| Image | Product | Price |
|---|---|---|
 | Check Price |
The fact is, if you are involved in a self-defense shooting, say goodbye to your pistol.
The police are just doing their job, and one of their tasks is to collect evidence; ergo, your gun ends up in an evidence bag. Typically, the police will hold your firearm for a specified period until the investigation is completed.
If you are cleared and no charges have been filed, you can expect to get your gun back. Maybe. There is no set timeframe for returning your gun to you. Every state is different. But your gun will be logged as evidence.
Since I started to conceal carry—about the time Glock Gen3 pistols were introduced—I decided to be on the throw-away side of the fence. Both my EDC and pickup truck guns are throw-away guns. Here’s why.
What’s A Throw-Away Gun?
I’m not advocating buying a cheap gun, unless that’s all you can afford, but do you really want your $3,000 custom 1911 tied up in red tape until the incident is resolved in the courts?
Don’t confuse a throw-away gun with a cheap gun with iffy reliability and performance. Those guns, you definitely want to throw away. My definition of a throw-away gun is any gun I could lose and easily replace with an exact copy. I also don’t want to be out a month’s pay because my gun was confiscated and now tied up in the court system, and I especially don’t want to be unarmed.
I want a gun I know I can buy at any gun shop and be confident the new one will work exactly like my old one. That’s why my EDC gun is a stock pistol. I don’t want to learn a new trigger pull, acclimate myself with different controls, and a new grip angle. I want the replacement to be the same.
I have a pal who at one time rotated a classic lineup of handguns into his EDC routine. He carried a Heckler & Koch P7M13 at times. HK P7’s were expensive when they were available 20 years ago. Try finding a replacement for that pistol.
You can’t touch an HK P7M13 for under $4,000 today. He also likes S&W wheel guns, needless to say, his HK P7 has been replaced with an IWI Masada, and the S&W with a Taurus. Both practical solutions address the potential consequences of a defensive shooting encounter.
There are a ton of handguns that fall into the “throw away” category—Glock, S&W M&P, Ruger, Canik, Springfield Armory XD, SIG P365, and even the PSA Dagger—name a polymer frame striker fire manufacturer, and they’re likely to have a product that qualifies as a throw away gun.
AR-15 rifles, too. There are too many AR-15 rifles that qualify as throw-away guns to create a list. All I know is I could replace my AR with another that costs around $400. I know it will work, I know it may not have the best trigger, have the best furniture, or be sub-MOA accurate, but I know I can rely on it to protect myself and my family.
Of course, you need to run the replacement gun to ensure it is reliable and performs to expectations. There may be minor tweaks to your EDC gun. Perhaps night sights are a must for your handgun. Add that to your replacement cost.
Carry What You Can Afford to Lose
You are more likely to lose your EDC to theft than be involved in a violent attack. Your vehicle is broken into, and your EDC gun is inside because you are in a no-carry zone, and you left it in the center console.
Perhaps you’re parked in another big box store and forget to lock it because you’re in a hurry. Even if you did lock it, no one responds to car alarms. Good bye truck gun.
Theft and confiscation are two situations in which you will lose your gun.
Carry What You’re Comfortable and Confident With
These off-the-shelf, throw-away guns may take a little more training on your part to become more efficient, because they don’t have the tuned trigger like your 1911, nor come with a 1-1/2 inch group at 50 yards guarantee.
But you have to ask yourself, do I really want to lose that unique gun? Do I really want to be out all that money? Y
You may insist on customizing your EDC, just remember you may lose the gun, and if the only thing you lose is a gun and not your life, the extra cost can be justified.
Where To Buy Your EDC
After the evidence locker the next stop in the chain of ownership is an officer’s collection.
Right on ! I wonder if a Trust would negate such confiscation ?
Southern, not even close to true. I used to weep over the firearms we destroyed because the case was disposed of and there was no one to return the weapon to. One of my favorite duties was to return a firearm to a citizen. Recovered from stolen, evidence in a defense case, whatever. I worked for 25 years. I have three full sized gun safes bursting at the seams and about to buy a fourth. None contain a firearm from the evidence room.
You are a one-off. I lost a weapon 45 years ago that “disappeared” in custody. A patrolman swiped it and sold it to a friend. Took an IA investigation, a stolen report to ATF and two+ years to get it back.
