In The Mail

These are great guns! All my bodyguards carry them.

I have little use for handguns or the Glock, they lend themselves only to last resort self defense and IMHO the Glock is underpowered and hazardous. But, they're cheap, light and easy for smaller people to use. They came into favor with enforcement when female officers were having issues with sturdier framed pistols.

That said, the other thing this book makes clear is the popularity of this firearm with the public. Its popularity signals a reawakening of American second amendment support and a realization by the public that the American "gun culture" is not the negative thing socialist-statist fear mongers had been politically spinning it to be. The many must-issue concealed carry states allowing people to arm for self defense, has not been the Wild West blood bath prohibitionists predicted. 20 years of state's experimenting in second amendment "gun culture" has proven that private gun owners are responsible and a boon to police, helping reduce violent crime rates in concealed carry jurisdictions by as much as 100%.

The gun-fear, gun grabbing statists lost the gun control argument definitively and demonstrably with the renewed public participation in armed self defense of the past 20 yrs – and the abject bloody failure of “gun free zones”. The fact that the jurisdictions with the highest gun crime rates have the strictest gun control is not lost on the public. That is why the anti-gun left is in such a froth now trying what I believe is a final, all-or-nothing, desparate attack on second amendment protected rifles. The majority will not support or obey disarmament legislating disguised as so called “gun control”. This is why Americans are arming themselves at an unprecedented rate in the face of a president who ignores crime statistics and, riding a pall of hysteria, intends to ignore 2nd amendment rights.

America is a constitutional defensive gun culture, Russia, China and Cuba are not, where do you want to live? This book and objective evidence proves Americans are voting for the constitution with gun sales numbers.

It was said back in the days of USSR vs USA that the Communists would never beat the Americans. The Americans had a much larger nuclear arsenal. It was also said that America would be eventually defeated by destroying itself internally. These are interesting times.

Occam is correct that handguns are ballistically inferior to handguns, but it's not fair to compare a Glock pistol (or any pistol) with a rifle. The Glock should be compared with other handguns. In that respect, the Glock is not wanting. About two-thirds of American police carry Glocks; if there was a better, more reliable handgun available, they would probably use it as police literally bet their lives on their weapon every day. Using modern ammunition, they are quite lethal.

Glocks have fewer moving parts (compared to other brands) and great reliability in addition to being relatively low-priced. I own a couple and they have never failed me.

If you are thinking about a quality pistol, Glock is a great choice.

OOOPS! I wrote "Occam is correct that handguns are ballistically inferior to handguns". I meant to say handguns are ballistically inferior to RIFLES.

Sorry about that.

I have been getting these email advertising blurbs much more frequently lately. I expect that Ruger wants the reader to speak up. Btw, I love my Ruger 10/22.

http://www.ruger.com/products/sr45/index.html

IMHO, a double-action revolver, the tried-and-true six-shooter, loaded with 5 rounds, an empty chamber under the hammer, is an inherently safer and more reliable personal defense weapon than a pistol.

With the revolver, just pull it out, aim and shoot. With the pistol, pull it out, then do a two-handed slide action to chamber a round, then you can shoot, if it hasn't jammed. (Not that pistols necessarily jam a lot but with revolvers, its a moot point.) Studies have shown that the vast majority of self-defense shootings are 1 or 2 or a few rounds fired at most. Revolvers are simpler and quicker to use, as well as generally being cheaper.

Personal choice for best all-around defense weapon is a 4 inch barrel .357 revolver. Colt, S&W and Ruger make some excellent models.

Doug- The Ruskies actually had the larger and more powerful nuclear arsenal, But the American missiles were much more accurate.

Kate, maybe you should get an amazon.ca affiliate account for me to buy stuff like this book through. I buy enough stuff from that site each year that my spending habits alone would probably net a few hundred dollars.

Dave in Pa, you can't buy a new 4" barrelled handgun in Canada. In the early '90s when police departments were transitioning from 4" revolvers to semi-automatics the market was flooded with revolvers. The supposedly conservative government of the time declared that barrel lengths of 4" were too concealable so all handguns with a barrel length of less than 4.14" are considered prohibited. Unless you had a handgun in that class in 1993 you can never acquire another one.

If you peruse Canadian websites you will see that the barrel length of guns for sale is 4.25" which is so much less concealable than 4.0".

The major advantages of the Glock were cost and ease of training for police forces that were transitioning from revolvers. The polymer frame does not require labour intensive finish machining and polishing lowering manufacturing costs. If you're a bean counter at a large police force ordering hundreds or thousands of guns the savings pile up quickly.There are no safety or decocker levers to learn how to use so training is simpler and quicker. Add in the Glock sales campaign about the "Safe Action Trigger" and the perceived need for 17 rounds, sales went through the roof.

Doug and Ryan, re American missiles' accuracy, US strategic forces could be given an order to put one in Red Square, which is actually a rectangle, and the firing officers literally could ask, "Which end?" That accurate. That's why American missiles and warheads have actually steadily grown smaller.

The warheads are all in the sub-megaton range now, with yields varying from 5-10 kilotons for tactical nukes to 50 kilotons to multi-hundreds of kilotons for the strategic nukes. The latest and most sophisticated are the so-called "dial-a-yield" warheads, variable according to intended target, which also describes many of the Israeli nukes, which of course the Israelis won't confirm or deny having.

My bet, and I say it with no pleasure whatever, is that the 21st century will see nuclear weapons used again. It won't be by any of the big players, but by some third-world lunatics. Pakistan, India, Iran, N. Korea, some other 3rd world country that doesn't yet have them but will have them in the future. If this use is against Israel, the country that starts it will be wiped off the map by the Israeli counter-strike.

Dave in Pa:

Well revolvers can malfunction and I have had it happen. For example a high primer can lodge the cylinder and the gun is generally out of use at that point.

All in all I have had excellent success with the glock, it very rarely misfeeds and when it does it is usually not very critical as in I can fix it in seconds. Having quite a few extra rounds available in the magazine is much more comforting to me. As well I find women do like shooting the semiauto better as there is less "felt" recoil.

All in all I think whichever weapon you choose is person dependant and really limited in terms of evidence, there are different reasons to recommend either IMHO. Especially if you test fire a lot of defense ammunition and make sure your gun cycles the brand well.

Just like the old argument about best self defence calibre this will be debated until guns are banned by the socialists.

Kate, this book left me a little annoyed as his bias comes through a bit when he makes fun of Ayoob and people who carry firearms concealed.

I have a Glock 17 and it's functioned well -- that is as long as one has a good grip on it. The Glock 17 has a bad habit of jamming on people who don't have the strength to prevent the pistol from rising too high after a shot. I've seen this happen to small women and I've duplicated the jam by holding the Glock loosely when I shoot. Of course, in the US there are some very nice small Glocks made for carriage in a womans purse and I'd have a hard time shooting one with the size of my hands.

Every firearm can malfunction and the best thing to do, in a country where one is allowed to carry concealed firearms, is to have one or two smaller backup pistols as well.

One nice feature of the Glock is that one doesn't have to flick off the safety, something one would likely forget to do in a stressful situation, but all that's needed is to just pull the trigger. The trigger safety is a great idea; that is if one carries the Glock in a proper holster and not stuck in ones pants.