Common Handgun Myths
The handgun market in the United States is massive. The American handgun market generated 3.41 billion dollars in 2023. The market is predicted to grow to an annual revenue of 5.35 billion by 2030 (Fortune Business Insights, 2025). The civilian market comprises about 60 percent of the total end user population with the federal government making up the other 40 percent.
The size of the market means buying your first handgun can be an utterly overwhelming experience. To help make sense of all the calibers, holsters, safes, and handguns available to first time buyers, Training Regiment, TRNGRGMNT.com, has created this first-time buyer’s guide. We’ve divided the guide into several sections. Clicking on any of the sections in the Contents portion of the site will take you to that particular section.
Perhaps the best place to begin is with all the myths about handguns, their quality, and their caliber that a new buyer must confront and dismiss while navigating the multi-billion dollar handgun industry.
Common Handgun Myths
Constitutional Carry means I do not need a license to carry my handgun in public in any fashion I choose.
The reality is that laws concerning the owning, carrying, and deployment of a handgun varies a great deal from state to state. In Texas, for example, a license to carry permits the licensed handgun holder to carry their chosen handgun into more establishments than an unlicensed handgun owner.
The first step any new handgun owner should take when considering purchasing a handgun is to understand state laws governing the carrying of a handgun. For Texas residents, the single best place to begin familiarizing oneself with law is the Texas State Law Library.
Owning a handgun is enough, I don’t need training.
The truth is that shooting a handgun is more difficult than people realize. It’s a compound movement that requires the use of fine motor skills in a high-stress environment.
Pointing a gun at an individual rarely scares a violent actor into submission, nor does the act of having a gun in one’s face always convince a violent actor to reconsider their current course of action.
Training Regiment Instructors undergo intensive training in the areas of conflict negotiation and resolution, situational awareness, handgun employment tactics in high-stress environments, low-light and no-light employment, physical fitness training, and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. All of this training is designed to make sure our instructors can safely employ their handgun in life-altering situations. Training Regiment Instructors understand two realities, 1. A handgun is not the self-defense solution—the person is. 2. A handgun will eventually break or run out of ammunition and the threat will continue to persist. Continuous training is a requirement to effectively and safely contribute to the defense of self and others.
The size of the handgun bullets matter more than the ammunition capacity of the handgun.
Caliber, or the size of the bullet, does not matter nearly as much as the capacity of the handgun during a counter-response to a violent act against one’s self or others.
On average, most trained shooters—police officers, hit their intended threat-target 1 time for every 5 rounds fired from their handgun. Statistically, most violent encounters happen between 3 and 9 yards.
The speed of a handgun bullet does not produce substantial cavitation inside the body of the threat-target to disrupt the internal organs of the violent offender, regardless of size of the bullet.
Modern ballistics have produced 9mm bullets that are as effective as .45 bullets in producing large enough disruptions in the body of the threat-target to disable the target.
Given the anatomy of the human body, physiological, and physiological effects of a violent altercation on the human brain and body, most threat-targets will endure several injuries before they lack the ability to continue to fight, i.e. adrenaline.
All of these truths mean that a high capacity 9mm handgun will give the handgun owner the greatest number of opportunities to cause the greatest number of mechanically disrupting injuries to a human attacker than a low-capacity large-caliber handgun.
One brand of handgun is better than another.
The reality is that the safety, ease of use, and reliability amongst handguns from major manufacturers are substantially similar. Handgun offerings are so similar in fact, that new and intermediate handgun users rarely notice a difference between cost-effective handguns and extremely expensive handguns. The best handgun is one you can afford and will carry everyday.
My first handgun should be small because it will be easier to shoot.
Small, light handguns are much more difficult to shoot repeatedly than full-size, heavier handguns. This is because the barrel of a small revolver or low-capacity, small, striker-fired or hammer-fired semi-automatic handgun is extremely short. The result is a handgun with a short sight radius that is more difficult to judge effectively and a shorter, faster expulsion of projectile propellant from the barrel. The result is that a small handgun is often “snappy” or recoils more violently than a handgun with more mass and a longer sight radius / barrel.
Revolvers don’t jam, so I’ll buy one of those first.
Revolvers, like all handguns, are complex machines that require regular maintenance and care to stay in working order. The truth is, all machines fail on a long enough timeline. Revolvers will experience misfires and cylinder failures eventually. Revolvers are often just as expensive as their semiautomatic counterparts, but with less capacity. Revolvers also require very fine motor skills to reload, which can be challenging in a high-stress environment.