Dad, I’m sorry, but you are the one off. What you described is very rare. I’m going to make an educated guess and say that at the least that officer lost his job and likely his LE certification. He would have been lucky to avoid prison. My Lt didn’t steal a firearm, he stole cash. I testified against him in Federal court. He got seven years.
This.
Even in commie California agencies, guns get returned to rightful owners, unless they are prohibited. Gun goes in one package, ammo separately. Sure, there’s red tape – it’s California. Felonies cases take awhile to go through the system. Just over 24 years of law enforcement experience for me.
“prohibited”?
Read that as “not legal to be sold or transferred under current laws”.
Likely. It’s why I wouldn’t carry anything above a Taurus in my airline baggage. Why reward the TSA for being bigger pricks than they are now?
Happened to me. Took as evidence? in a DUI. Never got it back because they never took it. Another time when I got into a street brawl they took my guns that were in the car as evidence?(fist not guns) while being escorted to court I ask one of the arresting cops ” What about getting my guns back?” Well, __name___, we’ve got a lot of gun collectors on the force to you know.
I had to get a lawyer to get them back.
If this post, doubtful, I reckon all the cops and Xcops here are going to call bullshit but it is the truth.
I had a Arkon (cheap hi power clone) taken from me “for investigative hold” after the 2 a-hole bangers passing me on the shoulder of the road saw me rmove it from the glovebox and “swatted” me. No charges, gun misidentified as a silver revolver. Long story short, the PD chief t the time required a written request, with a full rehash of my version of incident to return gun. A lawyer I contacted said Eff No, recommended reporting it stolen, and never expect to see it again. Five years afterwards, I got a letter that it was recovered after a robbery and they were trying to ascertain chain of possession. I gave them copies of incident report, stolen report, etc…. three years later it’s still being investigated by IA at SPPD and still don’t think I’ll ever see it again. So ys, I’m glad that I stopped using my Cajun Customs CZ as a jeep gun due to a previous story like this one.
This has been my philosophy driven by budget and common sense.
Fortunately, we are blessed by a gun manufacturing industry that has consistently innovated over the years, delivering inexpensive but incredibly reliable pistols perfect for EDC.
Fancy expensive custom guns are usually safe & range queens, just like expensive highly tuned rifles. Some AR15’s can be had for under $500 that get the job done, too. I know literally no one who’s ever used their Henry lever-action or Daniel Defense AR15 as a defender. Same analogy applies to cars… When you go on a road trip, you and the missus get in the family car, maybe a station wagon or maybe a sedan… but not a Formula 1 race car.
There’s also another reason to not use a highly customized, performance-built gun for your EDC: Anti-gun prosecutors will characterize you as someone eager to get into a gunfight because of your tricked-out Taran Tactical, as opposed to a totally-stock plain-Jane Glock. The fact that defensive ammo and most Glocks look identical to the casual observer, and the fact that police & militaries all around the world use Glocks, takes a prosecutor’s potential argument off the table. Or, ideally, an argument in your favor. You know what the craziest thing is about my comment? I don’t even own a Glock!
A good friend of mine was a sheriff depudy in Atlanta back in the 1970’s. He was involved in a shooting with his new personally owned Colt Python and it sat in evidence for nearly a year until it was returned. The evidence room was in a humid basement and the gun was stored in his leather duty holster. Needless to say it was rusted into the holster when he finally got it back and the finish was ruined. One more reason to use a department owned and issued weapon.
My preference when possible is to use the same pistol and ammo the local police do for duty carry. For three main reasons. A) It makes it more difficult for a zealous prosecutor to demonize your choice of self-defense weapon. B) If I’m ever in the position of coming to the aid of law enforcement, they can use my extra magazines. C) It tends to be one that’s both reliable and replaceable.
For NY
A) LOL will never make a difference unless it is illegal to begin with they want your head
B) Great way to get shot or locked up for their misses that hit bystanders
C) This is generally true but we have more than a few departments using 45gap so……..good luck with that one when mail order ammo is a no-go
For other states it may be less silly but be sure to adjust decisions to your region.
“Do I really want to be out all that money? ”
If one is worried about the monetary loss involved with a gun in a self defense shooting then they are best not carrying. Even if one is cleared in a self defense shooting the legal fees could be tens of thousands of dollars and then there is the likelihood of a big lawsuit too.
Not sure it would be wise to carry a 1911 with a “tuned” trigger either. The prosecutor may try to use that to his advantage depending on the situation and jury.
