What’s Better for Home Defense: Rifle or Handgun?
Barret KendrickDescription
Should you use a rifle or handgun for home defense? PDN Contributor and Owner of Bearco Training in Covington, Louisiana, Barret Kendrick explains why it’s best to keep, train and practice with both a handgun and a rifle or shotgun.
Rifle for Home Defense
Barret is carrying a shorter rifle, which works very well from a barricaded position. What happens when you need a firearm for home defense? You arm yourself, gather your family, get into a secure location, and contact authorities. If you have to use deadly force to defend yourself and your family against an intruder, this type of rifle would work very well for that. Shotguns work well too.
But if for some reason you’re forced to leave that barricaded environment, the rifle makes it difficult to accomplish things like opening a door and shooting, or holding a small child and shooting. What if you had to push a family member out of the way while carrying a rifle? That’s also difficult, due to the rifle’s weight and length. In these circumstances, the answer to the rifle or handgun question is handgun, because this is where a handgun excels.
Handgun for Home Defense
Considering retention of a firearm under stressful circumstances, keeping a handgun close to the chest works well. You can shoot a handgun one-handed if necessary, in case you need a free arm and hand to move a family member or carry a child.
Rifle or Handgun?
When you’re deciding what your home defense weapons will be, it’s best to keep, train and practice with both a handgun and a rifle or shotgun. This is due to their respective strengths in different scenarios — barricaded or moving — and because you don’t know exactly what your home-defense situation will look like and which weapon will serve you best in those moments.
Hey, everyone, Barret Kendrick here with Bearco Training out of Covington, Louisiana. I'm coming to you today from sunny Florida, and I wanna talk a little bit about choosing the right firearm for home defense. In my hands, I'm holding a nice, shorter carbine rifle that works very well from a barricaded position. We think about that. We try to get our family.
We get into a position, and we contact authorities. We're armed. If I have to end up responding and using deadly force against an intruder, then this rifle would certainly work well for that. Shotguns work well for that. But if for some reason you're forced to leave that barricaded environment, you know, if you've got young kids in your house or you've got another family member present in the home and you have to move outside of that home, you know, the rifle makes it very difficult to do things like open up a door and shoot if you were forced to or even hold a small child and still have to shoot the firearm.
You know, what if you had to shove a family member out of the way? It makes it very difficult to use a rifle in that type of environment, and that's where a handgun kinda shines. If we think about retention over the firearm, keeping a handgun in close to our chest is going to work very well for that. So if we think about that, you know, if I think about having this handgun to where I can keep the gun close into my chest, I could shoot one-handed if I had to shoot one-handed, you know, if I had to get rid of a family member out of the way or if I'm holding somebody like my one-year-old child, it's very easy for me to be able to do that with a handgun close into my body and still efficient to be able to stop that bad guy in the shorter distances inside that home defense scenario. And then once I get to the barricaded location, you know, if I'm wanting to put the handgun down, re-grab the rifle and then I'm able to respond in that efficient manner if needed, then that's going to work well for that, but if we do have to move out, I think the handgun is going to be the better choice for that.
For tips like these on home defense or on other topics, go ahead and check out personaldefensenetwork.com.
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