Home Defense

Home invaders, on the other hand, are truly the stuff of nightmares. Unlike burglars, these are individuals who break into a dwelling expecting, even hoping, to find you home.

With this in mind, I present to you the Poor Improvised Self-Defense Weapon Hall of Shame. These are the “weapons” I see the most often in homes of acquaintances who have convinced themselves that as long as they can get to their trusty chain saw, all will be good in the event of a home invasion.

I had handled Canik pistols a couple of years ago at the SHOT show and have a couple of friends that shoot them but was a bit skeptical of how the Century Arms imports were going to perform; after all, they have an MSRP below $325, how good of a gun should you expect at that price point?

Let’s take a closer look at the most common home defense guns – handguns, shotguns and the AR-15 – and compare them. At least this should help make the choice a little easier and may give you solid reasons for choosing a particular gun, other than that’s the gun someone told you is the best.

An important question is seldom asked: What does it take for an opponent to jam my gun? In this context, we do not mean a firing jam or malfunction but knocking the gun out of battery or causing it not to fire when it is needed.

There are a few basic steps you can take to better your chances of successfully responding to a late-night emergency in your home.

The Glock 45 and Glock 19X share the same idea: a G19 length slide on a full size G17 frame. The G45 is the black, law enforcement styled version with front serrations, a flared magwell, and a grip that takes standard Gen5 magazine baseplates. Our G45 ran about 500 rounds with zero malfunctions. Both guns [...]

Accurate and very comfortable in the hand, the Defiant STOCK 1 clearly has many uses beyond competition, including home defense, hunting, law enforcement use, open carry, and just plinking. It strikes me as a little large for concealed carry, but there are people who no doubt would find this full-sized handgun just right for that purpose, too.

Keep in mind that you must always be flexible, and you must always adapt to your situation, because the situation will never adapt to your plans.