*Long post warning*
Awesome - I got my carry permit back in December and have spent the last 3 weeks testing out a few different guns at the local range - Glock 17 4th Gen is on the top of my list with a Beretta 92 A1
I can't decide!
Congrats on the buy!
Glocks are good guns, there's no doubt about it. Personally I would take a glock over quite a few other CCW Pieces.
What I would highly recommend is testing out as many handgun & holster combos as you can, even take a few changes of clothes with you to determine the right one. I've personally made the mistake (and others too) of picking a bigger gun and running the risk of not carrying due to size/clothing issues. Any gun is better than no gun at all, and most of the people I know that have carried G17s have traded them in for G19s or 26s (Same for 22s, 23s and 27s).
Glock's are good guns, of course, but they don't really do anything for me. HK or Sig are more my taste since I've always kinda hated the Glock trigger.
Glocks are sort of in the same category as many other firearms. HK USPs, Sigs, FNPs , and many other models. If you don't like the trigger, just get a new one. There are dozens of spring/trigger linkage combinations that you can get. Granted a glock is a striker fired gun and will never have a identical pull to a single/double action firearm.
In my crazy mind, when I think the government will fail, I have two primary calibers. I've selected the 9mm, and 223. I tend to buy 9mm's as my primary side arm and 223 as my primary assault rifles. I chose only two calibers so that I can stockpile ammunition without making it so complex. I have XD's, M11s, and several other in this caliber. Of course I have other calibers though, these are just my primary calibers of choice i guess. I have only 1 40 caliber though, it's the Springfield XD .40 caliber (I have the subcompact model not the full one).
I'm in a unique position with my job - I'm in people's houses all the time. I've seen MANY people's gun collections and ammo stockpiles. 223 is by far the most popular long gun caliber, and typically when someone has one they stockpile a ton of ammo. I can't say for certain that there's more 223/556 floating around there than anything else, but I would bet money it ties with 12ga and 22lr for prevalence with 22 being the likely winner.
Handguns are a bit of a mixed bag though, I've run into too many calibers to get a solid pick of what is the most popular however 9/40/45 seem to be the upper tier with 38/357 following behind those calibers. Most US military personnel get 9mm/223 when they leave the military so it's effective to stock these both. Keep in mind that law enforcement also uses a significant amount of ammo in the US, and they typically stock .40 , 223 and 12ga in bulk.
As for calibers and 'knock down power' please realize that training is the number one factor on whether you survive a gunfight, not the caliber. Handguns moreso than long guns are extremely anemic when it comes to killing people. I've spent the past 4 years in researching shootouts and firearm terminal effects. On average you've got about a 40% chance of being killed by a handgun if you are hit multiple times. A long run increases that to well over 65%. This would be useful if you could carry a long gun around, so it's effectively a moot point. Also , realize that the 'training' you get for your CCW permit is worthless. It's just there to set the bar high enough so people with IQ scores of less than 75 are scared away. Some of the legal insights they give you are good, but the shooting portion in every state is worthless.
There are hundreds of examples of shootings involving a banger or a law abiding citizen taking one round of 22lr or 25acp and being killed, while a guy being hit with 9mm/.40/.45 multiple times lives just fine. In Cincinnati this week there was a shootout between a gang banger and a store clerk. I'm unsure of what the banger had but I believe the store clerk had either a 380 or a 9mm. The shootout took place from less than 5 feet away. The clerk fired 5 times hitting the banger 4 times, the banger fired 3 times missing every single time. Two of the first 3 rounds fired from the clerk struck the banger's midsection before he could return fire. The subsequent two rounds also struck the banger, one in the chest and one in the leg. The banger managed to run out of the store and drove a few miles before he leaked enough blood to pass out. Just because you hit someone a few times in the mid section doesn't mean he'll stop. Either you make contact with the central nervous system or you don't. If you do not make contact then you need to keep firing till you either run out of ammo , or the threat is stopped. A significant amount of police officers have been killed because they thought that putting 3 rounds in a bad guy's midsection was enough to kill him. My uncle was almost one of them, he shot a guy on PCP 3 times in the chest. The guy did disengage my uncle who he was trying to kill with a knife, but he managed to be a threat for 30 seconds after being shot. During the autopsy review it was shown that my uncle had hit the guy 3 times in the heart stopping all function.
So , having said this, the only way you can get a better understanding of what to do, and your firearm's capabilities is to train as much as you can. Glocks are great, sigs are great and HKs are great, but companies do many many lemons that are extremely unreliable. Before you start carrying a gun, you really need to put at least 1,000 rounds through it, making darn well sure that the gun doesn't jam a single time on you. A reliable gun with reliable ammo will jam no more than 1 time in 10,000.
Another thing to do is to understand the terminal effects of the ammo you carry. There's alot of great stuff out there, but many people still carry FMJ ammo which is not as effective as current generation hollowpoints.
To test out my carry ammo, I shot a block of ballistics gel and recorded the findings.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RXGMPcednc"]Ranger Talon .45 Ballistic Gel Block Test - YouTube[/ame]
Also , if you do plan on carrying a firearm, make darn well sure you know what your state laws are. Each state is different, and you NEED to be knowledgeable about your specific laws. It would also be a good idea to have a lawyer on retainer 'Just in case'. A simple self defense shooting can quickly turn into a messy civil suit costing every single thing you own. Learning the laws , not talking to police after a shooting and utilizing a quality attorney can be the difference between spending $250 for him to show up and talk for 5 minutes and a $600,000 civil suit payment (as was the case of my uncle who shot the guy on PCP trying to kill him).
