lildave4 wrote:Worded well thank you. I carry a lc9 that has a very long pull. What do you recommend as a replacement for a beginner?
TVGuy is correct, a full sized G19 is a good entry weapon if you're thinking about going with Glocks. Enough weight toward the fore end to tame it's recoil a tad, and 9mm is a decent (not what I prefer) general use round. I carry a G23, mid sized.
FWIW, my sister who had pretty much shot rifles exclusively bought a G26 as her first pistol after my BIL died. She wanted a good carry pistol and was going to get her CHL in VA. When I went through, we dedicated a day to loading, unloading, take down and reassembly, safety and tactical considerations unique to her situation. We then went out to the back of her property and ran a hundred rounds through her G26 and a dead tree (TAM has seen the pictures). I could cover the pattern with my fist. She then signed up for both an NRA course and a citizen's police academy through the local sheriff's office. The NRA instructor told her that the Glock was not a good first gun for a woman. I asked her what she did, she said she center punched the target...multiple times. Point being, I wouldn't recommend a sub compact as your first Glock but if you have the budget for
one then buy the one you will carry.
Safety: My dad used to say, "A loaded gun never accidently shot anyone." When I asked him about it he said it was always the "unloaded" ones that "accidently" shot people. Treat every gun as loaded until you visualize it as clear. I think that's been said a few times in this thread.
Glock Accidents: Yeah, I've seen lots of videos with lots of different guns and ALL were due to negligence. I have dropped mine twice, fought the urge to try to catch it and had ne'er a problem. I have been on probably hundreds of shooting calls, several were NDs. This is anecdotal but I never ran on an ND that was a Glock. I ran on shotguns, revolvers, Taurus, Rugers and two 1911's as NDs. One blew a 1" hole through his foot and one emasculated himself.
Added in Edit: Why bring 1911's and other guns into it? The assertion is that Glocks and other striker fired are inherently dangerous by design and statistically are involved in more NDs than other types of hand guns. An assertion which has not been supported by anything more than rhetoric at this point.
About squeezing the trigger before take down with Glocks. The reason that is necessary is it is supposed to be cycled to
clear the chamber prior to beginning the process. That step follows dropping the mag of course, otherwise you just reloaded the pistol. FWIW, the only safe way to de-cock a 1911 is to drop the mag and clear the chamber first. For those so designed as to not require squeezing the trigger, you're supposed to drop the mag and cycle the action to clear the chamber. Do we see a pattern here?
