DEFENSIVE FIREARMS OVERVIEW
By Tom Crawford
Copyright 2012 By The Author
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Now that we’ve considered no force, low force, and intermediate force defense options along the force
continuum, we must turn our attention to tools for the application of deadly force. While the use of deadly
force is never pleasant to think about, we must devote some time to considering what sort of tools we
need in our own particular setting, given the circumstances under which a defensive encounter is likely to
take place.
Keep in mind that a firearm is nothing more, or less, than a resistance tool, for use in situations that you
didn’t spot in advance, couldn’t avoid, and can’t run from. Given this, any use of a firearm in defense by a
private citizen is likely to be reactive, and without much in the way of prior notice. No one is going to send
you a memo in advance telling you that a life and death encounter is on the agenda for the day. For us
citizens, the use of our firearms in defense is almost always a surprise.
Handguns
For this and other reasons, the handgun, although certainly an imperfect defense weapon, has become
the primary deadly force tool of the ordinary citizen. This is the case because, when intelligently selected,
the handgun can be carried in discreet concealment as one goes about their business, as an item of daily
attire. When carried full-time, the handgun is the deadly force tool most likely to be present when the
trouble starts. This is a huge advantage for the handgun, as opposed to the long gun that was left behind
because it was too cumbersome or ostentatious to carry along. As in other areas of life, 80% of the
defense game is simply showing up.
Do not confuse the handgun for a first choice in deadly force application. At best, standard handgun
bullets are medium velocity projectiles, most capable of only moderate tissue destruction through direct
penetration of vital organs, not really much different from arrows or spears. Since few in today’s society
have the panache required to assault another with the longbow or javelin, we really don’t have much of a
standard of comparison, but you can think of handguns as producing what I call “loud ice pick wounds”.
Since the handgun makes more noise when it goes off, and moves around a bit in recoil, some have the
mistaken belief that something significant is going on when a pistol is fired. Television and movies have
reinforced this illusion of handgun power, and given many the wrong idea about just what happens, and
how quickly it happens, when pistol bullets meet flesh and bone.
The handgun, while not too powerful, is the most potent tool we can have with us most of the time. It has
been said that a pistol is what you use to fight your way to your rifle or shotgun, and that may indeed be
the case for soldiers or cops. We private citizens, when away from home, are normally reduced to fighting
with the handgun, a tool of questionable effectiveness that is at best difficult to use well.
To place the matter of handgun power in perspective, consider that a fairly powerful handgun, such as
the highly touted .44 Magnum, has less than half the energy, shot for shot, of the 20-gauge shotgun,
considered by many to be a light bird gun only. The small .38 Special revolver you may be carrying in
your pocket or purse as you read this has less energy in its whole cylinder full of shots than is available to
you with one shot from your .30-06 deer rifle. There really isn’t much of an engineering problem involved
in making a more powerful handgun, so why don’t we? The answer lies in the fact that there is an upper
limit to the amount of recoil that set of human hands and arms can tolerate in regular firing. We could
make a handgun that had much more power than is commonly available, but you wouldn’t want to shoot it,
and if you did, you certainly wouldn’t want to carry it around. So much for the idea of your handgun as the
Hammer of Thor to smite the evildoer. All portable handguns are, as they say, power challenged due to
size limitations. Humans also normally have difficulty in developing great skill with the handgun owing to
its short sight radius, low weight, and skimpy handle. Most people mistake this skill deficit for some defect
in the pistol’s intrinsic accuracy, erroneously believing that pistols are only precise at conversational
ranges. This isn’t true, but for folks who believe it, it might as well be.
Fundamentally, it is the role of the handgun to act as a piece of portable safety rescue equipment,
carried constantly by its owner, that may be useful in stopping or deterring an aggressive human assault
until an escape can be made, or until professional help arrives. It does this by immediately depositing low
to moderate power on the target at relatively close range. We certainly hope this will be enough when the
time comes, but understand that it may not be. It’s just that we simply don’t have anything better at this
time.
