Starting Your Armory

Written By: Mike Barrett  |  Posted: Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010

If you've decided to take your personal or home defense seriously, you're probably researching buying a few firearms, or perhaps you already own one or more. The world of firearms can be confusing, so I wanted to cover a few points every prospective gun owner should consider. First, you need to ask yourself what the objective is. Are you planning for home defense, or is the gun going to be used for self defense away from home? Or do you plan on hunting, and if so, what are you going to be shooting at? This distinction will start you down the right path.

Second, what is your experience with weapons? If you grew up with guns and have practiced
a lot, you're in a much different place than the person who's never touched one. If you read gun enthusiast publications you're likely to hear everything from 'buy as many guns as you can afford' to 'buy as few guns as possible' and everything in between. My advice is to buy the weapons you expect to need and become an expert with them.So let's get on to building your armory. One of the best starting points for your armory is a revolver or semi-auto handgun that you can use for home, self-defense and even emergency hunting, and you can carry it with you discreetly. My favorite weapon for this purpose is the .357 Magnum, an allaround gun that is effective, easy to use and flexible. By flexible I mean it shoots several different types of ammo and the ammo is widely available. There's an old saying that the best gun is one you have with you when you need it, and with the .357 you can carry it with you without too much trouble. If you want additional capacity, I like the Glock 23, a .40 caliber semi auto that gives you the ability to carry eight more rounds than the fiveshot .357.However, a semi-auto is a much more complex weapon both from an operational and maintenance standpoint. More can go wrong