Best Home Defense Pistol New

While I advise against using just a pistol for home defense, I understand that not everyone wants their own personal armory to deal with potential threats. I say this because, historically,  most handguns pale in comparison to rifles or shotguns in fight-stopping power. The good news is that modern handguns are vastly more effective than old guns.
But there are so many out there that it can be a daunting task for a new shooter to decide on one. The great news is that all modern handguns from reputable companies will work well for home defense. The real issue shooters need to concern themselves with is caliber. Think of caliber like you would think of an engine on a vehicle. If you’re worried about appropriate uses for a gun, first concern yourself with caliber. If a vehicle has a four-cylinder engine putting out 120 horsepower, there’s no great way to turn that vehicle into a tow truck. Similarly, a .22lr caliber firearm will never be a realistic choice for long-range precision shooting or big game hunting.  With that in mind, let’s look at some basic types of firearms and the best calibers for home defense.

What is the Best Gun for Home Defense?

This is a very common question that has several right answers, but in the broadest sense, the best gun for home defense is one that a shooter is proficient with. Don’t get me wrong, mechanical aspects like caliber, method of operation, and capacity are important as well. But if a shooter can’t effectively use their home defense gun, no amount of gear can guarantee success.
That said, if a shooter is proficient with a given weapon or weapon platform, then the smaller details become increasingly important. So, we’ll start with some basic aspects to narrow down our selection process and add more constraints until we can hone in on a few guns that fit the bill.

You absolutely can, and in many cases, should use 300 blackout for home defense. Specifically, I recommend running subsonic rounds through a short barrel on an AR-15 pistol because an AR-15 pistol chambered in .300 blk has all the capacity and controllability benefits of a 9mm with a boat-load of stopping power mixed in. Yes, sometimes you can have your cake and eat it too! But how does the round achieve this? Let’s look closer.

• The AR-15 is an extremely popular firearm for several reasons, not least of all being how accurate, affordable, and controllable it is.
• The guns are very accurate because they have good barrel harmonics overall, and with the rise in popularity of the railed handguard, most AR-15s now ship with a free-floated barrel.
• Both of these aspects ensure the gun’s barrel stays exactly where it is every time the trigger is pulled and doesn’t have outside influences on it that could shift the point of impact, leading to an inaccurate gun.

The reason these guns are so affordable has to do with their rise in popularity and an economy of scale built around churning them out in tremendous numbers. Companies like Palmetto State Armory started building more guns than anyone else a few years ago and transformed an enthusiast’s gun into America’s favorite centerfire rifle.

The solution: 300 Blackout. It shares everything with a standard AR-15 except the barrel, and because the round is larger and heavier, it doesn’t need as long of a barrel to achieve good terminal results. This opens the door to short-barreled rifles (SBRs) as viable defensive tools but opens up another issue for civilians – most don’t want to file for a tax stamp to get an NFA-regulated item. Along comes SB Tactical with their pistol braces, and suddenly, the perfect home defense pistol is born: a .300blk AR-15 pistol.

 

You absolutely can, and in many cases, should use 300 blackout for home defense. Specifically, I recommend running subsonic rounds through a short barrel on an AR-15 pistol because an AR-15 pistol chambered in .300 blk has all the capacity and controllability benefits of a 9mm with a boat-load of stopping power mixed in. Yes, sometimes you can have your cake and eat it too! But how does the round achieve this? Let’s look closer.

• The AR-15 is an extremely popular firearm for several reasons, not least of all being how accurate, affordable, and controllable it is.
• The guns are very accurate because they have good barrel harmonics overall, and with the rise in popularity of the railed handguard, most AR-15s now ship with a free-floated barrel.
• Both of these aspects ensure the gun’s barrel stays exactly where it is every time the trigger is pulled and doesn’t have outside influences on it that could shift the point of impact, leading to an inaccurate gun.

The reason these guns are so affordable has to do with their rise in popularity and an economy of scale built around churning them out in tremendous numbers. Companies like Palmetto State Armory started building more guns than anyone else a few years ago and transformed an enthusiast’s gun into America’s favorite centerfire rifle.

The solution: 300 Blackout. It shares everything with a standard AR-15 except the barrel, and because the round is larger and heavier, it doesn’t need as long of a barrel to achieve good terminal results. This opens the door to short-barreled rifles (SBRs) as viable defensive tools but opens up another issue for civilians – most don’t want to file for a tax stamp to get an NFA-regulated item. Along comes SB Tactical with their pistol braces, and suddenly, the perfect home defense pistol is born: a .300blk AR-15 pistol.