Rifles
The rifle is a shoulder-fired weapon, but like the pistol utilizes spiral-cut grooves called rifling to engage a
single projectile and force it to spin in flight. The spinning projectile, known as a bullet, is thereby
stabilized and flies straighter and farther than if it had been fired through a smooth bore. The invention of
rifling was so significant that war changed from a 100-yard proposition to a half-mile affair, almost
overnight with the advent of rifles.
The power available from rifles varies greatly based on the type of cartridge being fired, but virtually all
rifles are superior from a ballistic standpoint to any handgun. The rifle is certainly easier to learn to shoot
adequately than a handgun, but normally requires both hands for effective use. High-powered rifles can
be definitive man stoppers; some can even disable motor vehicles or break down physical barriers. Rifles
are clearly the most capable of all small arms, but oddly enough, are normally much easier to acquire and
own legally than are handguns in many places.
Rifles are generally not terribly concealable, and some aren’t even realistically portable. Although the
rifle has greater range and power than a handgun, private citizens will find the rifle is typically a third-line
defense weapon, if one is needed at all. The urbanite normally finds the rifle unnecessary except in
unusual cases, while those living in rural environments where ranges are longer and animal control is a
factor may find a good rifle a tool of daily use.
It is the role of the rifle to deposit great power on a target at long range, with precision. While there are
other ways that a rifle can be used, this is its primary mission.
Shotguns
Shotguns are shoulder-fired weapons that normally utilize a smooth bore (no rifling) and fire multiple
spherical projectiles with a single shot. At close range (25 yards and under) the properly loaded shotgun
has absolutely no equal as an antipersonnel tool short of high explosives. Shotgun pellets shed energy
rapidly beyond this point, but are still dangerous. The charm of the defense shotgun is that it is cheap,
plentiful, minimally regulated, fairly easy to develop functional skill with, is hugely intimidating to an
attacker, and it works. The shotgun can also easily be loaded with a wide variety of special purpose
ammunition, in a pinch serving as a less lethal force tool or signaling device.
The downside to the shotgun is that it’s a bit heavy and clunky, and generally must be operated with two
hands. The shotgun doesn’t lend itself to discreet concealment very well, either. For those not used to it,
the shotgun’s recoil can be a bit stout, and a certain amount of coordination is required to use some types
of shotguns in a hurry. It is somewhat more difficult to store a loaded shotgun in a safe way than it is to
secure a loaded handgun.
Despite the fact that the shotgun has its drawbacks, it is a home defense tool without peer when used
from a fixed position. When you and the family are crouched behind the bed listening to the footsteps
coming up the stairs through the door of the safe room, there is absolutely no weapon that is more
comforting than a good shotgun.
Please do not fall victim to two myths perpetuated by gun store clerks, most of whom have never so much
as heard a shot fired in anger. The first is that the shotgun does not need to be aimed since the pellets
scatter so widely. The second is that shotgun pellets will not penetrate walls and injure those on the other
side. Both of these statements are patently ridiculous.
First of all, the spread of pellets from a shotgun at close range is approximately one inch in diameter per
yard from the muzzle of the gun. Look at the dimensions of a typical bedroom, and you will see that the
pattern indoors will not be much more than the size of a softball for most shots. Second, any ammunition
that will reliably penetrate human skin and muscle after defeating clothing will definitely penetrate sheet
rock walls. So, the shotgun in the defense setting definitely must be aimed, and shotgun pellets will
penetrate interior walls unless made of masonry block, despite what you may have heard to the contrary.
Finally, the shotgun is difficult to maneuver with throughout the house, and demands two-hand operation,
so it should be thought of as a second-line tool as backup for a handgun in the early stages of a home
intrusion.
It is the fundamental role of the shotgun to deposit great power on a target at short range, with a lower
downrange threat due to decreased projectile energy at longer distances.
Summary
So there you have an overview of the three basic types of small arms available to private citizens as
deadly force tools, as well as an assessment of the highest and best use of each. Subsequent chapters
will deal handguns in greater detail, and we have separate classes for rifle and shotgun use if those
interest you. For now just understand that it is necessary in most cases to match the best tool with the job
at hand.