The last couple of months I’ve been actively asked by local readers and listeners about first-time gun purchases. The popularity of this question is understandable and even expected given what’s happening. Beyond that, I believe every adult should be capable of protecting themselves and their loved ones when necessary, even without a pandemic going on. But telling everyone the same thing over and over is rather tiring, so this post will be an answer to everyone at once.
First of all, you need to determine your purpose. Why exactly you’re buying a weapon strongly influences the choice. As a rule, beginners want to acquire one thing for all occasions, and this is possible, however, with such a broad range of applications, the solution will most likely be a compromise, i.e., not the best for all these uses. I’m not trying to convince you that you need to buy several units for each case, just explaining that the chosen device will likely fit these cases partially.
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Home and family defense, without plans to carry (concealed or open). This is the most common case in practice, and here my answer is — a semi-automatic rifle like the AR-15, in .223 and/or 5.56 caliber. The most popular options for beginners are the Smith & Wesson M&P 15 Sport II .223 Remington/5.56 NATO and Ruger AR-556. Both options cost about the same ($650-$800) and both are very hard to find in stock right now. There’s also the option of relatively small, local companies that assemble such weapons, for example Rock Rivers Arms sells a lot of different models, for about the same money.
In practice, there’s no particular difference in the context of home defense between models. They all handle the task perfectly, they’re all simple and comfortable to use and extremely effective for self-defense. Such a rifle became my first recommendation precisely because in terms of the combination of factors “simplicity,” “reliability,” “effectiveness,” and “price” it undoubtedly surpasses all other options. Such a rifle is easy to use, and it has almost no recoil. Any family member can hit the target with such a weapon, and the procedure for preparing to shoot is completely elementary.
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Home and family defense, but you specifically want a pistol. Many have prejudices against the rifle option and absolutely want to get a pistol. I would recommend thinking again and settling on a rifle, however a pistol can be an adequate option. Here you need to understand that any weapon of this type will be somewhat more complex to use and far less effective. On the other hand, if you’re not planning to stop a zombie horde, the effectiveness in practice will suffice and any handgun will be able to protect you.
Here there’s a huge variety of options, and I would advise the largest size pistol and a relatively well-known brand. For caliber, the most popular is 9mm, but any calibers larger/more powerful aren’t ruled out either. If you only have access to .357 Sig, .40, .45 ACP or 10mm options, all of them are quite workable, though far from as popular as 9mm. Any of these calibers will handle the task, if you can hit the target, of course. However, for beginners 9mm will be the easiest, so I would advise focusing on this caliber.
Among popular full-size (large) pistols I would recommend SIG 226, Beretta 92 and CZ 75 SP-01 Tactical. All these options are SA/DA type: the first trigger pull is heavy, and all subsequent ones are much lighter. These models don’t have a safety lever, and the first, heavy pull is precisely for safety. It’s really heavy and you can’t accidentally shoot, even in a stressful situation. On the other hand, such a weapon is always ready to work and even in a half-asleep state you won’t have to frantically remember where the safety is and which way to move it.
There’s a huge number of pistols that work in a different way. Instead of DA/SA (double-action/single-action) their mechanism (striker fired) provides the same trigger pull every time. The force of this pull isn’t very large, and for beginners such a mechanism might seem too risky, since there’s a chance of pressing and shooting unintentionally. I wouldn’t recommend this as a first pistol for home defense, but if you really want it, you can look at the Glock17 and Sig 320 Full-Size 9mm, Smith & Wesson M&P M2.0 9mm, Beretta APX 9mm, FN 509 9mm. All of them are roughly the same in terms of operation.
The price of a pistol can fluctuate significantly, but usually such things cost from $500 to $800. Weapons of this size are poorly suited for concealed carry, though there are those who carry them. However, large size greatly simplifies shooting and noticeably reduces recoil.
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For home, but also with plans for concealed carry. This is perhaps the most popular choice option, though I always try to talk people out of it and send them to the first two options. The problem here is that such a pistol is a compromise between full size (for home use) and small size (convenient for carry). The selection of such pistols is almost endless and this category (usually called compact) is the widest. Any well-known manufacturer offers lots of options. Among the popular ones are SIG P320 compact, Glock 19, CZ P-10 C and dozens of others. The 3 options I listed are the most popular and all 3 are striker fired, without a manual safety and with a lightweight, polymer frame. Additionally, to my taste all of them are too large for comfortable carry.
The option I usually recommend, if the person insists on a mixed-use model, is the Sig P365 XL. It’s quite realistic and comfortable for concealed carry in terms of size, and in terms of shooting comfort and effectiveness it can quite well be a weapon for home defense.
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A revolver can also be an option, when all the above options somehow don’t fit. I usually don’t recommend them because of limited capacity (usually no more than 6 rounds), but their advantage is simplicity of construction and reliability. Besides, I haven’t met people who would fear that a revolver might fire by itself. Good options in this class would be Ruger GP100 and the huge number of Smith & Wesson models, for example model 686. Here I would categorically not recommend small options, since a small and lightweight revolver with ammunition adequate for self-defense (.357 magnum or .38 special +P) is not the best idea.
I didn’t recommend pump-action and semi-automatic shotguns for two reasons. First, I have little experience with them, so I’m no adviser here. Second, the small experience I did have didn’t make a particularly positive impression on me. These things are large, recoil is strong, use is no simpler than with other options. Yes, effectiveness at practical distances is high, but there’s nothing magical about them compared to a rifle.
After acquiring any weapon, and even better before that, it’s worth watching/reading about safe handling and how to use this weapon. Such things can be easily found on the internet.
The last thing I’d like to add: I’m often asked something like “but how will I learn to use it, it’s so complicated.” No, it’s not complicated at all. Certainly, shooting a pistol precisely at a target is not a simple matter, but pointing the weapon at an attacker and pulling the trigger is something everyone can do. It would be good to shoot the weapon at a range at least once, to know what to expect. Even better to go to the range regularly or at least from time to time, but even if there’s no such opportunity, don’t invent reasons why a weapon isn’t suitable for you yet. And if everything I mentioned above is unavailable, you can get any firearm. Even the most minimal weapon of the most ridiculous caliber will be better than its complete absence.
My recommendations don’t claim to be particularly scientific and undoubtedly reflect only my experience and my opinion.
UPD: As fairly noted in comments, different states may have their own strange specifics and what’s available to residents of more normal states there may be unavailable or restricted. Some have their own separate lists of “approved weapons,” some may prohibit standard magazine size (usually limited to 10 rounds), some either prohibit certain features or require their presence. There are also special storage rules down to a list of approved safes. Familiarize yourself with your local specifics before making a choice. Most likely, you simply won’t be able to purchase such “prohibited” weapons, but still, it’s worth studying this issue if you live in places where there’s a bad attitude toward weapons.
This post was translated from the Russian original with AI assistance and reviewed by a human.