When people come to me wanting advice about what gun to buy, they are usually stuck in what I call stage one. People in this stage typically make decisions based on if a gun is either very cheap or it looks cool. When someone gets the idea that buying their cousins Taurus Judge that he won in a raffle because, "What could be cooler than having a pistol that fires shotgun rounds?" They usually go on to ask me how they should mount a laser to it. I normally jokingly let them know that I will never speak to them again if they go ahead with that plan. Basically, if the gun is under recall, has terrible accuracy or is known to be a jam-o-matic they are drawn to it like a moth to a flame.
One such friend told me he was looking for a rifle and pistol combination. I directed him to the Glock 19 and a Smith and Wesson M&P sport AR. Instead he purchased a Hi-Point that complete with a swirled green grip pattern that looked like a baby diaper, and an SKS that he promply put into a Tapco stock. To add insult to injury he attempted to make his own magazines for the Hi-Point out of random gun parts.
I have never been a hunter or someone who collects rare and unusual guns that are kept in a safe. Every gun I own gets shot often and each has a specific reason for being in my collection. I ask a lot of the relatively small number of guns that I own. They need to be fun to shoot, take common ammo, be easy to clean, maintain, and customize, be accurate, reliable, and have a quality trigger. It also helps if the firearm is suitable for competition in its field should I decided to shoot a match one weekend.
I believe in meeting ones basic needs for protection then branching out to enjoy everything the shooting world has to offer.
I also hear many people chasing the newest and most deadly wildcat rifle round or insisting that their defensive pistol round must start with a '4'. They see new guns in whatever magazine they are reading, and they have to own it. They go on to discover that ammo is hard to find, or that it cost over a dollar a round making practice prohibitively expensive. The idea is that the likelihood of you ever needing to fire a shot in anger is so small that I feel it is best to buy guns that are fun to shoot. When one makes that a priority, the shooter is more likely to practice and become proficient with what you have. Being able to afford practice, and wanting to go shooting for the pure joy of putting rounds on target will make you both happier, and in my opinion better equipped to respond to lethal encounter.
In coming posts I will attempt to highlight the guns I have chosen and how they fit into an overall gun collection that makes sense.
