bryman
New member
If I can throw in my 2 cents.....
9mm will work just fine for home defense. 9mm has a very high velocity, higher than .40 and .45, although the bullet is smaller. Use some good home defense expanding rounds like Hornady Critical Defense and it will convert some of that velocity into stopping power and do serious damage. One of the early problems with 9mm was over penetration (through walls, etc.) because of the high velocity with FMJ. Hollowpoints prevent the over penetration and dump the energy into the target. And heck if you miss a bunch of times you usually have higher capacity than bigger calibers.
I have 4 different calibers now, and I still consider 9mm as the best handgun caliber to start with. I'd recommend a first gun with a barrel 3.5" or longer so you can practice your accuracy and have less recoil. So I'd go midsize or full size. My first was also a PX4 and I think it is a good choice. However like others said, the best thing to do is to rent a few (Beretta, Glock, Springfield XD/m) and see what fits your hand best, and what you shoot best. Don't just get what looks coolest
Online resources to check for good deals are gunbroker.com and slickguns. You can buy a gun out of state online, and have it transferred to a local FFL dealer for pickup. I've used http://www.illinoissecurefirearm.com several times with good success. You can save a lot of money this way because you don't pay tax and the transfer fee is only around $27. I've saved between $50-200 this way. Only downside is that you will wait longer than 3 days. Usually about a week to two weeks depending on the FFL dealer's schedule and shipping time.
9mm will work just fine for home defense. 9mm has a very high velocity, higher than .40 and .45, although the bullet is smaller. Use some good home defense expanding rounds like Hornady Critical Defense and it will convert some of that velocity into stopping power and do serious damage. One of the early problems with 9mm was over penetration (through walls, etc.) because of the high velocity with FMJ. Hollowpoints prevent the over penetration and dump the energy into the target. And heck if you miss a bunch of times you usually have higher capacity than bigger calibers.
I have 4 different calibers now, and I still consider 9mm as the best handgun caliber to start with. I'd recommend a first gun with a barrel 3.5" or longer so you can practice your accuracy and have less recoil. So I'd go midsize or full size. My first was also a PX4 and I think it is a good choice. However like others said, the best thing to do is to rent a few (Beretta, Glock, Springfield XD/m) and see what fits your hand best, and what you shoot best. Don't just get what looks coolest

Online resources to check for good deals are gunbroker.com and slickguns. You can buy a gun out of state online, and have it transferred to a local FFL dealer for pickup. I've used http://www.illinoissecurefirearm.com several times with good success. You can save a lot of money this way because you don't pay tax and the transfer fee is only around $27. I've saved between $50-200 this way. Only downside is that you will wait longer than 3 days. Usually about a week to two weeks depending on the FFL dealer's schedule and shipping time.