Ladies, Do Not Carry A Pink Pistol.

If you are of age and willing to accept the responsibility to carry a firearm for self defense, you should. If you are going to continue training after getting your CCW then that is even better. This is something I always suggest after getting your Concealed Weapons Permit. Its not uncommon that ladies will get theirs and get excited about shopping around for a CCW pistol. This is a good thing! You should be excited on the leg of the adventure. But just before you decide to pull the trigger on the Tiffany Blue, the Electric Purple, or the Hot Pink firearm of your liking let me drop some knowledge on you first.

Hate to break it to the lot of you, but you should never buy a pink gun. Ever.

Lets start with the obvious. A firearm is not a toy. Do not purchase one that looks or resembles a toy. Many women will go out and the first bright pink one they see may catch their eye. The urge to want to get something cute or pretty that matches this or that is probably strong. Your common sense should be stronger! A firearm is a tool. It is NOT a fashion accessory! And it should be treated as a tool. The way that it looks matters. Especially if you have children. And especially if you actually have to use it in self defense.

First off, if it looks like a toy and you decide to carry it in your purse (you should never carry in a purse, that is another topic for conversation) and its a bright color, to a young child or adult it may look like a toy. This is a recipe for disaster. Every year children and people get killed negligently due to a firearm resembling something like a toy. It simply gets picked up and accidentally gets fired whether by a child or an adult not thinking it is real or it is loaded. As a carrier you are responsible for what happens at all times with your firearm while it is in your possession or on your person. Lets reiterate, you are ALWAYS responsible for your firearm while it is in your possession and or on your person.

Secondly, it is a tool and should be treated with respect. If you respect the firearm and you abide by the most basic of firearm safety rules then negligence is minimized or completely neutralized from the equation. A firearm needs to resemble what it is. A tool to be respected.

The last point is if you actually have to use it in a self defense scenario in court the jury of your peers will see the weapon used. And it should be no surprise that the peanut gallery is going to make assumptions based solely on what the firearm looks like. They have no idea about firearms usually and it tends to be a popularity contest of sorts. A bright pink or purple pistol may unfortunately give the jury a preconceived idea about who you are even without knowing the case. Another common tactic used by prosecutors is to use the color of the weapon as weight in the case against you. Don't give them that. In the end the jury needs to like you and needs to side with you. A bright color pistol may give them reason not to. They may think you are not serious about the privilege of carrying. This goes to the couch commando men too. Donning a pistol with Punisher logos or parts that say "KILL THEM ALL" is not suggested. Your very character is being judged by a bunch of strangers that have no idea about guns. Giving them a reason to question that may be a mistake that can land you in jail, even though your use of it was justified.

Ladies, if you decide to carry a firearm and be part of the armed and trained responsible population do yourself a favor. Skip over the bright color pistols please. It does no benefit for you in the long run. We all have responsibilities to be the protectors of ourselves, our children, our families and our kindred. Its very easy to go and get a CCW permit and to go and purchase a pistol for the upstanding citizen. Accepting the responsibility is a challenge and a long term duty. Do not make it harder on yourselves if you can help it. Its already hard for the law abiding citizen to live their life peacefully. There is no sense making it any more challenging in the wake of having to use it in self defense.

Gear Review: Kahr CW9 pistol.

First off I am not paid by any firearm companies. This info and my opinions are strictly my own. I am not a professional but rather a guy who loves to train and shoot and happen to have spent quite some time researching myself when I was in your shoes. If you are looking for a CCW pistol this review may be of use.

When it came time for me to purchase my first handgun I needed something that fell into 2 major categories. The first was that it needed to be chambered in 9mm, and secondly it needed to be comfortable. I looked into the 9mm round and found it was very available, cheaper priced to shoot and very effective for personal defense. 9mm also is very mild on recoil which was important to me as I would be carrying it and would need to be as accurate as possible with follow up shots. It has been proven that 9mm is becoming the Goldilocks option as more government agencies and Police Departments choose to switch after in depth FBI testing has proven its effectiveness. As for comfort everyone has different preferences. For me a big one is getting all of my fingers on the grip. Some smaller CCW guns may allow 2 or 3 fingers and your remaining fingers hang off the pistol grip. This for me wasn't an option. I had to have a smaller option that facilitated all of my fingers comfortably when I practiced. The Kahr CW9 did just that. As soon as I picked it up I knew that it was the one. For reference I have medium sized hands.

For comfort we as carriers sacrifice a few things. Major things sometimes. Carrying a gun isn't comfortable by any means. It grates, irritates, and constantly reminds you its there. Kahrs C line value guns are very slim which I noticed right off the bat. This means you get better comfort carrying concealed inside the waistband. The cost of this added comfort for a slick and thin little package is the round capacity for the CW9 is limited. It boasts a 7+1 capacity which as the time of writing this is on the lower side. Which is okay if you plan to carry 2 magazines. Which you should. Always. No matter what you choose to carry. So that itself isn't much problem but it does only come with one magazine. The CW9 is also very light as a package as it's just under 1 pound. Polymer lowers make it so much easier to find lighter and durable options for the every day consumer. Heavier options will be uncomfortable over the course of a long day in your holster.

 

Speaking of the C line, the Kahr value line is priced just right. New to CCW folks commonly go to a gun shop and buy the cheapest option in the gun case. Do not do that! Remember this a tool to put your life on the line with. You are worth more than the cheapest gun in your local shops cabinet. Kahr has been making precision CNC'd guns and gun parts here in the USA since 1985. These guns are functional and reliable and they do not have anything extra a new CCW carrier does not need. Which is also why they can be priced competitively against much more expensive guns for similar qualities. They put everything you need into the package, nothing to cause price bloat.

Prices for the CW9 varies. Kahr has an MSRP of $449 but I have seen them in store as low as $279. At that price range these things are an absolute steal. There are a lot of functional cheap guns out on the market. Its a great time to be a gun buyer. There are so many options. But rarely do you see a mix of really top notch quality machining, functionality, design, and ease of use and maintenance at this price point.

Its simple to take down and work on. No frills. No extra bells and whistles. It has a super easy disassembly for cleaning which is important for folks new to the cleaning process. It has no safety selector on it which makes for scar free training (training scars means practicing habits that may not translate well with other platforms). The trigger is very smooth and predictable and crisp. And most importantly it will eat nearly any ammo you run through it without any issue or problem. I never had any issues with any ammo type I ever used with mine. This is probably the most important factor, reliability. In cheaper guns you may sacrifice some of this for that lower price tag. And in a moment of need you want to be certain its going to work. Buy once, cry once. And if it doesn't work you die once.

My experiences with the CW9 were above average and I highly suggest it for new to CCW people. All the people who tested mine out at the range or in training always commented on how nice it functioned, how smooth it was to operate and how accurate it was. Even with new shooters it was very forgiving. They always had very good groupings at the standard 7 yard shot. Its a great platform to learn what CCW is all about.

Don't take my word for it. Find a local shop that has them and check Kahr pistols out. They are an underdog in a highly saturated low quality, low price era for CCW guns. Ask questions and handle the ones you are interested in. Chances are you will know right away which one you should get when you pick it up. I know I did.

Bottom line: if you are in the market for a CCW pistol go get your mitts on many different models and brands. Ask questions in the shops about the ones you like. And if you have the option to test fire some of them out before buying. What ever you choose get something you feel comfortable with. And ladies, what ever you do please do NOT buy a hot pink or a Tiffany blue pistol. But that's a discussion for another time.

Questions, comments, concerns? What was your first CCW pistol? Feel free to reach out to me.