Moreover, what are you going to do, just run into the wild? Forever? What about everyone else who planned to do that?

I once asked him what he thought was the single most important quality in achieving success. His reply was immediate and succinct.

There are a lot of compact pistols out there, but don’t overlook Sig’s PS365. It’s a micro but worthwhile take on the 1911 that comes in fourteen different models.

With the possible exception of the jacketed hollow-point projectile, I don’t believe there’s a single defensive technology that has progressed as far in the last 30 years as the modern flashlight.

In an article appearing in the Virginian-Pilot, Chipman claims, “The gun does not sound gun-like. It takes the edge out of the tone . . . This is how I would describe it: It makes a gun sort of sound like a nail gun.”

In a nation beset by enemies foreign and domestic, it escapes me why some responsibly armed Americans would be opposed to the right tools in the right hands.

In some cases, officers allowed perpetrators holding edged weapons to close to 10 to 12 feet before drawing. Some were injured. Their rationale? They feared the shooting would be ruled unjustified if they fired on a felon at too great a distance.

After carrying for most of my adult life, I have concluded that what most of us really need is simply a solid, reliable gun that we can shoot well and carry comfortably.

Why is training, specifically in the context of defensive shooting, so important? The answer may surprise you.