7 Best Handguns for Home Defense: [Ultimate Guide]

Oh boy, it’s time to talk about home defense. There are lots and lots of opinions revolving around the right weapon for home defense, and it’s easy to see why. We live in a world of rifles, PCCs, shotguns, subguns, and handguns of all shapes and sizes, which is best! Well, I won’t try to tackle that today. What I will tackle today are the best handguns you can use for home defense, as well as how to accessorize them and the advantages of a handgun for home defense. 

Before we dive into our list, I will be touching on;

• What Makes a Home Defense Handgun
• The Advantages of a Handgun For Home Defense
• Downsides to a Home Defense Handgun

To jump straight to the Best Home Defense Handgun list, click HERE!

What Makes a Home Defense Handgun? 

How does a handgun designed for home defense differ from other handguns? Well, it doesn’t necessarily. Some handguns are better optimized for home defense than others. The best home defense guns often provide a number of features that optimize the weapon for the task. A five-shot, J-frame 38 Special revolver can certainly be a home defense weapon, but it might not be the best home defense handgun. 

A weapon designed for home defense does not need to be small and concealable. Bigger firearms can often be easier to shoot well. They offer more control and less recoil, as well as potentially more capability. Handguns optimized for home defense are often the same guns optimized for duty use by police and military forces. 

These give home defenders modern firearms with relatively high capacities, greater accessorization options, as well a high degree of reliability. 

The Advantages of a Handgun For Home Defense 

Handguns seem like the weak link between rifles and shotguns. Per trigger pull handguns are less effective than rifles and shotguns at stopping threats. While that is true, that doesn’t mean handguns are not effective home defense tools. Handguns are the smallest home defense weapons, and home defense situations are often close-quarters situations. 

In close quarters situations, the smaller the weapon, the better. Wielding a big long rifle or shotgun can be difficult in a home. A handgun allows you to assume a variety of close retention positions and makes it easy to manage a close quarter’s situation. 

Wielding a handgun with a single arm is easy to do. A home defender packing a firearm and a phone can effectively engage a threat while talking to the police and calling for help. Manipulating doors, guiding children, and more can be done while still having the handgun ready to fire. 

Logistically a handgun for home defense can double as your concealed carry weapon as well. Try to do that with a shotgun or rifle. 

Downsides to a Home Defense Handgun

There are two big issues with using a handgun for home defense. First, you’re stuck with a pistol bullet. Pistol rounds do not provide the same power and capability as a shotgun or rifle round. They do not create the same amount of damage in the body as a rifle or pistol round. 

Second, handguns are harder to shoot. They lack a stock and a third point of contact. That lack of a third point of contact results in a greater degree of recoil, muzzle flip, and less stability. Less stability results in a lower degree of accuracy. That’s just another fact of life and compromise you’ll face when using a pistol. 

The Best Home Defense Handguns

Below is my list of what I would suggest is the best home defense handguns and why.

Best Home Defense Guns

1. Glock 34		Longslide 9mm Glock Optic’s Ready Options  Capacity Up to 50 Rounds	Check Price
2. FN 509 Tactical		Optics Ready Comes with Threaded Barrel 24 round magazine	Check Price
3. CZ p09 c nOCTUNRE		DA/SA Design Amazing Ergonomics Light Recoiling	Check Price
4. Ruger RXM		Optics Ready Great Ergonomics Painfully Reliable	Check Price
5. Walther PDP Pro-X		Integrated Compensator Integrated Magwell Optics Ready	Check Price
6. Glock 19		Optics Ready Options Various Capacity Options Can Serve Multiple Roles	Check Price
7. SIG P365XL		Small, but Mighty Perfect Jack of All Trades Option Optics Ready	Check Price

BEST Home Defense Gun LIST

1. Glock 34
2. FN 509 Tactical
3. CZ P09 Nocturne
4. Ruger RXM
5. Walther PDP Pro-X
6. Glock 19
7. SIG P365XL

Home Defense Gun Specifications

Below is a list of our Best Home Defense Gun. So we can compare and line up the specs from each of the products and help you make the best decision possible.

Best Home Defense Gun Reviews

Now we’ve had an overview and looked at our list, let us take the time to individually review each item. In this section we’ll be revisiting our specs, speaking into the product and looking at the pros and cons.

