Classification Intro #2

I’ve been on the night shift for over five years now, I don’t mind the hours at all aside from driving home over thirty miles at 12 A.M. or later. I have had my share of close calls on some of those nights though. Speed racers flying along at ninety miles per hour nearly sending you into the ditch as they cut you off or jumping the shit out of you cause you didn’t see them coming. Thursdays and Fridays seem to be the worst for drunk drivers, they are easy to pick out once you’ve followed one a few times. I was nearly killed by one of them once or twice, one particular time comes to mind. Just another ride home and some drunken asshole coming the other way must have fallen asleep (passed out) behind the wheel. His truck started veering into my lane, and he was headed right for me. The only way I avoided him was cutting into a long parking lot that ran parallel to the road. He also came into that same empty lot but kept rolling and drove his truck into the ditch behind me. I didn’t stick around. I started thinking there are way too many nuts out here to be doing this every day un-protected. That’s when I started looking into getting a concealed weapons permit. One small (or large) problem was I didn’t have a gun that could be easily hidden, especially on my 5’10” 145 pound body. My full size 45 ACP 1911 left quite a bulge wherever it was and the idea is to “conceal” it. I started shopping around for a small yet reliable carry sidearm and was rather overwhelmed at the choices out there. I was able to narrow it down into a few categories. The first are small “snub-nosed” revolvers, compact and rugged, and available in a wide range of calibers. Second are the small, all steel semi autos. They are heavy but equally as rugged as some of the small framed revolvers out there, however only a small range of calibers to chose from. The third and final practical choice was a small, polymer framed semi auto. They prove to be the most popular among concealed carry permit holders, offering light weight, a wide range of calibers, and potentially lifesaving options such as light rails or even built in laser sights if you’re willing to pay the price.