The ""Perfect" CCW for Wife AND Me

 Okay, okay! You caught me. I can't stop thinking about myself, when I am researching guns. My wife is looking for a CCW handgun, but I am the guide, because I know more about guns than she does. So I look for her, and I of course think about what would be best for me.

While stopping by a gun store, my wife said that she wants to get the smallest gun possible. The salesperson said that people don't look for guns anymore, because of - cellphones. So, his opinion was the largest and controllable is ideal. Well, all around food for thought.

We have gone from the .357 Ruger LCR as the probable choice a year or so ago back to thin autoloaders. But taking a step back, we were leaning toward thin 9mm autoloaders for a couple of reasons: (1) they are thin and (2a) 9mm is the most available cartridge right now, and (2b) I've got some at home.

When my wife - let's call her Marie - was looking at the guns in the case and handling some, she was drawn toward the Ruger LCP II in .380 ACP. At the time, the gun store/range had no .380 ammo. She said fine; let's get something in 9mm that's really small.

 I went in a second time by myself, and I found out that their 50-count boxes of .380 are going for $100.  I reported back to Marie, and she was definitely on board with 9mm. On that second trip, I asked to look at the Kahr CM9. My wife doesn't have problems with racking slides, but I had heard that Kahr's were notorious for having hard-to-rack slides. She had no problem with the CW9 at our last range session (actually she had less problem with me racking the slide through the "locking-breach bum"), but I was convinced that the CM9 would be far worse. I was pleasantly surprised that the gun-handling operations were so easy. It is left to be seen if my wife feels the same way.

credit: Kahr.com

So, for this exercise that hopefully will end in an actual purchase, and I am taking that the Kahr CM9 has the idea.

credit: Kahr.com

The micro doublestack 9mms sort of put a wrench in the works, because they appear to be so "perfect," but we will see.