Defensive Handgun Fads & Facts

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Defensive Handgun Fads & Facts

The author discusses fads and facts regarding defensive handguns, accessories and concealed carry methods.

Over the years, we’ve seen many products designed to make a defensive handgun a “better” tool for saving your life. But most offer advantages but come with risks. How many gadgets should you attach to your defensive handgun? Are they truly helpful, passing fads or crutches to circumvent training and practice? Should you turn your defensive pistol into a multi-tool, or should you just learn how to effectively use it in its basic form?

I can’t decide for you, but I can offer some insight that might help make up your mind.

Laser Sights

I used to be a strong supporter of laser sights—particularly laser grips—on defensive pistols. This was mostly because they’re great in low light and when shooting from unconventional positions, but also because they allow target focus shooting. I still believe laser sights can be useful tools. They’re great for helping you develop a good trigger press and for fine tuning your draw stroke. But my position on them as a must have carry tool has somewhat changed. I might’ve been so caught up in how they allowed me to do some things better that I overlooked one of the basic premises of practical self-defense, which is to keep things stupid-simple.

Crimson-Trace-laser-sight
Like with reflex sights, lasers come with advantages, and maybe fewer disadvantages. However, for optimum proficiency, there’s a lot of training to be done.

Pistol-Mounted Lights

At first blush, a light mounted to your carry gun seems like a great idea, but I’m not so sure it’s better than a handheld light. The primary problem with a pistol-mounted light is that to use it, you must point your handgun at what you want to look at. This isn’t a good idea and violates the second rule of firearms safety. A handheld light still gives you that search tool, and you can also use it to momentarily blind or disorient an attacker while you draw your pistol. And then there’s the more critical question of why you’re somewhere with a potential for danger that’s so dark you’ll need a light to identify or engage a threat? Never underestimate the logic of avoidance.

Suppressed Handguns

Adding a suppressor to a defensive pistol makes it more pleasurable to shoot. The muzzle blast and flash go away, and recoil is diminished. But you cannot effectively conceal a suppressed handgun. You’re also not a member of a tactical team conducting hostage rescue or terrorist elimination raids. A suppressor could be a valid accessory on a home-defense handgun, but it drastically changes the handling qualities of a pistol. Suppressors can add great enjoyment to shooting, but unless your job description has a multi-letter acronym, it might be best to use a pistol suppressor for recreational shooting.

Reflex Sights

The hottest thing right now are reflex sights. New, lighter and more rugged and compact versions are introduced monthly, and everyone wants a handgun with an optics cut in the slide. But are they better than standard sights? Well, when the battery isn’t dead or there’s not some electrical malfunction, they’re faster and easier to shoot more accurately at distances beyond about 10 yards. And, like lasers, they allow target focus shooting. However, sunlight can reflect onto the backside of the glass and render them useless. Dust and debris can block the emitter, and there’ll be no dot to aim with. A reflex sight is undoubtedly a great training aid for a new shooter … but will it always—every time and all the time—work when you most need it to?

defensive-handgun-reflex-sight
The predominant trend right now with defensive handguns is reflex sights. They come with some advantages, but there are also critical disadvantages.

Appendix Carry

Right now, the debate rages on whether you should carry on your strong-side hip or in the appendix position. All the cool kids like how fast you can draw from the appendix position. They like it so much that they overlook the second rule of firearms safety. In case you’ve forgotten, it’s the most important rule: Never let the muzzle cover anything you’re not willing to destroy. Ken Hackathorn has been one of the most respected firearms trainers for more than 30 years. He was recently chastised on the internet for his comments on appendix carry. Hackathorn said that any pistol you carry in that position is a potential “decocker.” It was a play on words—a damned good one—and he was right, mostly because humans tend to do stupid things. Several folks are now walking around with a diminished manhood because of appendix carry.

CCW-appendix-carry
A lot of shooters like to carry in the appendix position. But, the number of dismembered folks who wish they’d never tried it is growing.

The .40 S&W

The .40 S&W cartridge came about because the FBI determined a downloaded 10mm cartridge offered the best terminal performance for law enforcement. When the FBI adopted the .40 S&W, most every law enforcement agency followed suit. But after a little more than 2 decades, the FBI changed their mind: They now feel the minimal terminal performance advantage the .40 S&W offered didn’t outweigh the better shootability and capacity of the 9mm. The fad of the .40 is over.

40-Smith-Wesson-hollowpoints
For nearly 2 decades, the .40 Smith & Wesson was the darling cartridge of law enforcement. Now, almost fad-like, it’s disappearing.

