Top Ten Tips for Pandemic Gun Buyers (Part 1)

[Music] hi I expect today's presentation to be watched by a lot of people who've never seen me before so we're going to have to adjust the format a little bit starting with I typically don't introduce myself because Who I am isn't relevant and most people don't care but today I am going to introduce myself my name is Paul Harrell and retired military personnel I was in the military for 20 years I've been in both the Marine Corps and the army I was a combat marksmanship instructor at the Marine Corps Security Forces School in the Army I was in the light infantry company where I was a platoon sergeant I'm a war veteran but I'll be the first to tell you that nothing I did in the Middle East was in any way noteworthy I've done a fair amount of competition shooting at gun clubs and things like that with rifle pistol shotgun black-powder rimfire in the military I participated in military shooting competitions winning state regional national and international shooting titles I've also done a fair amount of hunting and I've been in a couple of citizen involves self-defense shootings okay so Pat me on the back now let's get on with it what we're talking about today is a segment of the population that previously has not been firearms enthusiasts but now they're looking around and deciding they might need to get a gun or two and the reason that people are doing that is because of a word that I've been told I shouldn't say so we're going to use a code word and the code word is beer get it and I'd appreciate it if you use that code word in the commentary but because of that and people buying a lot of guns when they haven't been firearms enthusiasts up till now I have some information that might help those people make some good decisions in those purchases and when I do presentations like this it usually comes with a long list of caveats disclaimers in y Abbot's and today will be no different first being that you're going to have to put up with my Shatner ask pauses and my speech impediment you'll see it when it manifests so secondly I'm talking to people who previously have not been firearms enthusiasts so for all of you people who know a lot about firearms you're gonna see some redundant material however this might be useful to you because people in this category are probably going to solicit advice from people in this category and I might tell you some things that will help you help them also everything I'm going to say today are my conclusions in my opinions my opinions are based on my education my training my experience different people have different experiences so they have different opinions and I make no claim that my opinion has its origin in the mind of greatness also a lot of times when we do presentations like this they're not from the standpoint of trying to tell you what to do only demonstrating what I do for example people will ask me to recommend what kinds of guns they should use for deer hunting because I don't know your local laws I don't know who you are I don't know your budget and many other things I'm loath to give advice so often people will ask the follow-up question okay what kinds of firearms do I use for deer hunting okay and so I can demonstrate what kinds of guns I have and what kinds of guns I use and so most of the time when I'm doing something like this it's from the standpoint of just demonstrating or discussing what I do not telling you what you should do today will be a little bit different I most certainly am going to give you some advice I'm going to tell you what I think you should do if you're a firearms enthusiast who is a brand-new firearms enthusiast from the category of haven't been one up till now and you think you need a gun or two because of beer so with all of that let's get started today are my five tips on how non firearms enthusiasts can make good decisions in buying firearms in this situation and the first one is be highly skeptical of those who would presume to give you advice now that might sound odd coming from me right now but there are a lot of people out there who claim to have expertise that sometimes don't have as much expertise as they think they do and there's a lot of people with a lot of different opinions and you should be skeptical of those people and you should look at multiple sources and make up your mind for yourself another thing in being skeptical of sources and when I say this people will get upset so please listen to this part in its entirety before you send me hate mail you should be highly skeptical of advice you get from gun store employees now in my line of work I have to deal with quite a few gun stores and give a shout out to a few of them that I deal with frequently such as the electronic superstore in Lincoln City Oregon D&B Supply in Pendleton Oregon Garner's in Pendleton Oregon and I deal with them because they have the stuff I need they can get the stuff I need and because the employees there know what they're doing very commonly gun store employees are on this end of the spectrum where they are highly educated in firearms and they know a great deal of stuff on the other end of that spectrum some gun store employees only work there because they're cousins the boss some gun store employees are paid by the hour and they don't care what you buy they don't care if you buy anything some gun store employees are salesmen and they're highly interested in selling you something and they don't really care what you have to be very skeptical of sources especially those who work at gun stores now the second thing on my list is the concept that any gun is better than none and the more complicated version of that is as long as a firearm works properly and as long as you can operate it safely and competently