It seems like you can't get too far into any conversation about concealed carry or back up guns without someone wanting to either talk about or try to justify the use of "mouse guns." However, if you really want to go there, you need to be prepared for a little realistic analysis of their usefulness. My realistic side says that there will always be those who want a small, unobtrusive, usually inexpensive (but not always) and lightweight little gun to just tuck into a pocket and move on. Gun manufacturers continue to make huge numbers of them. Also, there are still many such guns still in service from since before the Gun Control Act of 1968 labeled many excellent quality small guns "Saturday Night Specials" and therefore demonized them as being evil and useful only to criminals. Still, today we're seeing a resurgence of interest in such guns. This is driven largely, I think, by the concealed carry laws which exist in most states and the fact that ordinary people are looking for some way to be carrying, usually without any inconvenience or alteration to their daily routine. Serious guns for self protection require changes in your wardrobe and routines. Cops know this, of course, but may other citizens haven't figured it out or accepted it yet.
What is a "mouse gun?" Usually it is a small gun, chambered for a caliber that is not generally recognized today as a reliable attack-stopper. It can be a revolver, but is more often a nice, flat semi-auto pistol. The available calibers are somewhere in the range of .22 to .380, although there are exceptions even to that. They are usually pretty minimalist in their features, compared to more effective carry guns, and their main reason for being is that they make the person carrying them feel armed - not necessarily effectively armed, but technically armed nonetheless. Oh, and let's not forget that they can be deadly.
Let's face it, any well placed shot can kill, regardless of the ammunition, and heaven only knows how many people have died from small bullets that quite accidentally found their way to a lethal location. But, what are the odds? As an ordinary citizen, you can play the odds however you choose. As a police officer, do you really have that choice? In a recent Pro Arms podcast (episode 007, if you want to check it out), we were discussing the Ruger LCP. It is a new entry into the mouse gun market, chambered in .380, and very similar in size to the popular KelTec P3-AT and P-32 pistols. The word at the last SHOT Show was that there were orders placed for 85,000 of the LCPs, just at the Show. I can tell you that they are as scarce as hen's teeth, as are the P3-ATs. Somebody must like them. One comment that caught a listener's attention was that we said the LCP would make a good third gun. Third gun? Well, personally I can think of a whole lot better primary and secondary, or back up guns, for street carry, especially for cops. But some folks want to use them as their primary gun!
Let's look at this from just the law enforcement perspective. On duty, the whole world knows you are armed, so carrying serious fighting guns, both primary and secondary, should not be a problem. Off duty, are you really comfortable with sticking a mouse gun in your pocket and going about your business? An ordinary citizen has the right to protect themselves with a firearm under certain conditions. The practical manifestation of those conditions usually means that the encounter will be up close and very personal. That's just the sort of encounter where a mouse gun might, at least, have a chance at being useful. But the citizen has no duty to act to protect anyone. A police officer does. That means that an off duty encounter for a cop may not be all that close and it may involve more than just one opponent. Here, a mouse gun is not up to the task of being your primary off duty firearm. Before you carry any mouse gun, let's look as some of the features that they represent. Then you can decide if they are the right tool for the job.
Mouse guns are called that because they are weak in the caliber department. One shot stops, unless very close and very lucky, are rare. How may shootings have you studied that required multiple rounds of serious caliber ammo to get the job done? Now imagine trying to stop a deadly threat with smaller, weaker ammunition. Maybe years ago there was some sort of unwritten code that if you were threatened with a gun, any gun, you gave up because they got the drop on you. It hasn't worked that way for years, except in the fantasy world of movies and TV. And bullets aren't some sort of remote game of tag. "Bang! I hit you. You're it!" The so-called psychological stop can still occur with one hit, but with all the drugs and psychotic behavior on the streets today, you can't bet your life, or anyone else's on it.
Small calibers allow for small size, which is the biggest selling point for any of these guns. It is also the overall limiting factor in their usefulness. In order to achieve the small size, you have to compromise on other things. The number of available bullets, for one. The smaller the cartridges, the more you can fit into the gun, but even then it's still always a small number. You usually will only have five or six rounds and even this number is tempered by the fact that they all are very small bullets. So now we have a gun in a questionably effective caliber, with a limited number of rounds. Seems to me we're on a slippery slope. But wait, there's more...
The other term that is often applied to these types of firearms is belly gun. This means, of course, that you are only expected to use them at point blank range. Even though some of these guns can have surprising inherent mechanical accuracy, some people who make these types of guns don't even put sights on them. If they do, they are very rudimentary. One manufacturer that makes very small, made to order, excellent quality (and pricey) guns even tells its customers that they should not be using their products at any sort of distance where sights would be required or even useful. Does that sound like good advice for a police officer? Only if it is the last ditch gun that gets an attacker off of you in a full-contact, life or death struggle. It won't help much if you just stumbled onto an active shooter at your local shopping mall.
One good use for laser sights is on such guns that are lacking adequate standard sights. Fortunately, Crimson Trace already has a laser sight attachment for the Ruger LCP, the KelTecs and some versions of the North American Arms Guardian model. If you really must carry a mouse gun as a back up, you should consider a laser sight, if one is available. Another thing that affects accuracy is that most people find it hard to get a decent grip on the small guns, due to their small frame size. A poor grip will affect trigger control, recoil control, follow-up shots and maybe even the functioning of the gun. Some people have trouble pulling the trigger all the way to the rear because their trigger finger hits their thumb on the opposite side of the grip. I've even seen people accidentally get their support hand fingers too close to the muzzle of short barreled guns.
There's one more very important thing that I've saved for last. As far as I'm concerned, the number one, non-negotiable criteria for any gun that I carry, primary, back up or even as a third gun, is that it must be reliable. If I ever need to use it, there will be no other option left available. I will have either exhausted them already or they never were available in the first place. That is not the time to find out that a gun won't work. One of the truisms about small guns, also pointed out by one of my colleagues, is that the smaller the gun the more finicky it is about reliability in relation to ammo selection.
Many of the well regarded mouse guns of the first half of the 20th Century, made by such quality companies as Colt, Browning and Beretta, ran beautifully on the full metal jacketed bullets that were the standard of the time. Nowadays, of course, we know that such ammo is not up to the task of self protection and new designs in hollow point bullets, primers and powder technology have tried to bring these weaker calibers up to a level of usefulness in the 21st Century. Still, many of the small guns just don't like hotter ammo and hollow nosed bullets or are reliable with only certain brands or designs of ammunition. Sometimes a gunsmith can make some adjustments, sometimes not. One mistake with any gun, but an absolutely HUGE one with a mouse gun, is to carry ammo in it that has not been thoroughly tested for reliability in that gun.
You may hear someone say that it is better to have a mouse gun with you than no gun at all; to a certain extent that is true but not for police officers. You need to make the commitment to doing what is necessary to be effectively armed, just in case you need to act. You bear a responsibility that others do not. You must act at times when others can simply run away. I'm not sure who said it first, but it is often repeated in our classes and our discussions: Friends don't let friends carry mouse guns! Well, maybe as a part of your back up plan, but certainly not as a primary gun, even off duty.