Facts

It takes a great deal of training and practice to become extremely proficient with a self-defense handgun. It’s a perishable skill that needs constant reinforcement. Every gadget or technique you add to your toolbox comes with the need for thousands of rounds and repetitions to make it viable. If you only train and practice a couple times each year, or even just monthly, you’re working right on the edge of just maintaining basic skills with a standard pistol. Without the necessary initial and sustainment training, every gadget you add to your pistol will reduce your proficiency. Don’t screw crap to your gun, or transition to a new technique, without the necessary training and practice to learn to use it effectively and safely. Otherwise, avoid the gadgets.

Would you be better off with a suppressed .40 S&W carry gun outfitted with a laser sight, a reflex sight and a weapon light that’s stuck down your pants keeping your jewels company? Or might a 9mm pistol you can shoot well combined with a compact handheld flashlight be a better option? It’s your life and you must decide.

Just remember that tools you’re untrained with are dangerous to you, and there’s only one letter difference in fool and cool. And, sometimes, those words can be interchangeable.

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the Suppressor Special 2024 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.


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6 COMMENTS

  1. Currently serving Green Beret here and I have to say, the arguments here don’t carry much weight.

    On the subject of lights, carry a light on your defensive handgun, but also carry a handheld light. There are many instances where you might need one or the other. While there are techniques for shooting your pistol with a handheld light, I know that I shoot significantly faster and with more accuracy when I have a complete two handed grip on my pistol, which a pistol mounted light allows you to do. Speaking from experience, the idea that a light is going to momentarily blind your opposition is laughable. They end up reflex shooting directly at the light. I have seen this first hand in both force on force training and on deployment. In summary, carry a light for when you don’t need a gun, and carry a light on your gun so you can positively identify what you might be considering shooting at.

    As for reflex sights on defensive or combat handguns, there is a reason why you see ALL of the special operations units issuing reflex sights and operators using them. The year is 2024. The technology is robust, reliable, and most importantly, skill enhancing. If you are a competent, well practiced shooter, you will gain both speed and accuracy with a quality reflex sight and the proper training. I am more than willing to hedge my bets against the sacred geometry of chance that at the exact moment I draw my pistol, the sun won’t be at the perfect angle behind me to reflect at the perfect angle back into my eyes. Aside from this, quality reflex sights use non-reflective glass and many models have enclosed emitters to protect against dust and debris. Personally, I carry an open emitter reflex sight on my issued Glock 19 and have yet to experience the fabled “obscured emitter”. If you are that concerned, invest in a set of suppressor height sights at either the 1/3 height or co-witness configuration. It’s almost like somebody thought of this. Welcome to the future.

    On the subject of appendix carry, if you are using a quality holster which covers your trigger, you should not be worried about putting a round into your “boys”. When training with an appendix carry holster, it is advised that after the draw, instead of returning the pistol to the holster as one would with a 3 or 4 o’clock carry, remove the holster, secure the pistol, then replace the holster to the carry position. For every idiot out there who experienced a “decocker”, there is another idiot who sent a round down his leg.

    For somebody who preaches the importance of training and practice with your defensive pistol, most of the arguments the author makes come down to poor training or lack of adequate training.

    Guns, like life, are dangerous. Train accordingly.

  2. I have an assortment of 9mm’s, .40 S&W’s, etc. None were acquired due to a “fad.” The .40’s and 9’s complement one another, and for home defense, are appropriate for whatever role the homeowner desires. Stop shilling for a single caliber, it doesn’t benefit the home defenders.

  3. A cynic might say that the FBI purposely led the charge to (and the retreat from) the .40 S&W just to make more money for the industrialists who own the firearms industry. Lots and lots of contracts for pistols and ammo were signed, and a lot of tax payer money changed hands. The same cynic might say that manufacturers push calibers (.45 GAP, anyone?) that no one needs just to sell more guns. My wife says nobody likes to talk to a cynic at a party; they’re such party poopers…

    • Joe – and the latest entry into the caliber wars is the .30 Super Carry. Yet another ‘solution’ looking for a problem to ‘solve’.
      As to the original post, is something really a ‘fad’ if it works for a particular individual? Since I have been a shooter for over 5 decades I have managed to acquire a fair collection of guns but have made the conscious decision to narrow my carry rotation down to one gun for routine carry when out and about and another for when I’m on my moped. Works for me. That being said, I ain’t against revising my choices IF I determine there is valid reason(s) to do so.

  4. I’ve been a law enforcement firearms and self-defense trainer since 1978 with several thousand trainees and students entrusted to my care. I agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Mann. I’ve seen the fads and gadgets come and go and to be honest, I have tried most of them. But none have lived up to the magic of promised perfection. I have yet to see the day when gadgetry can overcome practice, confidence and skill.

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