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Salty1 wrote:I always have wondered why some people tend not to carry when at home then ask about a gun for a quick run to the store. From my perspective the most valuable things in my life is who I live with and would want to protect them as much as possible, especially when at home. Not carrying at home the same way one would when going out to a "less secure" place seems very concerning to me. My handgun is on me from the time I step out of the shower until I get in bed at night, no exceptions. It does not matter what I am doing, cutting the lawn, crawling under the Jeep etc. I do not ever want to scramble to get a firearm and the only scramble would be to grab a shotgun if needed while the pistol is still in my hand as the first line of defense. The most important item is the holster even more so than the actual handgun. If it is not comfortable as a package under all situations one may be involved in during daily activities then they will not carry often. This basically equates to deciding when they would need a gun for protection and when they would not.

Salty, I'm going to disagree with you, but hear me out and here's why......

I look at it this way.....maybe I'm wrong, but I think it is just a matter of perspective. I am not "disarmed" at home. I have guns....loaded guns....all over the house. I am never more than a few feet away from a gun. I can always get to one of my guns faster than someone can get into my house. Trust me.... I've done the math. I don't answer the door to strangers (I can see who's outside before I open the door) without a gun either in my hand, or on my person.......not even during the daytime. If I am out working in the yard, I have that snubbie in my pocket.....so it's not just a grab-and-go gun. Inside my home are also found an AR15 and a tactical shotgun, and both are ready to rock. I have always believed in the dictum that a handgun is useful for fighting your way back to the long gun that you should have never put down. When I'm out and about in the world, either of my two Springfields is on my hip. So, to recap:

1. NOBODY can get into my home faster than I can grab a nearby gun and start shooting.
2. When I am outside the house in the yard, a snubbie goes with me in my pocket.
3. A pistol is useful for fighting my way to one of my long guns which is a superior weapon.
4. Since it is impractical to carry a long gun with me wherever I go, a higher capacity pistol serves as my daily carry for when I am out and about.
5. A "grab-and-go" pistol is just for quick trips to the Tom Thumb on the corner when I'm coming right home afterwards.
6. And lastly...... my wife is armed too and knows how to use it....so it's not like she is helpless. And, we are empty-nesters, so unless we are watching our baby granddaughter, there isn't anyone else at home to protect. We are good to go.

There is a very good reason why I don't carry inside the house if I don't have to: Pain. I live in it, every day. It's my back, which is in chronically bad shape and deteriorating. It often hurts to wear a holster, and I have tried a number of configurations, including all manner of IWB, OWB, shoulder, pocket holsters, as well as "man-purses" and EDC bags. Anything that either applies pressure against my pelvis or that loads weight onto my spine causes eventual pain. I prefer belt carry to pocket carry because I like to have my pockets available for other purposes, and OWB is less painful for me than IWB, but since carrying a gun in a holster all day adds considerably to my burden of pain by the end of the day, I don't strap a holster on until I have to to leave the house. Since I work at home, I spend a lot of time just wearing gym shorts and a t-shirt (no belts...belts cause pain), and it just isn't practical to carry a gun on my person that way. The snubbie in my pocket keeps pulling my shorts down. Believe me....I've tried it. So the alternative is to make sure that I can quickly reach a gun from wherever I am in the house. That snubbie happens to be sitting on a counter about 7 feet away from me as I am typing this. It would be literally impossible for someone to kick down my front door and get to me before I could dump all 5 rounds into him.

You make it sound like I don't care or I haven't thought it through, when nothing could be further from the truth. I wish I didn't have these limitations, but they are a fact of life. But beyond just me, I'll bet that I am not the only one on this board who has thought these things through, considered the risks, and concluded that they don't have to have a gun on their person inside their house in order to be adequately armed inside their house. For a mother at home with a toddler, keeping a gun up on the fireplace mantle where the child can't reach it may be the better alternative than having it on her person where maybe the child can reach it....even accidentally.

There are a few "black or white" calculations in this world, but only a few. For the vast majority of these kinds of problems, "one size fits all" is a worse answer than the individually considered and implemented solution. BEING armed inside the home IS a "black or white" decision. HOW one goes about arming themselves inside of their home is not a black/white decision with a one-size-fits-all answer. For me, being armed is obvious. Yes. But how to implement that in a way that I can live with it might not fit your requirements, but it makes it possible for me to be armed in some manner. And at the end of the day, isn't that the common goal?

I second the snubbie suggestions. Mine is a 5 shot M&P340 scandium .357. The scandium framed guns are a little tougher when it comes to managing recoil, but they weigh so little that pocketing them is s breeze. Mine weighs 13oz. To put that into perspective my 5+1 round XDS-45, which is also pocketable, weighs 21.5 oz. My Kahr PM9 pocket gun Has 6+1 rounds and weighs 15.9 oz. with an empty magazine. Both of the semiautos have a couple more rounds of capacity, but they are also mechanically more complicated, and the snubbie, believe it or not, actually has an easier and faster sight picture. The XDS is my EDC. The PM9 is my "deep cover" gun because it is so tiny. But the snubbie revolver is by far the easiest "grab and go" gun of the three.

If you compare firepower, the snubbie may have the lower capacity, but it is he hardest hitting of the three guns. I keep it stoked with Hornady's 125 grain Critical Defense, which cranks out 1200fps/400 lb ft from a 2" barrel.

The XDS I load with Hornady's 185 grain Critical Defense For 900 fps/333 lb ft from a 3" barrel.

The PM9 (3" barrel) is loaded with Corbon 115 grain +P DPX, which develops 1250 fps/399 lb ft from a 4" barrel....so the Kahr is lower than that in both velocity and energy.

The Corbon ammo in the Kahr approaches the Hornady in the snubbie, but the Kahr's sights are harder to see, and there is always the risk of a malfunction.

Everybody should have at least one good reliable snub nose revolver.