than almost any firearm would be better than not having one simple version any gun is better than none and in talking about this group of people that previously have not been firearms enthusiasts and haven't owned firearms actually in that group there are a lot of people who do own one or two guns I frequently hear people say things like no I don't own a gun and then they correct themselves well actually I technically do I've got a and he doesn't remember the caliber he doesn't remember the manufacturer a lot of times he doesn't even remember where it is it's in his house somewhere for those people now might be a good time to dust off that gun and figure out what it is and if it works and let me show you a couple of examples of guns in that category this is a Marlin model 795 rifle caliber 22 long rifle with a 10 shot detachable box magazine it's not identical but it is very similar to a rifle somebody showed me a while ago he told me that he'd only fired it on one or two occasions he had only taken it hunting once didn't even see anything to shoot at he hadn't fired it in years and he thinking about getting rid of it when I told him no hang on to that 22 rifle there might come a day when you're happy you have it now that day might be very soon but rifles like this one are very common among that group of people who doesn't consider themselves gun owners but actually technically they do own a gun or two now let me show you something about this 22 rifle I'm going to shoot this target off hand from 25 yards and often does not mean shooting with your non-dominant hand it just means shooting from a standing unsupported position well we have a fairly good group the one shot that was low I don't know if you could hear that in the audio but it was an underpowered round now is that why it hit low or was it just me I don't know but we do see that this is a fairly accurate rifle but how powerful is 22 long-rifle let's see if we can demonstrate that now for a demonstration of power which is not a definitive demonstration but I think it will get my point across I'm going to use this 2.5 liter of Shasta orange flavored carbonated beverage a target I like to call a soda jug and when we say how powerful is something it has to be in reference to what compared to what so as a basis of comparison I'm going to shoot this from 10 yards with this 30-30 rifle and 3030 is considered to be moderately powerful so we'll see what kind of damage this can do and then we'll have a basis of comparison for the 22 [Applause] so now that we've seen what a moderately powerful rifle can do to a soda jug I've got some new soda jugs set up I'll shoot the 22 from 10 yards and we'll see how it compares [Music] [Applause] so as powerful as the 3030 not even close but we saw that it is accurate and with proper shot placement it'll get the job done and you don't want to be on the wrong end of it now let me show you another type of firearm that's very common among those non firearms owners that really do own a gun this is a single shot shotgun specifically in Iver Johnson 28 gauge a lot of times when non-gun owners own a gun or two it's because they inherited it well I inherited this one and the way this gun works is push the lever to the side open it put in one round of ammunition close it [ __ ] the hammer and fire open it again you see how that eject it out not all of them will do that some will then you load in another round and start the process over possibly the simplest firearm to operate in the world but how effective can a firearm like this be let's see if we can demonstrate that so let's see how this does against our soda jugs [Applause] as fast as an autoloader no but if you work with it a little bit it's a lot faster than people think and it's another one of those guns that you don't want to be on the wrong end of it now at this point there's something that I have to clarify remember point one be skeptical of sources of information in people who would give you advice point to any gun is better than none as I talked about 22 rifles and single-shot shotguns those types of firearms that are commonly in the closets or attics of people who aren't really firearms owners I am not recommending that you go down and buy a single shot shotgun in the sense that any gun is better than none when you go down to the gun store and you're trying to buy the gun you really want but so many people are buying guns that your background check which normally takes 30 minutes is now taking 10 days then instead of walking out of the gun store with nothing perhaps getting a box of shot shells for that single shot shotgun it'll tide you over that 10-day period would be a whole lot better than nothing that's the point I'm trying to make but remember the fine print of any gun is better than none includes any gun that is in proper working order that you can handle competently and safely let me show you an example of that this is a Colt revolver this gun was inherited by somebody who isn't really a firearms owner but they thought they might have to put it into service in the current situation we're in but not knowing how it worked or what caliber it was they gave it to one of my crew so we could evaluate it today so I've never even seen this revolver before today now it is 38 caliber but nowhere on this firearm is it printed which 38 it is is a 38 Long Colt 38 special we're gonna have to do some things to put that to the test also I've discovered that this gun has been damaged when I [ __ ] this hammer that cylinder is not locking up nearly as tightly as it should in my opinion this revolver is not safe to shoot and if you don't know things like what caliber or gauge your firearm is or whether or not it works properly you've got to find some competent authority to