The handgun is a wonderful tool for self-defense. If I didn’t believe this, I wouldn’t have made testing, writing about, and mastering them my life’s work. I sold my first gun magazine article in 1989, and have been making my living at it since 1992. In that time I have sold one book and approximately 750 magazine articles, published in magazines with titles like Petersen’s Handguns, Guns & Ammo, Gun World, SWAT, Soldier of Fortune, The Complete Book of the 1911, The Complete Book of the AR-15, Combat Handguns, Concealed Carry Magazine, The Gun Buyer’s Guide and more. On this website you will find many of those articles, for you to read at no charge.
In addition to my writing, which has afforded me the pleasure and opportunity of firing hundreds of different firearms, I am also a competitor in the United States Practical Shooting Association (USPSA is the active body of the International Practical Shooting Confederation – IPSC – in the US) and also the International Defensive Pistol Association (IDPA). I have always been very serious in competition about shooting my carry gun, and have done the vast majority of competition with my daily carry holster and magazine pouch, as well. In the course of improving my skill level, I have fired well into six figures of handgun ammunition, earned my Master rank in IDPA’s Stock Service Pistol division with a Glock 9mm, and am a former Washington State IDPA Champion in Custom Defensive Pistol, IDPA’s .45 auto division.
Though you will find the occasional article within this website on rifles and shotguns, which certainly have their place in self-defense, the emphasis is on the defensive handgun. The handgun is the most personal of weapons, the primary tool of interpersonal combat in our culture. Though lacking in power compared to more serious weapons, high powered rifles and shotguns, the handgun’s great virtue is its compactness, and resultant portability and concealability. Lawfully carried concealed with the proper permit, the handgun can BE THERE when you get jumped at the ATM at two in the morning. The long, bulky and unconcealable rifle or shotgun can’t.
Since the late 1980s we have seen an explosion in America of states passing shall-issue concealed carry laws. “Shall-issue” means that, when a state and federal background check are run on the applicant, unless they are found to meet any of a short list of disqualifying criteria (conviction of a violent felony, adjudication of mental incompetence, etc.), the issuing authority MUST grant the permit. Thus we have in our society today an immense number of decent people legally carrying concealed handguns, sometimes for the first time in their lives. I can only view this as a good thing, but it is also a responsibility not to be taken lightly. As someone who has been carrying concealed every day for most of my adult life, I hope the information available on this site will be not only a resource for more experienced gun enthusiasts, but will aid new shooters, and new concealed carry permit holders, as well.
Duane Thomas
Gunwriter