Any good books on learning pistol for self defense?

[RobertB]

My brother lives up in the sticks in WA and it might be a while before he can get to a class, so I was wondering if there were any good books that he can at least familiarize himself in the mean time. He knows next to nothing about guns.

[cpapastr]

I ordered a basic handgun book from the NRA and, for $15; it was a joke. There are plenty of books available at book stores but who knows which are good. You Tube has a multitude of videos and my suggestion is to watch some of the champion shooters and then go to their websites for books and other training materials.

[Not_A_Llama]

As Seth Godin likes to say, not knowing how to do something is one of the easiest problems to solve today.

For learning raw shooting technique, YouTube videos of the masters are abundantly available, with plenty of "how to" and "beginner tips" clips. Brian Enos' forum is probably the most densely concentrated knowledge repository of action pistol shooting that I know of. Pistol-training.com and its associated forum is likewise excellent.

For defense, specifically, the Magpul DVDs are probably as good as you can get, short of an actual course.

[ChadAmberg]

This is a deck (powerpoint style presentation) someone sent me used in basic pistol training. Doesn't explain much, it's more higher level topics, but might be useful enough for you both to go over while on the phone or a video chat or something.
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B9t...2FpYlJnZG1RWnc

[xring]

My brother lives up in the sticks in WA and it might be a while before he can get to a class, so I was wondering if there were any good books that he can at least familiarize himself in the mean time. He knows next to nothing about guns.

I didnt know there were any sticks left in WA

He must be on the dry side.

No IDPA matches he can go watch?

[King]

Just watch out for all those wannabe ninjas on youtube. VTAC, magpul dynamics, and make ready are some good video series to watch but nothing is a substitute for actual hands on training.

[MarkCO]

There are some books that dance around the subject, like most of the instructors and videos.

There are three major aspects...

1. Actual pistol craft. Shooting a competitive sport like IDPA or USPSA gets you most of it. A year competing, you will be able to outshoot most of the trainers and LE. There are some good books that teach the basic 6 elements of pistol craft, the best are typically not from LE/MIL backgrounds.

2. Mental Preparation. This is a huge issue which most teach the war hardened vet (or poser) approach and others teach the timid lawyer approach. You won't get this in most books. Some contact fighting of some sort will teach you a lot about your personal approach. At some point, you have to decide when to flick the switch and then it is all out until the confrontation is over. Your personal disposition, moral code, legal aspects all factor into your preparation, approach, avoidance, de-escalation techniques etc. This is all the "before the guns come out" issues.

3. Tactics. Again, most people don't understand, much less how to teach the aspects of potential shooting scenarios, like in a mall, in a bank, positional advantage, diversions, etc. Here, the LE approach is typically pretty decent if they have actually seen some street action or been SWAT trained at some level. This is oftentimes the bridge between 1 and 2 above. Training the ability to think outside the box can be done, but it takes time, and it is not like on TV (which you already know).

[RobertB]

I didnt know there were any sticks left in WA

He must be on the dry side.

No IDPA matches he can go watch?

Yeah, he's out in the middle of nowhere. He texted me about having gone shooting but no detail. He's getting a hand-me-down gun from his father-in-law.