All my gats are “disposable”. They all run very well as per me. If I want to show off I’ll have my one in a billion wife on my arm🙄.
👍
👍
“4.06 billion females in the world in 2024”
I know a couple of people who believe this philosophy. Not me. I carry the most efficient defensive weapon I can. I’m going down to Crystal River Friday morning to house/dog sit for a week. (This is like a vacation. I sit on his deck in the morning with coffee and watch the girls in G-strings sunning themselves on the deck of cabin cruisers going out to the Gulf of Mexico and have a beer in the afternoon and watch them come back. (Sometimes you can get a tittie shot.) My go bag is an old Eagle Industries discreet carry bag. It will contain: A Galil ARM .223, an Eagle Industries four cell chest pouch w/mags, A Wilson Combat 1911 w/a Blade Tech rig, a Randall #1 (nicely optioned) and a Chris Reeves Umnumzaan. Easily a $10,000 set up. Gun fight? Yeah it’s going into evidence. Am I standing on top of the dirt? Good. I won. The best I can afford is what I want to defend my life with. I’ll worry about the rest later. I’m dead? I don’t care what happens to all that shit. Oh, after reading the article I may just carry my HK P7M8 for a belt gun. Bought it as a retirement present to myself eleven years ago. Factory hard chrome and night sights. Hans Gruber anyone?
Great response Gadsden! Life is too short not to live it that way.
It’s the “Gulf of America” now, get with the times.
This delayed comment thing really gets annoying. Not seeing a lot of the long time regulars much anymore. Even the hard-core trolls.
Most of the news articles are days old and many of the reviews read like the adds they are.
I’ll be surprised if this post doesn’t just disappear.
Having said all that………
I seldom carry anything expensive or even vaguely rare for the reasons stated. 642 always and a old 70series 1911 that’s reliable but looks like a throw away. I would be sad to loose either but I have better replacements for both.
Miner still occasionally posts and gets smacked around at Shooting News Weekly.
There’s less Soros money for the trolls these days since the demise of USAID and the discovery of all the theft by the DOGE team.
Remember, it’s not “really” Soros money. If communism is going to be successful, they have to fund it with YOUR money. What better way to do that than to force you at gunpoint to pay taxes, and then just take the taxes?
But every few weeks, the Soros organization has to seed some of its own money to keep operations going. Then they go dormant for some more weeks, hoping to trip over some more of that sweet sweet government cash. And you can see the activities of the trolls goes up and down in sync with the money.
They’re definitely being paid, just as the violent protesters are being paid.
I agree Robert, that is why I edc a c93.
Best line is, “Dont carry what you cant afford to lose.”
No matter what you carry, that should always be the answer. Dont care if thats a 2 million dollar flintlock carried by George Washington, or an Altor single shot pistol.
If ya cont afford to lose it, dont carry it.
I carry Smiths or Ruger revolvers. Yes, these can be pricey, but I want them to work, and I’m playing the odds. I take other measures for self defense, including not going to odd places after dark to meet with strange people. Convenience stores in sketchy parts of town are included.
I am not going to carry a Taurus.
would not ever bet my life on a Taurus- or PSA Dagger, Tisas, other cut rate guns.
Gus,
I applaud your multi-prong approach to self-defense.
Please note that bad things can and do happen quite often in “safe” places during “safe” hours. I have been present at several violent crimes–all in very “safe” places and none of them at 0’dark thirty hours. (I used the term “present” to mean that I was the target in some instances and a bystander in other instances.)
While your odds of experiencing a violent attack are even greater at “sketchy” locations during “odd” hours, your overall odds of being present at a violent attack are very much non-zero. Plan accordingly.
Several years ago I was introduced to the concept of taking a worry or concern and war gaming all the possible bad outcomes in your mind. You then make contingency plans for each of these situations. Knowing that a plan is already in place and having made your piece and pre-accepted a possible bad outcome leaves you with an inner peace that circumstances do not warrant for most people.
In this instance the contingency plan is having a second gun, holster, magazines, ect. siting at home in the safe. Should some course of events result in your primary being out of service you can just go home and implement plan B.
Now as a practical matter I am a strong advocate of having an extra vehicle if you can afford it. Because mobility matters a lot in the present day and even if it is just a beater truck you use to haul wood or a commuter econo-box your primary vehicle WILL fail you at inconvenient moments. Having the back up with gas in the tank in the driveway contributes to inner calm.
