what should i do now?


Learn all you can about safely handling a handgun, then look at many guns online and in gun stores.
Do research online, look avideos on shooting different cal. guns, watch safety videos.
Take a good gun class and get a CCW permit.

THEN go over scenarios in your head on guys like the one who robbed you. Would you have had a chance to
pull a gun on him? If someone is pointing a gun at you you will get killed trying to pull a gun.

Should you keep the gun hid somewhere with easy access? Should you have it on you? Think very
seriously about all these things.

BUT before you carry make sure you prctice enough with your gun to feel confident in using it.
 

I have not read everyone's post so i don't know if someone has already said this, and i realize i may or may not get a bunch of flack for this but.....
There are many people who rush out to buy a firearm right after an home invasion. Buying a firearm is not a rushed decision, a firearm in itself is not dangerous, however the inherent danger that come with a firearm makes any human error potentially tragic. Take your time before making the decision to buy a firearm go to a range and with someone who knows firearms & firearms safety either a trusted friend or a firearms instructor to try out several types of guns and calibers. Decide if you like it then give it some thought and then make your decision, if you buy a firearm get some training.

I say this because many who rush into buying a gun never give it as much thought as they should and don't get the training. Some of the people I talk to do not know how to even load or unload their firearm.
 
I have not read everyone's post so i don't know if someone has already said this, and i realize i may or may not get a bunch of flack for this but.....
There are many people who rush out to buy a firearm right after an home invasion. Buying a firearm is not a rushed decision, a firearm in itself is not dangerous, however the inherent danger that come with a firearm makes any human error potentially tragic. Take your time before making the decision to buy a firearm go to a range and with someone who knows firearms & firearms safety either a trusted friend or a firearms instructor to try out several types of guns and calibers. Decide if you like it then give it some thought and then make your decision, if you buy a firearm get some training.

I say this because many who rush into buying a gun never give it as much thought as they should and don't get the training. Some of the people I talk to do not know how to even load or unload their firearm.

Exactly. That was exactly Zimmerman's problem in Florida. Rushed out and bought his gun. No training. No preparation. Shot a resident kid in the chest with it. Killed him.

Zimmerman is actually lucky the kid did not take the gun away from him and shoot Zimmerman with it.
 
Exactly. That was exactly Zimmerman's problem in Florida. Rushed out and bought his gun. No training. No preparation. Shot a resident kid in the chest with it. Killed him.

Are you able to document your allegations? How,exactly, are you able to comment authoritatively on Zimmerman’s level of training?
 
Are you able to document your allegations? How,exactly, are you able to comment authoritatively on Zimmerman’s level of training?

Treo, I'll make you a deal. With great effort I am leaving post #199 alone. You leave #203 alone. We'll try to keep this thread about basic firearms education for the benefit of the person new to weapons. It won't be easy, but we can do it.
 
Treo, I'll make you a deal. With great effort I am leaving post #199 alone. You leave #203 alone. We'll try to keep this thread about basic firearms education for the benefit of the person new to weapons. It won't be easy, but we can do it.

OK I'll play nice.

OP if you buy a gun take an NRA approved basic firearms safety course with it and a basic pistol class

EDIT FWIW I was chewing hole in my tongue on 199 /EDIT
 
RELATIONSHIP OF SIGHTS. It is necessary to be acutely aware of the relationship
of the rear sight to the clearly defined front sight. Normal vision is such that
the rear sight of the pistol will be as nearly In focus as the front sight. Some
shooters may be able to see only the notch of the rear sight In sharp focus; the
outer extremities may become slightly blurred.


Link Removed
Figure 2-1. The Relationship
of the Sights.
 
Trigger control is another great thing to practice. Get some snap caps and practice dry firing daily, until you get a good feel for the trigger break and trigger reset of your weapon.
 
Exactly. That was exactly Zimmerman's problem in Florida. Rushed out and bought his gun. No training. No preparation. Shot a resident kid in the chest with it. Killed him.

