Our Moderator Emeritus Fred Fuller had as his sig line, "Mindset, Skillset, Toolset, in that order".
That's commonly used in motivational discussions and other things.
When I would see it here in ST&T, I took it to mean that the choice of firearm ranked a lot lower in importance than other things in defensive tactics and strategy.
That's certainly true in the subject of home defense. People will discuss the relative merits of shotguns vs rifles, suppressors, weapon mounted lights, 9MM vs .45, and so on until the cows come home. Not to denigrate the importance of any of those things, those are really not the highest priority subjects when it comes to home defense.
I remember a piece on the subject from decades ago, written, as I recall, by the late gun writer Henry M, Stebbins. There was an illustration of a worried man in his pajamas withdrawing a pistol from the drawer of a bedside table at night. It may have been in Guns Magazine.
How many of our threads are about "bedside" guns? My grandfather kept a loaded .32 Smith and Wesson Regulation Police revolver next to the bed. When it became mine, do did I.
I later concluded that something more potent than a .32 S&W Long would be desirable. Still talking tool-set here.
The new S&W Model 39 stayed in the bedroom, too. That's something that people really should think about--a lot. When might an entry occur, and where might we be at the time?
I submit that, when it comes to a firearm for home defense, whether it will be accessible to the defender in extremely short order wherever the he or she might happen to be in the event of a sudden forced entry is a lot more important than what kind of gun it is.
One of Stebbins' other articles was about a couple of people who kept a High Standard .22 rimfire revolver for home defense. Not the best, they admitted, but they could use it, and until they could afford another gun....
Beyond firearms, the proper "toolset" for home defense includes a lot of things. Good locks and windows, lighting indoors and out, security cameras, an intercom, river gravel and/or thorny bushes under the windows....
All of this is important, but it is still in that tertiary priority level.
How will we use it all? We have to have a plan, known to everyone in the house. We have to refrain from opening the door to strangers. We have to keep entry portals and the garage doors locked. We have to know better than to walk around the house looking for whomever we think may have come in uninvited. Or outside, for that matter.
Back to the best firearm for home defense: It is the one that is never fired in the house or yard, intentionally or not, at a home invader or at anyone else, or at anything else.
Just having a firearm cannot protect us from home invaders, even if we are proficient with it.
One other thing: the odds of a home invasion my be very low. But you do not want to experience one.
That's commonly used in motivational discussions and other things.
When I would see it here in ST&T, I took it to mean that the choice of firearm ranked a lot lower in importance than other things in defensive tactics and strategy.
That's certainly true in the subject of home defense. People will discuss the relative merits of shotguns vs rifles, suppressors, weapon mounted lights, 9MM vs .45, and so on until the cows come home. Not to denigrate the importance of any of those things, those are really not the highest priority subjects when it comes to home defense.
I remember a piece on the subject from decades ago, written, as I recall, by the late gun writer Henry M, Stebbins. There was an illustration of a worried man in his pajamas withdrawing a pistol from the drawer of a bedside table at night. It may have been in Guns Magazine.
How many of our threads are about "bedside" guns? My grandfather kept a loaded .32 Smith and Wesson Regulation Police revolver next to the bed. When it became mine, do did I.
I later concluded that something more potent than a .32 S&W Long would be desirable. Still talking tool-set here.
The new S&W Model 39 stayed in the bedroom, too. That's something that people really should think about--a lot. When might an entry occur, and where might we be at the time?
I submit that, when it comes to a firearm for home defense, whether it will be accessible to the defender in extremely short order wherever the he or she might happen to be in the event of a sudden forced entry is a lot more important than what kind of gun it is.
One of Stebbins' other articles was about a couple of people who kept a High Standard .22 rimfire revolver for home defense. Not the best, they admitted, but they could use it, and until they could afford another gun....
Beyond firearms, the proper "toolset" for home defense includes a lot of things. Good locks and windows, lighting indoors and out, security cameras, an intercom, river gravel and/or thorny bushes under the windows....
All of this is important, but it is still in that tertiary priority level.
How will we use it all? We have to have a plan, known to everyone in the house. We have to refrain from opening the door to strangers. We have to keep entry portals and the garage doors locked. We have to know better than to walk around the house looking for whomever we think may have come in uninvited. Or outside, for that matter.
Back to the best firearm for home defense: It is the one that is never fired in the house or yard, intentionally or not, at a home invader or at anyone else, or at anything else.
Just having a firearm cannot protect us from home invaders, even if we are proficient with it.
One other thing: the odds of a home invasion my be very low. But you do not want to experience one.