I've said before that I prefer CCW and do that 99.9% of the time.

But things are a little different in VA, especially in southern VA, where everyone open carries, so if you were going to rob a 7-11 you'd run out of bullets before you shot all of the OC'ers. :icon17:

Oh, Convert, my gf is very interested in that DB9. I've been doing my due dilligence on the gun and am hoping we can find one locally for her to check out.

At .8" wide it might be something she could carry. Slightly thinner than the Kahr variant. Not sure about the brand, though.

Though DB does have some notable reliablity concerns. It seems like they are VERY ammo sensitive so if I could get my hands on one I'd have to do a lot of testing before I could deem it reliable!

I feel like I'm just conversing with myself here. :icon17:

I am going to drive a ways on Saturday to check out a Diamondback dealer and get my hands on a DB9. From what I'm reading it's a reliable piece with premium ammo and a good break in period. Seems like 9/10 of the failures are a result of a loose grip. It is an 11oz gun afterall.

For $360-390 it looks like a pretty good deal. Only slightly larger than the Ruger LCP, $~75-100 more, and it packs quite a bit more punch.

Sorry, I was out piloting my rocket ship around town getting my fingerprint cards filled out and mailing off my Form 4 stuff.

:tup:

Totally stoked. CLEO signed off within 24 hours.

Very cool. At some point I might get into that stuff. I will go the trust route.

It's better, but *right now* I just want 1 or 2 items, and our CLEO is very Form 4 friendly.

OK, went shopping today for a pistol for the girlfriend. Learned a few things:

1) The Diamondback DB9 in it's current state is an unreliable good idea. It needs at least another year or two of development.

2) The Kel-Tec Pf9 actually feels like a quality pistol. I am interested in one!

3) The Ruger LCP is TINY. Hard to get a real grip on but it's definitely "the" pocket pistol.

4) The Kahr PM9 is super nice, but the girl doesn't like it.

5) The Ruger LC9 is a quality piece. The girl loves it, and now it's sitting on the desk next to my Glock 26.

Glad she decided to go with a 9mm over the .380. She also feels more comfortable having a 1911 style thumb safety, and since the gun is for her I'm not going to argue.

Now which one would you have purchased?

To be honest I'd be tempted to try the Kel-Tec PF9 for $299. It just felt nice in hand and was a good size for a compact single-stack.

The Ruger is a fine gun, though. I know a lot of people (myself included) have knocked it for the safeties, but if you're used to thumb safeties then it really is no big deal. The huge loaded chamber indicator is slightly annoying (I think it encourages people not to manually check the chamber as well), but overall it's a very well built gun with good ergonomics. Very concealable. The DAO trigger is also very nice. It's long, but very smooth with a clean break.

I think if I go after a pocketable 9mm myself I am going to go for the Kahr CM9. I love the Kahr triggers. But I do understand they are very tight and require a good break in (haha).

Interesting. I sure haven't read a lot of good things about the PF9. Amongst the quality problems, I have read that it has a trigger that rivals those hang grip trainers.

Yeah, same here. I was surprised that it felt as good as it did in hand.

The trigger seemed OK. Ruger's is better. The trigger guard is also too small on the Kel-tec. I would be interested to try it out, though. I'd get one "just because." If it works well, w00t, another toy for only $299.

Now I highly recommend that she get some training. Many CCW permittees are more dangerous to themselves or others with carrying a handgun than they are without.