Home Defense Handguns – Buyers Guide

I won’t say that any particular handgun accessory is an absolute must-have. The closest must-have would be a weapon light. However, a handheld flashlight can be an option. While these accessories aren’t 100% necessary, they are quite valuable and increase your fighting and defensive capabilities. 

A Weapon Mounted Light 

Weapon mounted lights attach to the rail of your firearm and provide an onboard option for establishing positive identification. A light attached to your firearm allows you to use a two-handed grip while using a light and gun. Weapon mounted lights also allow you to keep a hand free for navigating your environment. 

Which light? Tough to say. I prefer a full-sized light that offers plenty of power. Not just lumens, but candela too. One thousand lumens with at least 10K candela will provide plenty of power for inside the home. The three companies I’d trust are Streamlight, Surefire, and modlite. 

As of this writing, Cloud Defensive’s pistol light hasn’t been released, but it will likely be another rock-solid choice. These lights have been well proven, and I wouldn’t use lights from companies like Olight due to their inconsistent power and durability concerns. You want a light you can depend on. 

Having a weapon-mounted light doesn’t mean you can’t still use a handheld light as well. A handheld light does allow you to light up an area without pointing a gun at a potential non-threat. However, if a threat becomes more apparent, you can drop the handheld light and focus on the threat with the weapon light. 

A Red Dot Optic 

Red dot optics have become all the rage on handguns these days, and for good reason. A red dot on a handgun and the training to use it will help you squeeze every ounce out of every potential out of you and your gun. Slapping a mini red dot onto your handgun does a number of things for you. 

First, it provides a sighting option that works in any light condition. It can be easily used in the dead of night and during the brightest days. It’s a night and day sight in a very efficient package. 

Red dot sights allow for a threat focus. Being able to focus on your threat instead of your front sight allows you to maintain excellent situational awareness. Focusing on the threat will cause the dot to appear right where you want it, and this is also more intuitive and faster than iron sights. Speed matters, and red dots are always faster than irons. 

In a home defense situation, your engagement range might not matter, but handgun red dots do allow you to reach out a little further. Modern red dots are tough as hell, and there are lots and lots of them out there. When it comes to selecting a defensive red dot, I will stick to Trijicon, Eotech, Leupold, SIG (Pro series), and even Holosun.

Adding a red dot to your pistol does require the slide to be milled. I wouldn’t trust dovetail adapters for anything beyond plinking. Slide milling is a pretty common service, but it seems like tons of modern handguns are coming equipped with milled slides. Even so, a good red dot is an expensive upgrade. 

Extended Magazine and Magazine Extensions 

What’s better than less ammo? Well more ammo, obviously. My favorite joke regarding how much ammo you should have goes like this. How much ammo do you need? X + 1 = Amount you need. X stands for the amount of ammo you have. 

Since we don’t need to conceal the weapon, we do not need to concern ourselves with the length of the firearm. This allows us to use extended magazines or magazine extensions to carry a little more ammo in our guns. It’s unlikely that you’ll carry a reload on you in a home defense situation, so having more ammo in the gun can be handy. 

The problem is finding reliable options. ProMag makes extended magazines for dang near every gun on the market, but ProMag also has a bad reputation for a reason. Adding a +5 magazine extension is also an option, but you want to stick to reliable companies. Companies like Shield Arms, Mec-Gar, and of course, OEM options will give you reliable extended magazines and magazine extensions. 

Suppressors

Handguns are naturally small weapons, at least when compared to long guns. Their small size makes it easy to add a suppressor without extending the length of the weapon so much so that it’s tough to use in CQB. Suppressors on handguns form an awesome tool for home defense. 

Shooting any gun indoors is incredibly loud, and long-term hearing loss can be a serious concern. A suppressor can reduce that noise, and the use of subsonic ammunition can reduce it even more. Long-term hearing health isn’t going to be a huge concern in a gunfight, but suppressors do more than just save your hearing. 

They reduce to the point of total elimination of muzzle flash. They work like a muzzle brake and help reduce recoil, and the extra weight can help reduce muzzle rise. Shooting a suppressed pistol can be a very enjoyable experience, and it’s valuable for home defense. 

Suppressors can be a pain to obtain. They require an ATF tax stamp as well as a long wait period, a 200 dollar poll tax, and then the several hundred dollar cost of the suppressor itself. It’s certainly not a cheap process, and even then, you’ll need a suppressor-ready pistol with a threaded barrel. 

