The Gun Digest Book of Combat Handgunnery. Massad Ayoob

deform. Sometimes they expand and sometimes they don’t and sometimes the hollow cavity just turns into a little fish-mouth shape. However, unlike some .380 rounds, they don’t seem prone to ricochet. If they don’t get the caliber up off its knees, they at least get it up off its belly and onto its knees, and that’s something.

       Tomcat with tomcat, Beretta on left and Scottish Fold on right. Some have job descriptions more suitable for “mouse-guns” than others.

      Jeff Cooper once said that people buy .45s for the powerful cartridge, and buy 9mms because they like the design features of the guns. It follows that people buy tiny guns so they can have some sort of firearm without being inconvenienced by a significant weight in the pocket or by wearing a concealing garment.

      The brilliance of the Seecamp design, the pistol that re-popularized the .32 auto in our time, was that Louis Seecamp was able to conceive a pistol the size and shape of a Czech .25 auto that would fire the larger cartridge. The Seecamp is all the more brilliant in that it works. Now, this is the gun of Jeff Cooper’s nightmares: double-action for every shot, no sights, and only a .32. The mission parameter was for a pistol that would be used at arm’s length. Famed officer survival instructor and gunfight survivor Terry Campbell used to call these little pistols “nose guns,” because the only way you could count on stopping the fight was to screw the muzzle up the attacker’s nose and then immediately pull the trigger.

      The supply of Seecamp pistols has never caught up with the huge demand in the marketplace. Other companies entered the field with “Seecamp clones”: Autauga Arms, and North American Arms with their Guardian pistol. I never did test the former. The latter wasn’t quite as reliable as the Seecamp but was easier to hit with because it had at least vestigial gunsights.

      Next up was the gun that quickly became the best seller of its genre, the Kel-Tec P-32. One of several ingenious designs from the fertile brain of George Kehlgren, the P-32 weighs an incredible 6.6 ounces unloaded. No bigger than the average .25-auto and almost wafer-thin, it has tiny little sights that you can more or less aim with, and a surprisingly nice double-action-only trigger pull. Polymer construction is what reduces the weight. By contrast, the NAA Guardian 13.5, and the Seecamp, 10.5 ounces. Each of these guns holds six rounds in the magazine, and a seventh in the firing chamber. All are DAO. The Kel-Tec is the lightest, the least expensive, and has the easiest trigger pull.

      I have seen the occasional Kel-Tec that malfunctioned, usually when it was dirty or had at least gone a lot of rounds between cleanings. I’ve also shot some whose owners swore they had never jammed. Kel-Tec takes good care of their customers if they have a problem.

       Perspectives

      The young lady in Los Angeles who killed the rapist was in a situation where she simply could not afford for it to be known that she was armed. From undercover cops to private citizens with gun permits who work in antigun environments, the same holds true for a lot of people. Yeah, I know, I’m the guy who said “Friends don’t let friends carry mouse-guns.” But for some people it’s that or nothing.

      Let me tell you about one of my clients. He was a hunter and target shooter who owned some fine rifles and shotguns. The only handgun he owned was a gift from a friend, a Smith & Wesson .22 Kit Gun. He took it on hunting trips. He would while away the slow times plinking at tin cans from the porch of the hunting cabin, and the little .22 also allowed him to quickly dispatch a downed deer without damaging the skull for mounting. The night came when a burglar alarm went off in his home, telling him a flower shop he owned was being broken into for the umpteenth time.

      If he had gone intending to kill someone, he would have loaded his .30/06 auto rifle or one of his 12-gauge shotguns. Thinking about protection, he grabbed his only handgun, the little .22, and loaded it on the way to the shop. Given the lateness of past police responses in this community in which the cops were heavily burdened with calls, it was his intent to frighten away the intruders. But when he got to the scene he was attacked. He fired two shots and the attacker fled.

       Relative sizes, different power levels. Clockwise from noon, S&W Model 3913 9mm, Kahr K9 9mm, S&W Sigma .380, S&W M/640 .38 Special. In the center is Walther PPK .380.

       The NAA Guardian .380, center, is barely larger than FN .25 auto, above, or Beretta Jetfire .25 ACP, below. The .380 would be the definite choice here; the Guardian is among the smallest available.

      It reinforced both sides of the issue. If the guy ran, he wasn’t incapacitated. Yes. I know. That’s why I don’t recommend .22s. That guy ran a mile before he bled to death! Yes. I know. That’s why I don’t recommend .22s. If that guy had gone into fight mode instead of flight mode he could have still killed your client! Yes. I know. That’s why I don’t recommend .22s. Then why are you talking about this as if his having a .22 was a good thing? Because the circumstances were such that a .22 was the only gun he would have had with him…and it saved his life. End of story.

       Perspectives

      It’s all well and good to say, “If you don’t carry a .45 or a Magnum, you’re a wimp.” But there is idealism, and there is what Richard Nixon called realpolitik. We have to face reality. I’m fortunate enough that my job, the place I live, and my dress code allow me to carry a full-size fighting handgun almost all the time. Not everyone is that fortunate.

      There’s another argument in this vein that goes one tier up. I know a lot of cops who are proud of how they look in their tailored uniforms, and don’t want the unsightly bulge of a big gun for backup. Shall I tell them if they don’t carry a chopped and channeled .45, they deserve to have no backup at all?

       The finger touches the point of aim. A decent group from the Beretta Tomcat .32 went extremely low at only 7 yards.

       The Guardian .380 is a late-arriving “hide-in-your-hand” pistol barely larger than some .25 autos. A definite “new paradigm” combat handgun.

      I know a lot of armed citizens who already realize what a commitment it is to carry a gun all the time, period. If they’re going to carry a second gun – a good idea for civilians, too – their wardrobe may not allow the small revolver or baby Glock I favor. For them, the backup weapon might be a Kel-Tec .32, or nothing at all.

      When you demand all or nothing, history shows us, you’re generally likely to end up with nothing. A tiny, small-caliber handgun is not what you’d want to have in your hand if you knew you were going to get into a fight to the death with an armed felon. But it’s at least something. And something is better than nothing.

       The Guardian .380, top, is only the tiniest bit larger than the .32 version (below) that preceded it. Nod goes to the .380.

CHAPTER FOUR A Blueprint For Learning The Combat Handgun

      I was reading the deposition of a man who was being sued for shooting a contractor who showed up at his house early.