Don't want to start a "legal" debate, just trying to share what I have been told by the people who would probably be dealing with my case if I ever had to shoot in self defense......

It may be different where you live, alter your carry gun and take the added risk if you think a little bit lighter trigger pull is worth it....I work with and talk to my County DA, the Sheriff and lots of other local govt. people every day, I work at my county courthouse and sometimes the subject of armed defense comes up. The local magistrate judge carries a Ruger SR9, and a deputy Sheriff I was talking to carries a new S&W Bodyguard .38 as his off duty gun.

Not saying they're "right" and it may not be what some people want to hear...... but I'm saying what they have told me, pretty much they say "don't carry a tuned up handgun and don't carry anything that says "Magnum" on it".They tell me to just carry a Glock .40, because that's what all the local Police and Deputy Sheriff's carry...but I carry revolvers....to that they say "then just carry a .38"...not everyone, including LEO's, is a "gun person".... Again, not that it's right, but it's the way the judicial sytem in my area works. If things go really bad, the bad guy you shoot survives and some how casts some shadow of a doubt on the "justified" thing, you will be judged by 12 of your peers....or if God Forbid you hit an innocent bystander with your slicked up .357 ......you can't pick which of those peers will be judging you, they may be anti-gun, pro-gun, indifferent........ The courts may also have an "expert" examine the gun that the police will have taken from you after the justified shooting, that expert could be Homer the local gunsmith,or a local PD armorer.... "Yep, this guns been tuned up, got a hair trigger and it was loaded with hollow point .357" He'll probably use a $10 Lyman trigger gauge, and compare your pull wieghts with factory specs he finds on the internet, to come up with his decision.

Even in the most justified shooting, you may be forced to defend yourself in court. I don't know, every case will be different. There is no "blueprint" to how it will all go down. Me personally, I feel having a stock 6-shot .38 revolver with stock springs leaves me less open for "interpretation".....no one can call me a "commando with a hi-cap mag" or accuse me of having a "gun modified expressly for killing people". I used to carry a Ruger Service Six or Speed Six loaded with .357's all the time, but I have now switched to Model 10's and 64's or a Service Six chambered for .38 Special only. This is the reason the NYPD authorized only DAO revolvers in .38 with heavy springs, to reduce issues with legalities and accidental shootings.

You can be seen as an ordinary citizen with "an old .38 police revolver" who was in fear of his life and forced to shoot........or you can be painted by the scumbags anti-gun Public Defender as a "vigilante with a hair-trigger gun altered for gunfighting, shooting high-powered Magnum hollow point ammunition........this guy was looking for a fight" and the jury will be like "Wow he had a Magnum......."

As a CCW holder, sure you can carry any handgun you want, I know a guy who carries a Ruger Alaskan .454......but if he ever has to use it and someone innocent gets hurt, well, good luck to him......