Pick Three Guns

ContinentalOp said:
Ok. So was he a Special Agent or a contractor? If a Special Agent, then he would have to have a college degree. Then he would've spent several months in training, followed by a year or two in a field office in the US. While he might get some protection assignments, either for visiting dignitaries or overseas on short deployments, most of his time would be spent investigating things like visa and passport fraud.

As a contractor, he would've spent his entire time on protection details/security assignments. His miltary background would've been sufficient to land a contractor gig, even without a degree. DSS used a lot of security contractors in the last 20 years.

Not saying you have to use this information. After all, it is fiction. But if you're striving for some accuracy in this character's background, I think it's good to have. And this info is out on the Interwebs if you want to research it yourself.

Just my opinion.
Click to expand...

Another really good question. Good background makes the story more believable. It makes more sense for him to have been a contractor.
 
IF it helps, a man I know very well was a state department contractor in Iraq. Guarded dignitaries and escorted supplies to police posts near the Kurdish border. Saw a lot of combat, more than in the Army.

He always wore a Browning 9mm MK III and had a H-K MP-5, a M-4 carbine and a H-K 91 7.62mm rifle. Mission determined the long gun. Knives were a Randall Model 14 and a USMC Ka-Bar. Had a Leatherman tool and a Swiss Army pocketknife.
 
Texas Star said:
As a writer, I see your worst problem right away. You don't know your character nearly well enough. And you may not know guns enough.

YOU have to decide on his income, sophistication, clients, etc. I think you need a private eye. Bodyguard alone is too limiting in scope.

Look inside his personality. Look at his home. Describe it. Make the reader see it. YOU must know him. What does he drive? Does he like coffee? Who does he date?

Read books that define characters well and make you feel that you know them. David Lindsey is a superb wordsmith. Read his books like, A Cold Mind, Spiral, Mercy, Requiem For a Glass Heart.

Try writing fan fiction on FanFiction.net. Select a show you know and see if you can even make the known TV characters seem real to fans.

He should own at least a concealment gun and a full size pistol. Maybe a 5.56 mm rifle.

I don't know this man or if he hates okra or peaches. I don't know his real income or gun knowledge.

Personally, I wouldn't make him too poor. Maybe not too rich, either.

Take a creative writing class at a junior college and read similar fiction heavily. DO NOT make him your egotistic self. This gets a writer laughed at as a Marty Stu. You'd better be good at dialogue, too, and in character!

You aren't ready to select his guns until you've thoroughly created him, friends, likely assignments, clients, city, etc.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the useful input. All good points. I appreciate all of it. I'm doing better in his 'now' than his back story where my knowledge is lacking.
 
If it were me:

Glock 19 gen3
AR-15
Kahr PM 9 on ankle, but since he's strapped for dough, Kahr CM 9.

If his security job was indoor and/or would never involve reaching out past 25 yards, I'd replace the AR with a Mossberg 12 gage.
 
Model 29, .44 magnum.

The only side arm in the world! At least 5 inch barrel.


scorpion evo a1


Old school .38 special body guard.
 
Glock 19 or similar
AR or AK
Short barrel shotgun.
No self respecting bodyguard carries an ankle holster.

flagman1776 said:
Just as a lark, I'm writing a short story where the 'hero' is a bodyguard. I've given the hero a back story of service in the USMC Force Recon with tours in the sandbox. Since mustering out has 2 years in Diplomatic Protection Service before going into private security. He's struggling a little financially. Would he still own 3 guns?

What three guns would he own? I have ideas but I don't trust my own bias.

1 primary sidearm
2 ???
3 ankle gun

If you can see an obvious mistake in my thinking, please tell me so I can fix it.
Click to expand...
 
I did some gun trading with a retired US Marshal that was in some kind of witness protection stuff. He said he carried a Remington 870 with a super short barrel in a custom made shoulder sling he wore under a suit jacket.

Said it only held 3+1, but never let him down.
 
Good luck in your development of our hero back ground, I am old school so I would carry a 1911 commander, back up a J frame 38 spl. If he has to have a long gun some thing carbine length something that does not have a long magazine that catches on clothes. maybe a 9mm bullpup.

Every book I have read about a returning vet, has a brooding PTSD haunted man who can't be open to others.
 
My character's main assignment is executive protection and has a business suit dress code. He has a pocket clip-on knife which I have yet to define.

Honestly, I didn't envision a long or longer gun but now can't envision him without an AR platform firearm. "Every Marine a rifleman." So this would be in addition to the three pistols I originally envisioned but didn't specify.
 
Read the late Robt. B. Parker's Spenser series about a Boston PI. The later books are more gun knowledgeable.

His widow authorized a new author, but I haven't read those books.

Jack Higgins and a few other authors sometimes just give a brand and let readers guess a model. Actually, in David Lindsey's, Spiral, I now envision a different "Hecklar" used by an assassin than when I first "saw" a P-7 when I read the book on release in 1986. New models have appeared. I just update guns, police uniforms, etc. when I read it again. I see the words and transform them to images. The hero, Houston PD Homicide Sgt. Stuart Haydon, wears a "Beretta." Prob. a 92SB when the book was new. BTW, the incident where he kills his partner's murderer is prob. the most authentic gunfight in any novel I've read. Find Lindsey's books at the library or used book shops.

Oh: the, Spiral killers used MAC-10's to shoot up two limousines. And when Haydon's architect wife made sandwiches, Grey Poupon mustard got a free plug. Don't just use guns to flesh out and authenticate settings. Have a man eat Snickers or a Ghiradelli chocolate, not just a candy bar. His choice of candy says something about the character.
 
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flagman1776 said:
My character's main assignment is executive protection and has a business suit dress code. He has a pocket clip-on knife which I have yet to define.

Honestly, I didn't envision a long or longer gun but now can't envision him without an AR platform firearm. "Every Marine a rifleman." So this would be in addition to the three pistols I originally envisioned but didn't specify.
Click to expand...

I still think exec protection, which I did for over a decade, is too limiting a field, unless your hero is maybe US Secret Service, foiling a plot. Maybe he could be a DSS supervisor foiling a plot to kill an ambassador?

But those agents aren't your proposed hero.

When I had a character use a clip-on knife and a purse knife, it was different sizes of Gerber Applegate-Fairbairns. If I had a lockblade now, it'd be a Benchmade 710, although prob. now out of production. But I removed the clip from mine and from my largest Gerber A-F.
 
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Texas Star said:
I still think exec protection, which I did for over a decade, is too limiting a field, unless your hero is maybe US Secret Service, foiling a plot. Maybe he could be a DSS supervisor foiling a plot to kill an ambassador?

But those agents aren't your proposed hero.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your invaluable insight. My character has improved immensely today.
I had him as former DSS SA. I corrected so he became a DSS contractor today. He doesn't want to go overseas (why he mustered out) to be near a child he has and an ex-w to deal with.

I have more research to do. I've gotten huge tips for what to look up now. And some things are better left vague even if I have for instance a specific model firearm in mind.
 
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