 

You absolutely can, and in many cases, should use 300 blackout for home defense. Specifically, I recommend running subsonic rounds through a short barrel on an AR-15 pistol because an AR-15 pistol chambered in .300 blk has all the capacity and controllability benefits of a 9mm with a boat-load of stopping power mixed in. Yes, sometimes you can have your cake and eat it too! But how does the round achieve this? Let’s look closer.

• The AR-15 is an extremely popular firearm for several reasons, not least of all being how accurate, affordable, and controllable it is.
• The guns are very accurate because they have good barrel harmonics overall, and with the rise in popularity of the railed handguard, most AR-15s now ship with a free-floated barrel.
• Both of these aspects ensure the gun’s barrel stays exactly where it is every time the trigger is pulled and doesn’t have outside influences on it that could shift the point of impact, leading to an inaccurate gun.

The reason these guns are so affordable has to do with their rise in popularity and an economy of scale built around churning them out in tremendous numbers. Companies like Palmetto State Armory started building more guns than anyone else a few years ago and transformed an enthusiast’s gun into America’s favorite centerfire rifle.

The solution: 300 Blackout. It shares everything with a standard AR-15 except the barrel, and because the round is larger and heavier, it doesn’t need as long of a barrel to achieve good terminal results. This opens the door to short-barreled rifles (SBRs) as viable defensive tools but opens up another issue for civilians – most don’t want to file for a tax stamp to get an NFA-regulated item. Along comes SB Tactical with their pistol braces, and suddenly, the perfect home defense pistol is born: a .300blk AR-15 pistol.

 

You absolutely can, and in many cases, should use 300 blackout for home defense. Specifically, I recommend running subsonic rounds through a short barrel on an AR-15 pistol because an AR-15 pistol chambered in .300 blk has all the capacity and controllability benefits of a 9mm with a boat-load of stopping power mixed in. Yes, sometimes you can have your cake and eat it too! But how does the round achieve this? Let’s look closer.

• The AR-15 is an extremely popular firearm for several reasons, not least of all being how accurate, affordable, and controllable it is.
• The guns are very accurate because they have good barrel harmonics overall, and with the rise in popularity of the railed handguard, most AR-15s now ship with a free-floated barrel.
• Both of these aspects ensure the gun’s barrel stays exactly where it is every time the trigger is pulled and doesn’t have outside influences on it that could shift the point of impact, leading to an inaccurate gun.

The reason these guns are so affordable has to do with their rise in popularity and an economy of scale built around churning them out in tremendous numbers. Companies like Palmetto State Armory started building more guns than anyone else a few years ago and transformed an enthusiast’s gun into America’s favorite centerfire rifle.

The solution: 300 Blackout. It shares everything with a standard AR-15 except the barrel, and because the round is larger and heavier, it doesn’t need as long of a barrel to achieve good terminal results. This opens the door to short-barreled rifles (SBRs) as viable defensive tools but opens up another issue for civilians – most don’t want to file for a tax stamp to get an NFA-regulated item. Along comes SB Tactical with their pistol braces, and suddenly, the perfect home defense pistol is born: a .300blk AR-15 pistol.

 

You absolutely can, and in many cases, should use 300 blackout for home defense. Specifically, I recommend running subsonic rounds through a short barrel on an AR-15 pistol because an AR-15 pistol chambered in .300 blk has all the capacity and controllability benefits of a 9mm with a boat-load of stopping power mixed in. Yes, sometimes you can have your cake and eat it too! But how does the round achieve this? Let’s look closer.

• The AR-15 is an extremely popular firearm for several reasons, not least of all being how accurate, affordable, and controllable it is.
• The guns are very accurate because they have good barrel harmonics overall, and with the rise in popularity of the railed handguard, most AR-15s now ship with a free-floated barrel.
• Both of these aspects ensure the gun’s barrel stays exactly where it is every time the trigger is pulled and doesn’t have outside influences on it that could shift the point of impact, leading to an inaccurate gun.

The reason these guns are so affordable has to do with their rise in popularity and an economy of scale built around churning them out in tremendous numbers. Companies like Palmetto State Armory started building more guns than anyone else a few years ago and transformed an enthusiast’s gun into America’s favorite centerfire rifle.

The solution: 300 Blackout. It shares everything with a standard AR-15 except the barrel, and because the round is larger and heavier, it doesn’t need as long of a barrel to achieve good terminal results. This opens the door to short-barreled rifles (SBRs) as viable defensive tools but opens up another issue for civilians – most don’t want to file for a tax stamp to get an NFA-regulated item. Along comes SB Tactical with their pistol braces, and suddenly, the perfect home defense pistol is born: a .300blk AR-15 pistol.