By TTAG reader PWRSERGE:
Unfortunately, I have the misfortune to live in what very nearly became (and some people claim still is) the occupied territory of a far western Chicago suburb. While many would be amazed that I have any need for self defense in this glorious socialist paradise, the reality of my job is that a support engineer is the nearest one will come to a consulting detective outside a Holmes novel. Often times, you are called to go to very shady places at very shady times of the day to fix a multi-million dollar machine that somebody managed to make not work . . .
This being the Democratic People’s Republik of Chiraq, these sorts of industrial facilities tend to not be in shall we say… “Prime Neighborhoods” and a short pasty guy in business clothes walking out of a facility at 6 AM before the morning shift comes in tends to attract all sorts of interest.
Unfortunately, up until very recently, the People’s Commissariat had decreed that there was no need for any member of the proletariat to carry any form of self defense tools in our glorious People’s Republic and any comments to the contrary were to be considered “racist”, “sexist”, or “anti-progressive”.
Thankfully, in my first five years with my company, the issue of a group of friendly local party representatives relieving me of the burden of carrying my equipment had never come up. (I guess hocking a $20,000 measurement system is beyond the economic capabilities of your average local resident.)
That being said, when almost two years ago my local gun store started signing people up for their first ever Illinois Concealed Carry courses, I made sure that my name was one of the first on the list.
Which brings us to the contents of my, very professional looking, pants. The piece-de-la-resistance of this particular frisk search is a late 2000s Walther PPK/S which I had owned for many yeas prior to the glorious decision of the People’s Commissariat to allow me to carry it for personal defense.
While many would question the political affiliations of someone carrying a filthy capitalist designed pistol in our Glorious Republik, I have found that it is far more subtle than the commissariat approved TT-33, PM, or “Glock 9”. The latter being approved only for carry by the oppressed proletariat of Chiraq and their valiant protectors.
Given that I have to crawl around inside industrial equipment all day (or more likely sit on my steadily expanding bourgeois backside while a stalwart member of the people’s Union comes back from their “break”) so that I can access critical components, a small pistol that is difficult to shift is critical.
While I would have preferred a PPK to the larger PPK/S (which uses a Walther PP frame with a PPK slide), years before my birth, the people’s commissariat had decreed that such “Saturday Night Specials” would no longer be approved for import into our glorious socialist worker’s paradise.
Fortunately, the PPK/S does an excellent job of delivering the performance level that I want and would reasonably need. 7+1 rounds of .380 ACP gives me plenty of confidence that I will be able to see off any “anti-progressive” ruffians with a minimum of fuss. Many have described the PPK/S and the 1911 of concealed carry micro pistols and I find that to be an apt description.
The gun has a reassuring weight to it that makes recoil relatively easy to control, but is still small enough to easily disappear into Galco IWB holster smaller than my hand. The sights are basic, but functional, and don’t leave any room for adjustment or other mucking about.
Some of my acquaintances with less “party friendly” leanings tend to question my choice of a “mouse gun” or “James Bond Special” as my sole means of personal defense. My response to them is rather succinct. “Elementary, my dear comrades, a small gun that I always carry is infinitely preferable to a large gun I left at home.”
In faithful service to our glorious Party,
PWRSERGE
(See the rest of the posts in this series here. Send your What I Carry and Why posts with photo to thetruthaboutguns@gmail.com with WICAW in the subject line.)