help you out with that if the question is well this gun blow up when I shoot it you don't want to test that like this that's an answer you don't want to get the hard way now we have to talk about point three however point three and point four are linked and it becomes difficult to talk about one without the other as I go on about point three people always want to skip ahead no no that isn't right and they want to get to point four they're linked so I'm gonna try as best I can to talk about both of them at the same time point three is simplicity point four is capacity there are exceptions but quite often the simplest guns we have are also the ones with the least capacity that single shot shotgun very simple to operate anybody could operate that with one or two minutes of instruction but you get one shot double-barreled shotguns well two is twice one and they're just about as simple as a single shot and as we get more and more capacity again there are exceptions you quite often get into more and more complex firearms and the problem is when people who are typically not gun owners buying things like that they're dealing with things that they don't really know how to operate in an environment where they might not have the inclination or the time or the money that may have no opportunity whatsoever to get real instruction with those firearms and they might have to put those firearms into use in the very near future so we want to keep it simple but we have to balance that against the need for capacity and that brings up the question what is sufficient capacity how many rounds will someone typically fire ok accurate statistics as to how many shots a citizen fires in a legitimate self-defense shooting are extremely difficult to get statistics easy accurate statistics very difficult we have a presentation specifically on that that you can watch for the long version so how many rounds will someone need how many rounds does someone fire OK in a home defense shooting the homeowner is armed with a shotgun you know it is very common for them to favorably resolve that with one or two rounds but that's under normal conditions things might not be normal let me see if I can explain this and this will take a minute a while ago there was somebody who considered himself a real expert on home defense shooting and he said that in home defense shooting the most likely scenario would be quote between two and five people storming your home with quick and overwhelming force that's fact one close quote okay that is an opinion that I greatly dissent from although those kind of things can happen I find that two to five people scenario far less likely than scenarios such as someone who is just delusional whether that dementia is organic or chemically induced and he thinks your house is his FBI safe house and that you're some kind of criminal and he ends up doing something violent ladies especially some kind of creepy pervo serial murderer rapist kind of person there's also the burglar that kicks your door in because he thinks you're not home when you are and again ladies that creepy ex-boyfriend you have that's declared if he can't have you no one will I find those scenarios and many others to be far more likely than two and five people storming your home equipment overwhelming force however that's under normal conditions things right now are not normal not too long ago how many people would really have thought we'd see women at the store beating each other up over toilet paper things are not normal some people think that things will go back to normal soon enough we should all just relax some people are concerned things might go downhill fast and those are the people that I'm talking to right now so when we talk about simplicity and capacity we have to have enough capacity for the scenarios that you think might happen now among firearms owners especially those who concern themselves with personal protection concealed carry home defense there's a saying they like to say which is when seconds count the police are minutes away that makes a lot of sense but we have a lot of people concerning themselves with the idea that in the very near future that might be when seconds count the police are hours away when seconds count the police are a non-existent entity all of a sudden capacity might be something you'd concern yourself with more now or in the near future then you would have a short time ago so capacity we're going to say is important more so than it was in the recent past but we still have to balance that against simplicity let me show you some firearms that I think will help illustrate my point now this is a double-barreled shotgun two very important things one I'm not recommending double-barreled shotguns two after that nonsense Joe Biden said it's difficult to talk about double-barreled shotguns and sound intelligent but I'm gonna try this gun is very simple almost as simple as the single-shot now the way this works is force the lever open it and then you'll put a shell into each chamber a great thing about guns like this is it's very easy to see if they're loaded or not now you've got two barrels and two triggers and two hammers some double barrels will only have one trigger just pull it twice a lot of them have two triggers the most complicated thing about a gun like this is remembering which trigger goes with which barrel the way I remember it is you're either right out front or you're left behind most of the time you're right barrel is activated by your front trigger your left barrel by your rear trigger you're right out front or you're left behind and to shoot this you [ __ ] the hammer open it some will eject these a lot won't see em flip those out of there and then reload it's very simple and under normal conditions for most