A casual member or our inner circle, BCM ( short for ‘Bit Coin Millionaire’) donates his used guns to ‘Moms…’.
He keeps his receipts and loves to show up at their protests to show them how the sell guns to raise funds.
Exactly why I switched to Glock, circa ’98, for work and EDC. Easy to use, maintain($), replace($), durable($) and reliable.
I would expand this philosophy to home defense guns too. Especially don’t use any heirloom or antique firearms for home defense if you can help it.
I put tritium night sights on every gun I own…but otherwise, I’m a firm believer in stock guns for EDC and home defense….albeit for slightly different reasons.
Tricked-out guns with bolt on lights, dot sights, threaded barrels, flashy finishes, slide plates with silly cliches engraved on them, and modified triggers, give off a “wannbe special forces operator” vibe…and a prosecute will take every advantage of that if you have to defend your decision to shoot in court.
I am perfectly comfortable, and very proficient with my stock Glocks, off-the-shelf ARs and basic shotguns.
Another point is to buy the second gun ahead of time. No matter how righteous your DGU you might not be able to just go and buy a replacement while you’re being actively investigated for some flavor of murder.
Buy the same gun, light, and holster and you’ll also get the added bonus of being able to swap in the twin any time you need to clean your carry, or even just practice with it.
I have thought about this quite a lot. Yes, it’s twice the cost, but there are lots of things we should have for redundancy purposes. I have a power generator for hurricanes. I have multiple computing devices in the house, though not all precisely the same. I have THREE pairs of jeans, two toilets in the house, and 8 sources of heat for cooking, plus an additional 2 that don’t require power or gas from the grid.
I probably should have another car too, but for right now, I’d rather save my money for some acreage that doesn’t have neighbors close enough for me to see, hear, or smell.
a good rusty knife, kept in a baggie, will suffice..
Just curious: where do the police get the authority to seize your gun after a defensive shooting? Not the “standard procedure”, not the “policy”, but the actual letter of the law that says they can grab your property without a warrant. It’s not like they’re trying to solve a mystery – you just told them you shot the guy and why you did it.
You can’t reply with the new and improved ttag.
But that’s a hell of good point one that I’ve often wondered about myself.
I think the smarty pants think they R disarming you.
Uhhh duh me onbly gotz one gun and uoo toook eeet.
Jim, it’s evidence. Same as anything else related to the incident and it will be seized. So will the other guy’s weapon. If you used a baseball bat to defend yourself it’s going in the evidence room. At my agency we had to purchase our duty weapon from an approved list. If I were involved in a shooting guess where my custom 1911 was going. That’s right, straight into the evidence room with everyone else’s firearms. I would then go home, open a safe and take out another 1911, holster it and keep on keeping on.
I always had a back-up strategically stashed so I’d never leave work unarmed.
Doesn’t work that way unfortunately. You’ll lose the gun to the evidence locker and more than likely it will be defaced with the officer’s name, badge and etc.
Jim from LI,
When there is an altercation that involves deadly force, responding police initially have no way of knowing who was the attacker and who was the defender. Thus responding police collect as much evidence as possible in order to determine the truth.
The reason that police do not need a warrant to collect evidence is simple: there is no uncertainty that a violent crime occurred.
For reference the reason that police need a warrant to collect items long after a violent crime is to minimize dirty cops seizing (e.g. stealing) stuff from the public.
Another excellent and though t provoking story by Sadowski
Thing is- the Glock, the default, is affordable and it wont be the end of the world to lose it=== but it is reliable and useful.
That said- I really loved carrying the Les Baer Premier sometimes, the Springfield TRP CC a lot of the time– and the Dan Wesson DWX– I can more likely save my life with these— and then when hiking and exploring I feel a revolver is best and I often carry my Manuhrin MR 88. All cost a lot less than the Jeep and the Jeep goes into the wild and the jeep beach! Good information in this one
I’m carrying what I trust the most. Don’t care if I lose it. There’s plenty more where that one came from.
I’ve heard this argument a few times and I suspect its to justify carrying a HiPoint or a Jennings.
Sure- if you carry your engraved Nighthawk 1911, this MAY be an argument for leaving that back in the safe and carrying your reliable, but reasonably priced Springfield.