Compensators 

Compensators have seen a huge rise in popularity over the last few years. Comps used to be reserved for uber-powerful pistols and revolvers, but people are discovering their ability to tame even 9mm handguns. Compensators do add length to your weapon, but is that a big deal? For home defense, no. 

They reduce recoil and muzzle rise, and in that reduction, shooters will be able to shoot faster and more accurately. That’s a huge advantage in combative shooting and adds a little extra edge to the shooter. There is no such thing as a free lunch, though. 

Compensators vent gasses upward, and that can cause some pain in close retention situations. They also require a threaded barrel. Acquiring a threaded barrel and compensator can be pricey. Finally, you need to make sure they won’t hamper your weapon’s reliability. Compensators don’t play well with light recoiling rounds. 

If you are willing to test your gun and ammo and make the investment, they make controlling the weapon easier, especially with a single hand. They can be handy but are likely the least necessary accessory on this list. 

What About Caliber? 

Oh, caliber wars, aren’t we done with these? The big three for automatic pistols tend to be 9mm, 40 S&W, and 45 ACP. If you move into subcompact handguns, you can add 380 ACP to that list, and if you like your guns big, you can also add 10mm and .357 Magnum. 

Personally, I like 9mm for most of my defensive handgun usage. It’s potent, capable, and easily penetrates deep enough to reach vital areas. Modern defensive ammunition allows for impressive expansion that deals a lot of damage as it travels through the body. 9mm also offers higher capacity and lower recoil than other calibers. 

Beyond 9mm, if you plan to use a can, then 45 ACP might be a good choice. The 45 ACP’s 230-grain rounds are naturally subsonic and eliminate the supersonic crack. Subsonic 9mm isn’t exactly uncommon, but it tends to be easier to find 230 grain 45 ACP than 147 grain 9mm. 

380 ACP is a bit anemic, and I wouldn’t suggest it for home defense if other options are available. 10mm and 357 Magnum tend to be heavier recoiling rounds, and unless you are dedicated to training hard with these calibers and learning to control the recoil, I’d avoid them. 

I also avoid rimfire rounds like 22 LR and 22 Magnum. Ballistically they are not impressive and do not offer much expansion. Beyond that, the rimfire ignition system tends to be less reliable, and reliability is absolutely a must-have for a defensive weapon. 

What matters way more for defensive use than caliber is ammo selection. 

Ammunition Selection 

Choosing the right caliber is one part of the equation, but choosing the right ammo is the other part. The right ammo involves defensive-oriented ammo that’s been proven to be successful. Proper defensive ammunition is often jacketed hollow points, also known as JHPs.  

Defensive ammunition drives deep into an opponent and penetrates deep enough to reach vital organs. Along the way, the ammunition is expanding and dealing more damage as it drives deeper into the body. 

At the same time, the round doesn’t over-penetrate and present a threat to another person in your house. A ton of snake oil exists in the defensive ammunition realm. Way too much, and that makes it tricky to pick the right ammo. If it sounds too good to be true, it likely is. There are established ammo companies that make rock-solid ammo. Companies like Federal, Hornady, Speer, and SIG produce effective and efficient ammunition. 

Train, Train, Train 

Anything involving the use of defensive firearms requires training, lots and lots of training. Handguns specifically require more training than other firearms. They lack three points of contact, and without a stock, they are harder to control and harder to shoot than any long gun.

Wielding a handgun for home defense means you should be able to effectively do so with two hands, with one hand, and even with your weak hand. You should know how to control; the weapon, how to shoot straight with the weapon, and how to fix malfunctions should they occur. 

This all requires significant training. Once you add accessories like lights and optics, you might need even more time ensuring you know how to use these items as well. Guess what? You are never fully trained either. It’s a continual process where you keep your skills sharp and learn new skills along the way. 

Handgun Home Defense 

Wielding a handgun for home defense isn’t rocket science. However, it’s important that you recognize the pros and cons of using a handgun for home defense. You need to know what to expect and how to deal with it. 

On top of that, you need to know what handguns work the best for this task, as well as why. Choosing the right handgun for home defense is pretty dang critical, so I hope you are leaving here today with a little more know-how than when you came.