things it's enough let me show you another double-barreled shotgun now here's another double-barreled shotgun similar to the first one except no hammers these are commonly called hammerless of course they have hammers they're just internal open it and as you pull that open you can feel the springs compressing as it [ __ ] those internal hammers and just like the other shotgun you load your owns into the firing chambers and again very easy to see if it's loaded so if these internal hammers are cocked is that safe this gun has a manual safety interesting thing is it's so simple to operate that after you fire the gun and you open it to reload the manual safety engages itself so let's shoot this and you'll see that this one is also easier to eject the shells out of it you just shake them out it depends on your gun this is a pump shotgun there are many different versions this one's a Mossberg 500 I'm going to use it for a demonstration because it's one of the more common types we also have a lengthy presentation on loading and firing pump shotguns you can watch that for the more detailed explanation today I'm just going to give you the short version now guns like this you'll typically open the chamber put a round in the chamber close it and then load your tube now you saw how I opened that chamber the hammer was forward now the internal hammer is cocked and the chamber won't open unless listen as a dry firing now that hammer is forward and the slide will work again this way it keeps it from accidentally opening but now it won't open how do I open it unless I want to fire the gun you have to remember to press the slide movies also guns like this having manual safety you have to disengage the safety to fire it and remember to re-engage the safety when you're done firing firearms like can be complex now you see I put that round in the chamber and as I start to load my tube I'm not looking at the gun it's a good idea to look at your environment not look at your gun when you're loading but you'll see that I'm able to make sure these rounds are going in in the right direction that's because I can feel them in my hand and it might look half way easy as I'm doing this that's because I practiced it a lot guns like this are a lot more complex to use than they appear but if you take the time to learn how to use it it can be very effective and guns like this lend themselves to top off loading this is a double action revolver there are many different types of double action revolver this is a Smith & Wesson Model 15 in caliber 38 special we also have several presentations on the use of double action revolvers you can watch those for the more in depth analysis today I'll just give you the short version double action revolvers have some real pluses and a few minuses one of the real pluses is that they're very simple to operate the great majority of double-action revolvers don't have a manual safety that you have to remember to disengage or re-engage your safety is keeping your finger off the trigger until your sights are on target and the fact that the double action trigger pull requires a deliberate enough effort to pull it but it's very unlikely you're going to accidentally pull the trigger the downside is that that long trigger pull makes it more difficult for some people to shoot guns like this accurately but you can [ __ ] the hammer for a very short light crisp trigger pull that makes it easier for some people to shoot guns like this another way that firearms like this are simple is that it's very easy to tell if a double action revolver is loaded I'll press the cylinder release forward takes cylinder out of battery and you can just look right here and tell that the cylinder does not have any rounds in it in the dark it's very easy to feel and tell that the cylinder is empty also guns like this are very easy to load I'll just grab some loose ammunition and load directly into the cylinder yeah I know and we're getting we're getting to that in just a moment and loading like this although easy can be very time-consuming and you can see that it takes a while now taking a wild load your firearm isn't such a problem but if you've expended all six rounds and you need six more in a hurry reloading slowly can be quite a problem and that can be alleviated by using speed loaders and I'll demonstrate those in just a moment so I'll shoot this target six times reload with the speed loader and let's see how we do the speed loader makes it a whole lot faster than using loose ammunition and with a little practice just about anybody can do it faster than I can but still it can be fairly slow and it does take quite a bit of practice so revolvers easy to operate very reliable downside kind of a limited capacity quite a bit of a learning curve to reload them quickly and still perhaps a little slow to reload so alternative an Auto loading pistol but sometimes people will call an automatic pistol now there are many different types of Auto loading pistols this is a Colt government model one of the many different versions of a 1911 1911 is popular and has been for over a hundred years now the way this pistol works is you'll take a magazine of ammunition yes it is a magazine not a clip put it in the mag well pull the slide to the rear don't write it forward just let it go that puts around in the firing chamber and [ __ ] your hammer now you have to remember to engage a manual safety pistols like this can be reliable they can be accurate they can be fired and reloaded quite quickly but there's a real learning curve that goes of this kind of gun before you shoot it you have to remember to disengage your manual safety when you're finished shooting you have to remember to reengage your manual safety you can see security cam footage of people who try to