Hey everyone,

I’m in the process of buying my first handgun for home defense.
What are some things you would recommend I purchase to complement the gun in terms of maintenance, storage, and other must-haves or even nice-to-haves?

Already on my list is a carrying case, fire-proof safe, dummy rounds for dry-fire practice, and a good pair of ear plugs for the range. Not sure if I should throw in a speed-loader with that or not. I feel like I’m missing some stuff, hence this post.

For the future, I plan to build the gun out. I have already decided on purchasing an optics-ready pistol, so I can throw a red-dot on it down the line, and also a light.

Looking forward to your responses, cheers!

  • DABDA@lemmy.world
    71·
    9 months ago

    Home defense is a close quarters encounter a gun is a range weapon

    They are planning on using a pistol for home defense, not a scoped rifle. Most defensive encounters with a pistol are likely not going to be at great distances to begin with, and even if someone was expertly trained in unarmed combat if the option exists to not have to get close that would still be preferable. It’s also harder to retreat while grappling with an intruder than being able to engage from across a room.

    Truly the best defense hand gun is a 4in DAO 38 special

    • Unless the shooter isn’t compatible with that platform [recoil management? weight? size?] - humans come in many shapes and have differing needs
    • Unless there’s the possibility of multiple attackers

    A revolver is more reliable, needs less cleaning

    For a self/home defense gun you shouldn’t slack on cleaning regardless of its type. But also the vast majority of modern striker fired pistols are exceptionally reliable and generally don’t need any/excessive cleaning.

    Red dots, lights, lasers, ect are pretty useless.

    If you train to use them under pressure and they demonstrably help with getting on target they aren’t useless. A light in particular can be very helpful if you might have trouble identifying your target (see also: don’t shoot your loved ones). It’s certainly easy to overdo it, and ideally you don’t want to rely on additional accessories, but still far from “useless”.

    much more likely to shoot a loved one

    While it’s possible that’s true (a lot of gun use stats can be tricky to accurately measure), do you even know if this poster lives with or even around other people?

    Learning unarmed combat is safer and likely to serve you better.

    No reason not to learn unarmed combat if you’re able and willing - it can only help. I don’t think it’s always going to be safer in every life or death situation though. Suppose a person lives alone in an area with a cartel known for doing home invasions with a group - in that scenario they’re probably going to be killed if using a pistol (or rifle, or shotgun etc.) but they will definitely be killed with just their fists.