Outside of 1911’s, there are so many affordable carry guns, Glocks, S&W M&P’s, Walther PPS, etc, just pick a $500-600-ish gun. I saw a used Walther PPS for $180 recently, if its reliable, its a perfectly affordable, and affordable option.
Frankly, the logic is off. A scratch on your most beloved gun is far less a worry than being dead. Carry something good, and leave the Jennings at home.
“I’ve heard this argument a few times and I suspect its to justify carrying a HiPoint or a Jennings.”
I think you’re reading too much into this author’s ACTUAL words and past-writings.
Americans are notoriously bad at handling money. I’d say that if you properly budget, you can afford two one-time purchases just about as much as you can the first one-time purchase. Besides, you don’t have to buy them both at the same time.
Even my Springfield wasn’t $500 when I bought it. Sure, when I add a laser and a third magazine, now we’re pushing a thousand dollars for one gun, but honestly, even in my days of poverty, I could have figured out how to get a second Springfield within a few months of the first. And that would have given me time to decide if I liked the Springfield enough to get the same model, or if I should switch go for an S&W or Glock instead.
All of those are inexpensive, even to the poor. But the best gun you can have in an emergency is the one you’re carrying, not the one you have on layaway at your LGS. So what if it’s a Karr or HiPoint.
This has been my position for a long time. EDCing an expensive gun is basically asking the cops to “lose it” once they have it in their possession. I’ve seen that happen. I can’t swear in court that it ended up in some cop’s gun safe at home but I’d be willing to take the bet.
That doesn’t mean you should be rocking a Cobra .380 or something but, IMHO, you want something you might call a “work gun”. It doesn’t have to be the gun you’d rock if you were in Delta and had unlimited funding but it should be reliable and cheap enough that if you lose it you’re not going to be, metaphorically or actually, crying into your next beverage. So… in other tool terms, whatever counts for Milwaukee/Mikita/DeWalt (or maybe not DeWalt) in your book. Not a Ryobi or a Kobalt but also not a SnapOn.
There’s a ton of these kind of guns. Which one fits your budget/preference is a personal thing.
I kinda get the BBQ gun thing but… well, not really because I don’t understand jewelry or “bling” in the first place, regardless of what exactly it is. Actual jewelry, watches, handbags, wheels, super fancy cars and the like are all things I don’t really “get”.
Outside some rather eccentric collection habits, they’re mostly all just ostentatious “look at me” items or accessories for the discerning narcissist, so far as I can tell.
I like that term, “work gun”. It’s apropos.
And I get jewelry. Jewelry is like using a more complicated word when a simpler one would do. Like “apropos” in lieu of “fitting”. Or “in lieu of” instead of “instead of.
Sometimes, bling is the thing, when most people just call it “style”.
Okay, I’ll see myself out now…
My EDC, and bedside gun, is not exactly throwaway, but it/they are guns that are dead nuts reliable AND easily replaced. I’ve always looked at the world from a worst case scenario: plan for the worst but hope for the best. That means my choice is one of the plastic fantastic 9MMs: Glock, FN, M&P and etc. I do not EDC a revolver costing twice what my plastics cost or guns I consider”rare”: original BHPx2 and a S&W 1006 for examples
I’ve come to realize if used to defend I’ll likely lose the gun, one of about 60 or so is not a game changer, but I’m more than willing to sacrifice something I can replace at essentially any time. Yes I live in a very gun friendly state.
Do you think the long arm of the law will leave your expensive guns alone if you simply carry a cheap one?
I’ve heard of NJ State Troopers emptying a guy’s house of ALL weapons after a self-defense incident – including all the kitchen knives.
In this country, if you use a gun to defend yourself, you are guilty until a jury of your peers decides you aren’t.
That’s believable for New Jersey. Why would you live there?
Strongly disagree.
If I have to use potentially lethal force to stop a threat, the cost of the tool used to save my life and/or that of others is not going to be a consideration.
Instead I’ll be grateful that I had an instrument capable of doing so. Full stop.
If at all possible I would prefer not to carry about an irreplaceable heirloom but better no heirloom and alive than dead with a beautiful piece of defensive artwork in a safe.
If only all of us could think like that. But we don’t. Some are over-motivated by the cost of things. A man should know that about himself.
One of my friends would give you the shirt off his back, or let you borrow his car.
But when he thought he got gypped of an hour of pay, he was ready to go to battle. A man’s got to know his limits, and a man’s got to know what can cause a senseless triggering for him.