We are truly living in the golden age of handguns, as this week’s test model will attest. My test model is the 509C or compact. While I usually prefer to get my hands on the full-sized model first, the 509C brings everything I like in a pistol to the table.

This week, we are going to conclude our Buying Guide for Noobs with the last piece of the puzzle.

It feels like a Glock, it shoots like a Glock, and it runs like a Glock. If Combat Tupperware is your duty gun, home defense gun, or CCW gun, you absolutely need this.

Finally, we need to look at a solution for people that either don’t want a gun or live in a place that buying one is no longer an option.

It does, however, have downsides. It lets everyone know you are armed, which may make you the first victim in a shooting.

If you have been hesitant to build an AR pistol, I hope this helps. Never have so many parts been available, and at mostly reasonable prices. I recommend you get yours ASAP, before the ATF figures out a way to reclassify them all as SBR’s.

I hope this helps, and more importantly, that we all get through this without actually descending into Mad Max world. But if we do, I will leave you with this from Niccolo Machiavelli,“ Before all else, be armed.”

What really prompted this week’s test was not even the $800 dollar original Sionyx Aurora. It was the introduction of a new EVEN CHEAPER ” Sport” model, at an MSRP of $399. At that price point, we pretty much had to grab one to find out for ourselves.

Strong body, strong mind. We don’t know what is coming next, but it is safe to say hardening up is never going to be a detriment.