I spent a bit of time carefully reviewing the White Settlement church shooting video, trying to take lessons from it.
As reported on this board, the successful immediate responder used a Sig P229 in Sig 357. That's a manly tool, with a manly bite.
The attacker was using a shotgun. Few survive being shot with one at close range.
So I thought of how it might be to be in that church, under attack, by a nut with a 12 gauge. Suddenly, my P238 380 seemed a bit on the small side. True, one or two well placed shots from it will disable an attacker, regardless of what armament he is carrying. Still.... Would I be better off carrying a full size 9mm? It's more accurate, and more potent. With it, I can pretty reliably do head shots at 15 yards. It's also a pain to carry.
I'm heavy, and can't manage some of the holsters that more slender people use.
Shoulder holster under my shirt??? Never tried one. Sometimes, I use a small leather brief case, but then I have to keep it in my grasp at all times.
Thoughts?
Denton,
I think you are asking the right kind of questions.
Much of the shall we call it propaganda's pushed the narrative of a single attacker probably not exceedingly well armed at little more than arms length, and over in just a few rounds. However, when we dig into the studies upon which this narrative is built we find significant data abuse. As an example, in one of the most quoted studies on the subject, they only used distances for "kill shots". So, in one example the engagement started at 45 yards, but the officer was killed while the bad guy stood over him, so in the data they logged as a one yard engagement.
Reality's much more complex then there studies portray. When we carry it's to prepare for the unexpected. By definition, the unexpected is unpredictable, so I carry the tools to prepare for a wide variety of the unexpected, and still conduct my life in a normal fashion.
For me, this means a gun that's small enough to be reasonably concealable, but big enough, and with sufficient magazine capacity and enough extra mags to engage in something....well, pretty bad. For me that's something in the size class of a Glock 19, Sig 228, CZ P10C, or as someone else mentioned, Commander size 1911, but I'll take mine in a double stack.
Imagine you had missed that first return shot? What would your next through be, "I wish I was carrying (blank) today!"
How you fill in that blank might be a good place to start for your next carry gun.
