Lately I’ve been having a lot of really great conversations with people in the training industry who are much more experienced than myself and as a result of this I’ve come to some conclusions that I’d like to share. As always please take them for what they are, and keep in mind all I’m really trying to do is give everyone enough information to draw their own conclusions, or to explain the reasoning/logic behind my own decisions.
Without sounding obtuse, the first basic premise we NEED to accept is that we are all different. I know this sounds incredibly basic, and counter to the “all men are created equal” bit, but for some reason when we begin to discuss self defense or even firearms in general people become so personally vested in their own choices that they become offended when others do not follow suite. I’m going to make everything incredibly simple. What it all boils down to is this:
- Pick a gun that works…
- In a caliber you shoot well…
- In a size that you will consistently carry…
That’s it, that’s the extent of my gun wisdom and if I’m being honest, 66% of it I stole from Dr. Roberts. Now, I can expand on a lot of that stuff, for instance I can change the second to “In a service caliber you shoot well…” and then discuss why the FBI ballistic test protocols are so very important, or discuss shootability or capacity limitations, but if I start going down that rabbit hole unprompted I begin miss the point. If I just stick to distilling everything down to it’s basic form, that’s what we end up with.
People ask me all the time what I carry, the problem with that is that just because a Glock 34 9mm works well for me right now does not mean that it’s going to be a practical carry gun for everyone, or that everyone should go get themselves one RIGHT. THIS. SECOND. The opposite is true really, example: Greg Ellifritz recently mentioned in passing that his grass cutting gun is a 8 shot .22 LR revolver that he wears clipped to the inside of his gym shorts. Now I can come up with a ton of reasons why I don’t feel comfortable carrying a .22 LR revolver. The thing that we should all remember though is that just because I can come up with those reasons doesn’t mean that Greg is wrong. That small little .22 clipped to his waistband sure beats the Glock 19 he left in the house while he’s mowing his lawn, all things considered, and even if it doesn’t how does his carry gun effect me, really?
So the next time you find yourself passionately arguing with someone over their PERSONAL choices keep the above 3 items in mind and then ask yourself how it matters to you in the first place…