use handguns to defend themselves against criminals forget to disengage their safety and it doesn't go well for them sometimes people will fire their pistol and forget to reengage their safety forget to keep their finger off the trigger until their sights are on target and then they go to put their pistol back in their holster and shoot themselves in the leg this type of firearm has quite a learning curve however if you put the time in and do it right and learn to shoot pistols like this properly they can fire fast they can fire accurately they can be reloaded quickly some Auto loaders have many different capacities of how many rounds they can hold this one has a seven shot magazine although this model sometimes as an eight shot magazine so let's shoot this target and we'll see how fast and accurately I can shoot and how fast I can reload [Applause] now that was two seven shot magazines but you may have noticed I only fired six and then seven because on my first magazine I didn't shoot the pistol till it was completely empty that last round was still in the chamber then I reloaded with another magazine right now this magazine is empty there's still around in the chamber if I were to shoot that last round the slide will lock back when the slide locks back on the last shot then to reload with the next magazine you put that magazine in hit your slide release and chamber your round again see how fast that goes I can just make that process faster by counting my rounds so not running the pistol completely empty and thus alleviating that step now let me show you another type of automatic pistol now you may recall at the beginning of this presentation I said you'll have to put up with my speech impediment well you just saw that a moment ago when I said automatic pistol autoloading pistol is the correct term sometimes what comes out is not the words I'm thinking but let me show you another type of autoloading pistol this is a Sig Sauer model p229 in caliber 40 Smith & Wesson and I'm going to show you a close-up of how this one operates now let me show you how this pistol works you'll put a magazine of ammunition into the mag well so slide back let it go chambers around hammer is cocked but there's no manual safety to engage on this pistol I'm gonna push this down this is your D talk later and it lowers this hammer so now what acts as a safety is your very long trigger pull like a double action revolver so when you bring this pistol out of the holster and you go to shoot it you don't have to disengage a manual safety but when you pull this trigger for your first shot it's a very long trigger pull like a double action revolver the gun will go off the action will cycle itself cocking your hammer for you so subsequent shots are much shorter see how the trigger pull is now much shorter than it was there's some slop in it but still a much shorter trigger pull guns like this are called double to single autoloaders so let's take a look at what this would look like round in the chamber decock put it in your holster bring the pistol out and then when you go to shoot it first shot as long subsequent shots are much shorter so the double the single action autoloader can have some advantages over a true single action like the 1911 but you still have to remember to hit your D [ __ ] lever before you put a cocked pistol back in your holster and you have to remember to keep your trigger finger straight also because your first trigger pole and subsequent trigger poles are different from each other this kind of pistol has quite a learning curve for some people now I said different Auto loaders will have different magazine capacities this has twelve shot magazines let's shoot it and remember to hit the decock lever remember straight trigger finger before you put it back in your pocket or holster so here's the part where I actually make a recommendation now we've seen double action revolvers single action auto double the single action auto all have their pluses and minuses but they all have in common that it requires a certain amount of training and practice and diligence to get a good level of proficiency with them so for the non firearms owner that thinks they need a firearm and who isn't going to have the time or the money or the ammunition because that can be difficult to obtain right now too they need a handgun that creates a good balance between available reliable simple and sufficient magazine capacity and for that I'm going to recommend a type firearm that I do believe is a good quality firearm however I don't particularly care for them that much and what I'm recommending is a Glock now let me show you a close-up of this one this is a Glock model 22 in caliber 40 Smith & Wesson and I'm not advocating specifically the model 22 and I'm not advocating this caliber but most Glocks will operate very similar to this one and the way it works is you'll put your magazine in the mag well pull your slide to the rear let it go forward chambering around and that's it there is no manual safety to deal with there's a little piece on the trigger that acts as a safety so in case the trigger gets hit some way on the side but if you put your finger on the trigger intending to pull it it'll go what acts as your safety in reality is straight trigger finger and the fact that like the double action revolver the trigger pull is long enough that it requires a deliberate enough effort that it's unlikely you're going to accidentally pull it but unlike the double action revolver this trigger pull is significantly shorter and lighter so it's going to be easier to fall a lot of people to shoot and unlike the double the single action auto loader that has two very different trigger pulls this trigger pull will be the same every time also unlike the single