Zimmerman is actually lucky the kid did not take the gun away from him and shoot Zimmerman with it.
===========================================================================
I don't know what happened ther BUT, I do know this - I will never believe what the media reports? News has become a form of entertainment and they will embellish as they see fit, even it is not true.
 
superprincess. This thread is now exceeding 13 pages. Within those pages is a lot of good information. No, very good information! Before you allow the differences of opinion, and the back and forth bickering to detour you from the information you request and need, STOP. Let's go back to the basics. Why not tell us what 2 most valuable pieces of advice you have read here. I was a LEO for 26 years. I retired in 1996, and still shoot and train. I am no different than many of the other posters I have read here. Our first concern is that you get good advice and good information. Some of the advice I have read will only get you hurt. That is not why you asked, and that is not why we answered.
Thanks JJW for reminding us to go back to the basics. Most of the people who replied, I find are very knowledgeable about firearms and what it takes to defend yourself. Just remember I said most of the people. After careful consideration, I have my list of the post #s of the most valuable information. If you care to review them and tell me if you agree with my decision. You can feel free to pm me if you wish.
Thanks everyone for showing me your love and support!
Thanks JJW for your reply to my post!
 
I have not read everyone's post so i don't know if someone has already said this, and i realize i may or may not get a bunch of flack for this but.....
There are many people who rush out to buy a firearm right after an home invasion. Buying a firearm is not a rushed decision, a firearm in itself is not dangerous, however the inherent danger that come with a firearm makes any human error potentially tragic. Take your time before making the decision to buy a firearm go to a range and with someone who knows firearms & firearms safety either a trusted friend or a firearms instructor to try out several types of guns and calibers. Decide if you like it then give it some thought and then make your decision, if you buy a firearm get some training.

I say this because many who rush into buying a gun never give it as much thought as they should and don't get the training. Some of the people I talk to do not know how to even load or unload their firearm.

Thanks nodaywithout, you have gave me some very good advice. Even when I went to the basic introductory to handguns class, the instructor didn't seem to have time to let us do very much with the gun, except point and shoot. A part of me feels like I wasted my money. I am going to give it another try, just not with him. He is an excellent shot with the gun and he certainly knows alot from what he had told us. But I don't feel like he is cut out to be a teacher. At least he shouldn't be teaching women.
Thanks for replying to my post.
 
RELATIONSHIP OF SIGHTS. It is necessary to be acutely aware of the relationship
of the rear sight to the clearly defined front sight. Normal vision is such that
the rear sight of the pistol will be as nearly In focus as the front sight. Some
shooters may be able to see only the notch of the rear sight In sharp focus; the
outer extremities may become slightly blurred.


Link Removed
Figure 2-1. The Relationship
of the Sights.

Good advise, but I would include this. Your eyes can only focus on one distance (focal plane) at a time. There are 3 planes to deal with, the target, the front sight, and the rear sight. Two of these planes will be slightly blurry, one will be in focus. Most experts say to focus on the front sight. The sight picture that Wyldekard was kind enough to provide is the standard, conventional sight picture that is used for bull's eye and most other types of shooting. The advantages are that they are cheap, available, and they fit in almost every holster. There hundreds of variations of these sights that include dots, bars, triangles of various colors.
In my opinion, the various red dot sights are better because they put the target on the same focal point as the aiming point. That is a huge advantage. The disadvantages are that they require modifications to the gun except for the FN target guns, which come set up for those sights, they are large, they are relatively expensive, and holsters that fit them are either hard to find or custom made.
 
Good advise, but I would include this. Your eyes can only focus on one distance (focal plane) at a time. There are 3 planes to deal with, the target, the front sight, and the rear sight. Two of these planes will be slightly blurry, one will be in focus. Most experts say to focus on the front sight. The sight picture that Wyldekard was kind enough to provide is the standard, conventional sight picture that is used for bull's eye and most other types of shooting. The advantages ate that they are cheap, available, and they fit in almost every holster. There hundreds of variations of these sights that include dots, bars, triangles of various colors.
In my opinion, the various red dot sights are better because they put the target on the same focal point as the aiming point. That is a huge advantage. The disadvantages are that they require modifications to the gun except for the FN target guns, which come set up for those sights, they are large, they are relatively expensive, and holsters that fit them are either hard to find or custom made.

