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Say Hello to Messrs. Smith & Wesson

I mentioned last month that Melissa and I took an introductory pistol class at Blue Ridge Arsenal and were considering buying a gun for home/personal protection (and, as a secondary purpose, to actively utilize our Second Amendment rights). Now that those rights have been reaffirmed by the Supreme Court, we figured it was time. We dropped by the aforementioned Blue Ridge Arsenal on Friday, only to learn that they didn’t carry revolvers except when they are traded in used . . . oops. They recommended Virginia Arms in Manassas, which was closed already so we stopped by Saturday morning.

After looking at a few options, we settled on a Smith & Wesson Model 620 revolver (which was actually quite a bit cheaper than the list-price on S&W’s web site). It’s a 7-shot .357 magnum, which is also capable of firing the less-powerful (and less-expensive) .38 special rounds. We also picked up the requisite accessories—ammo, holster, cleaning equipment, speedloader, snap caps (for loading/unloading practice and dry firing), etc. Because we had a friend over yesterday we didn’t make it out to the range to try it out, but we’ll be doing that later this afternoon. Fun stuff!

So, if you were planning to rob or kill me any time soon, you should bear in mind that you will now need to contend with return fire.

Scott Bradford has been putting his opinions on his website since 1995—before most people knew what a website was. He has been a professional web developer in the public- and private-sector for over twenty years. He is an independent constitutional conservative who believes in human rights and limited government, and a Catholic Christian whose beliefs are summarized in the Nicene Creed. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Public Administration from George Mason University. He loves Pink Floyd and can play the bass guitar . . . sort-of. He’s a husband, pet lover, amateur radio operator, and classic AMC/Jeep enthusiast.