action auto loader like the 1911 which has a very short trigger pull that you might accidentally pull this one has a long enough trigger pull you won't do that and on this there's no manual safety to contend with also Glock is one of the few firearms that's just about as easy for a left-handed shooter as it is for a right you have to change the way you release the magazine instead of pressing the button with your thumb you press it most often with your trigger finger but that's easy to do because this type of firearm can be kind of a one-size-fits-all firearm and because they're very simple to operate that's one of the reasons that police departments like them so much and earlier I said that different Auto loaders will have different magazine capacities as where the Sig had a capacity of 12 this Glock model 22 in caliber 40 Smith & Wesson has a 15 shot magazine let's shoot it and of course if I shoot the last shot the slide will lock back so for instructional purposes only and that makes reloading another magazine that much easier now when it comes to rifles I'm not going to make any recommendation of any specific maker model I'm going to say only a few things such as the 22 that you have is a whole lot better than the AR or the a K that you don't have the 22 that you know how to use is probably a lot better than the AR or the a K that you don't know how to use and you have to make the decision of what's best for you in terms of balancing reliability and capacity against simplicity this 3030 is very simple but it can be very effective and rifles like this lend themselves to top offloading the ability to put more rounds in without having to take out a magazine or anything like that you can just put more rounds in whenever the opportunity arises so point three is simplicity point four is capacity those things go together and they bring me to point five which is go for what you know now let me tell you an anecdote when I was in the National Guard I was in an infantry unit and one of the people I worked with in an infantry unit he was well acquainted with using an m16 rifle but in his daily life he was a deputy sheriff he was well acquainted with using a Glock pistol well years later I run into him at a gun show he's now medically retired from being a deputy sheriff he's never been a firearms enthusiast the only firearms he's ever used with the ones he used professionally but he was thinking about getting a gun and my advice to him was if you're gonna get a rifle get an ar-15 platform if you're gonna get a pistol get it go hock that's what you know and that's the same advice I'll give you if you're someone who doesn't own firearms hasn't fired any firearms in a long time but thirty years ago you were a security guard or an armored car driver and you had a double-action revolver and that's what you worked with that's what you knew that might be the right choice for you now if you're one of those people is give or take around 60 years old and the last time you fired a rifle was circa 1976 and Marine Corps basic training and it was an a.1 platform and you haven't fired a rifle since don't worry it'll come back to you go for what you know if you're one of those people that's maybe gettin closer to 80 and the last time you qualified with a rifle was in the military circa 1960 and it was an m1 carbine well today m1 carbines are getting to be collectors items they're kind of expensive but they're still out there and if possible go for what you know so on our top 5 list point 1 is be skeptical of those who would presume to give you advice point 2 is any gun is better than none point 3 is simplicity point 4 is capacity those go together and point five is when possible go for what you know now when I do top five lists like this I usually find some excuse to put in a point six and today is no different and I want to show you one more firearm this is my Sig Sauer M 17 and it is becoming my main carry handgun and I want to show this to you first so you know that not every firearm I own is ancient but it also helps me prove a point and point six is obey your local laws when you buy this handgun it comes with 17 shot magazines but 21 shot magazines are readily available and they're nice but in some jurisdictions you're allowed to have firearms like this but you're relegated to magazine capacities of 10 or less and if you live in such a jurisdiction don't despair you can get additional magazines you can reload quickly and your chances of getting into legal trouble because you have unauthorized magazines or unauthorized firearms outweigh your chances of needing those extra rounds so until we start watching movies like the warrior or the postman as training films obey your local laws and as always don't try this at home on what you call a professional and thanks for watching the top five tips for gun buying for non-gun owners video [Music] you

Channel: Paul Harrell

Views: 1,328,282

Rating: 4.9201207 out of 5

Keywords: paul harrell, paul harrell tips, paul harrell top ten, paul harrell pandemic, paul harrell new gun buyers, new gun buyers, pandemic gun buying, pandemic gun buyers, what gun should I buy, first time guy buyer, first gun

Id: JiE1pUXEAHM

Length: 37min 59sec (2279 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 09 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/evannever]

"Not all my guns are ancient."

-Paul

Drops a reference to The Postman

-also Paul.

Too funny.

[u/AreWeCowabunga]

“This video is advice for people buying their first firearm.”

20 minutes later...

“Don’t forget to count your shots so you can reload with a round still in the chamber.”

[u/Mr_Blah1]

Laughed at the code word. Brilliant.

[u/coogiwaves]

Anyone have more information on his citizen involved self defense shootings?