You caught me Fudo. I'm an iron sights kinda guy.:smile:
 
Good advise, but I would include this. Your eyes can only focus on one distance (focal plane) at a time. There are 3 planes to deal with, the target, the front sight, and the rear sight. Two of these planes will be slightly blurry, one will be in focus. Most experts say to focus on the front sight. The sight picture that Wyldekard was kind enough to provide is the standard, conventional sight picture that is used for bull's eye and most other types of shooting. The advantages are that they are cheap, available, and they fit in almost every holster. There hundreds of variations of these sights that include dots, bars, triangles of various colors.
In my opinion, the various red dot sights are better because they put the target on the same focal point as the aiming point. That is a huge advantage. The disadvantages are that they require modifications to the gun except for the FN target guns, which come set up for those sights, they are large, they are relatively expensive, and holsters that fit them are either hard to find or custom made.
Thanks fudo, please forgive me for another dumb question. Speaking of sites, the gun comes with sites attached when you buy it right?
Aren't they part of the gun? Or is this something additional you need to purchase and attache to the gun?
Thanks for your reply.
 
Thanks fudo, please forgive me for another dumb question. Speaking of sites, the gun comes with sites attached when you buy it right?
Aren't they part of the gun? Or is this something additional you need to purchase and attache to the gun?
Thanks for your reply.
We definitely need to discuss this in further detail.
 
Thanks fudo, please forgive me for another dumb question. Speaking of sites, the gun comes with sites attached when you buy it right?
Aren't they part of the gun? Or is this something additional you need to purchase and attache to the gun?
Thanks for your reply.

Not a dumb question at all.

All guns come standard with at least rudimentary sighting systems, some with slightly higher-performance systems, and some with fairly complicated systems.

The most basic system that all handguns come with will look like some (minor) variation of the picture that Wyldekard posted for you. In the most basic configuration, both the rear and front sights are machined or otherwise permanently hard-mounted to the frame/slide/barrel, meaning there's no adjustment available to the user.

A slightly higher-tech system will have the rear sight mounted by a "dovetail" notch machined into the frame (revolver) or slide (semi-auto like the XD you shot) so that it can be adjusted by tapping it with a drift and a small hammer side-to-side to adjust for windage.

The next higher-tech system is the rear sight having the ability to be adjusted by a screw. The basic adjustable sight will only have windage (horizontal) adjustment, and a slightly more functional one will have both windage and vertical adjustment.

From there, you can get standard sights that have glow-in-the-dark dots to aid in aligning your front and rear sights in low light.

When you hear terms like "red dot sights" or "holographic" or "reflex" sights, in almost every case, you're hearing about an add-on sighting system that would not come as a stock feature of your handgun. I've never looked into stats on which kinds of systems sell better, but there are two basic ways to mount a red dot sight, which when talking about a handgun for self defense purposes, you are usually referring to a laser sight. The two mounting systems are via an accessory rail built into the frame of the weapon, or via a system built into the grip of the weapon. The XD that you shot has a rail along the bottom of the frame, in front of the trigger guard. I personally like the rail system because it is more versatile than mounting the laser in the grip, but both can be very helpful in acquiring your target, especially for follow-up shots. They also can be a distraction for some people, especially for those, like a lot of us here, who are just so ummm.....ancient (LOL), that we are akin to trying to teach an old dog new tricks.

Anyway, here's a couple of pics of one of my guns that does have fully adjustable (windage and vertical) sights, night-sight dots, a rail that you can see in the first pic without anything attached, and in the second pic, with a combination flashlight and laser mounted on it.

Link Removed

Link Removed

And here's one where you can see what the night-sights are designed to do. The pic is retouched to exaggerate the GID dots, but that's only because it was taken during the day and you couldn't tell they were night-sights if I didn't do that. In low-light, they would look similar to how they look here:

Link Removed

Hope that helps. Keep asking questions. It will really help you when you go to buy a gun.

Blues
 
Thanks JJW for reminding us to go back to the basics. Most of the people who replied, I find are very knowledgeable about firearms and what it takes to defend yourself. Just remember I said most of the people. After careful consideration, I have my list of the post #s of the most valuable information. If you care to review them and tell me if you agree with my decision. You can feel free to pm me if you wish.
Thanks everyone for showing me your love and support!
Thanks JJW for your reply to my post!
I will be glad to assist with that. PM on the way.
 

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