Concealed Carry Weapon (CCW)

When walking into a gun store and asking to see some handguns, the salesman “should” ask “How are you planning to use this handgun?” so as to figure out whether you're seeking a home defense handgun or a “Concealed Carry Weapon”. While a full size handgun may be perfect for home defense, it would be difficult to conceal on your body. If you plan on primarily carrying the pistol concealed (assuming that you plan to obtain a “Concealed Carry Weapon” (CCW) permit - IF your state requires it), then the physical size of the pistol (Full Size, Compact or sub-compact) becomes a major consideration. And with size limitations, come a myriad of compromises.

<note important>Generally speaking, your first handgun should always be full size. Once you become proficient with the full size handgun, then you can turn your attention to a compact or sub-compact handgun. If you can't afford two guns, then sell the full size gun in order to purchase the smaller gun. If you can afford two guns, then keep the full size gun as a home defense weapon.</note>

<note tip>“Constitutional Carry” States do NOT require anyone over 21 to obtain a permit in order to carry a CCW. As of 2/12/21, those States include: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming.</note>

Size
While a woman could carry a full size handgun in her handbag/purse (some handbags have a special compartment for handguns); and anyone could carry a full size handgun in a briefcase, back pack, messenger bag, fanny pack, or in their automobile, most people tend to carry them on their body. A handgun that is small enough to reasonably “conceal” on your body will be Compact or Sub-compact. This smaller size will result in a shorter the distance between the sights - which will reduce your accuracy in hitting targets. However, considering that a “Concealed Carry Weapon” is intended to be used strictly for defense, you would need it very quickly and typically use it at a very short distance (e.g., 9 feet / 3 yards) or under. Accuracy becomes much less of a concern at these very short distances.

Some good (popular) Compact & Sub-Compact pistol options are:

If your favorite wasn't listed above, the list is not intended to be all-inclusive. And is in no particular order. It is simply intended to serve as a starting point for someone unfamiliar with pistols to begin researching which pistol might be best suited for them.

Weight Smaller sized handguns typically result in less weight. And that can increase the amount of recoil the handgun produces… sometimes significantly. If you can't handle the recoil, you probably won't be able to hit what you're aiming (or pointing) at.

Reliability
The revolver is generally considered the most reliable handgun available. And while it doesn't have the feeding issues from a magazine - as pistols sometime experience - or ejection issues, revolvers typically have a smaller capacity (usually 5 or 6 rounds). Also, reloading a revolver, even with a speed loader, will be slower than a pistol.

This original story began with a Taurus Judge with a 3” barrel. While this revolver has a tremendous “kick”, it fires either a .45 Colt (which could be hollow points) OR a .410 shotgun shell. This would inflict significant damage to an attacker… especially at close range. And that was exactly why the woman chose it.

Capacity
When choosing a handgun, capacity is always an issue because you never know what sort of situation you may be in where you need to defend yourself or others. People who like 9mm pistols always point out the high capacity magazines. However, people with larger caliber pistols tend to carry extra magazines. In a stressful situation, you can never have “enough” ammunition. Anyone who says that they carry “too much ammunition” has probably never been in a fire fight.

Unless they live in a city or state where “high capacity” (HC) magazines are restricted, most Glock model 19 owners have magazines with a 15 round capacity. When comparing that to a 1911 A1 .45 ACP pistol with a standard capacity of 8 rounds, there appears to be a clear advantage for the Glock owner. However, there is also the 1911 A2 (aka 2011) which has a High Capacity (HC) magazine. For example, the Rock Island Armory GI FS HC .45 and Rock Island Armory TAC Ultra FS HC .45 both have a magazine capacity of 14 rounds. And… if you want a high capacity 9mm in a 1911 A2 pistol, the Rock Island Armory TAC Ultra FS HC 9mm has a magazine capacity of 17 rounds!

Many 1911 A1 owners (with small hands) carry two extra magazines. One extra magazine would make them about even on capacity with a Glock 19. However, many 1911 A1 owners carry the extended, higher capacity 10 round magazines as their back-ups. That means that a 1911 A1 owner could have 28 rounds vs. a Glock 19 owner with one extra magazine having a total of 30 rounds. At what point do you consider yourself as carrying an adequate number of rounds? Only you know that answer.

Fit
We've already discussed proper “fit” - and this takes on a different dimension when selecting from physically smaller handguns. If you have large hands, a small handgun may be unwieldy. So a person with large hands may need to settle for a mid-size pistol that is easier to handle - yet somewhat concealable.

And if you have small hands, you may be challenged by so many compact and subcompact pistols having high Capacity (HC) magazines… making it difficult for you to get a proper grip.

Manual Safety
Another consideration for a CCW pistol whether the you want a manual “safety” mechanism. While the 1911 has a manual “Thumb Safety”, many other pistols have no “real” safety (e.g., simply pulling the trigger on a Glock disengages its “safety”). Those pistols without a manual safety are the easiest for a child to accidentally discharge (because if there is a round in the chamber, all they have to do is pull the trigger). However, in a stressful situation where you need to use the pistol for defense… people who rarely practice forget to release the manual safety… wasting time that could mean the difference between life or death.