The Truth About Guns for Self Defense

Shamelessly stolen/paraphrased from this post by MostlyGenius at Brillianter.com, (another name I wish I had come up with). I thought some of it would translate to gun ownership.

Learning about guns is a long term commitment.
You wouldn't expect to take six weeks of piano lessons and expect to play concert halls, so why should you expect to effectively handle a gun after the same amount of time? The only way to get truly competent with a firearm is to practice. Often.

Many gun owners have primary goals that are not related to fighting.
It sounds strange, but while some gun owners trace their origins to actual combat, others have evolved into a sports or moral philosophy and fighting is no longer their primary goal. (this one is really hard for the anti-gunners to grasp)

Shooting is about the application of principles more than the application of techniques.
A given technique is only the answer to small range of potential situations. While learning the mechanics of a technique is relatively easy, learning to recognize what techniques fit into which situations is considerably harder. Point shooting vs aimed shooting comes to mind.

Most gun instructors don't know anything about the legalities involved.
Ok, hold on. Let me rephrase that. Most professional gun instructors do know the legal stuff, but your buddy Joe down the road might not. If your gun instructor doesn't know about the legalities involved, get a new instructor!. While learning about martial arts could get you into trouble if you were forced to defend yourself, using a gun to do the same will almost guarantee you wind up in court.

Thanks again to MostlyGenius for doing most of the writing on this. Go read his post The Truth About Martial Arts for Self Defense. Good stuff there.

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