I was a gun owner I needed to take a class and learn how to be responsible with it.  Going to the range and shooting is one thing, owning the gun and being responsible for it is another. 

I signed up for a class and quickly realized that I had bought the wrong gun.  I shot well with it, but had not taken into account a few very important considerations.

1. Under duress, in a deadly force encounter, I may miss. I'm a decent shot but in under those circumstances I will be experiencing lots of adrenaline rushing through my body, I will likely have a moving target, and I will have to make life and death decisions in just a few seconds of time. 
2. I may have to shoot my attacker more than once to make him stop.  While it is never our intention to kill, very often one shot, even when well placed, does not stop the attack.  If the attacker is cranking on some kind of drug, he may not even realize he has been shot. 
3. Bad guys don't always come by themselves.  Sometimes they bring friends. 

I looked at my 5-shot revolver and knew I needed something more.  My next purchase was a GLOCK.

The small Sig Sauer p238 was not ever my "carry gun".  It was purchased to be my "pretty gun" that I treated myself to. 

Why was it not my carry gun when it is clearly smaller and easier to conceal?

• Smaller guns tend to malfunction more frequently than larger guns.  We see that all the time on the range.
• Smaller guns do not hold as many rounds as larger guns.  In a gunfight, no one wishes for fewer rounds. 
• Smaller guns are generally harder to manipulate.  Very often people struggle with them. 
• Smaller guns are not as accurate as larger guns.  In a gunfight I am going to lose accuracy for all of the reasons mentioned above.  I do not want to lose accuracy because I have a gun that is less accurate.  

My advice is to stack the deck in  your favor as much as you can.  There are a lot of things we do not have control over.  We don't have control over when we will have a car accident.  We don't have control over when we will have a heart attack.  And we don't have control over when a criminal will choose to try to make us his next victim.  You do have control over what tool you use to fight with and how much training you acquire to use that tool effectively.  Stack the deck in YOUR favor.