What Is Your PDW? (Personal Defense Weapon)
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What is your PDW? (Personal Defense Weapon) From a civilian EDC (Every Day Carry) perspective, rapid deployment from concealed is where defining a weapon for personal defense starts. To me, this means a pistol. Police officers carry a pistol on their hip for their own personal protection and leave the long gun (shotgun and/or carbine) in their patrol vehicle until the situation calls for it. Like most people in this country, I am not kicking down doors to meth dealer's fortress-style homes nor am I a soldier headed down-range to the sandbox where I will be engaging threats at 500m or more on a regular basis. As an average, law-abiding citizen who lives in a relatively stable 1st-world country with laws to keep people in check (for the most part...) I cannot walk into the local Starbuck's with a rifle slung at the ready an order a tall caramel macchiato without having the local SWAT team called to deal with me. In the civilized real-world in which we live, that means that a weapon which you will call upon to defend you has to be hidden, and that means a pistol Think about it... Under what circumstances would an average citizen deploy a long gun of any kind in the U.S.? To me, the first two situations that come to mind are (1) home defense and (2) some sort of large- scale civil unrest (whether it is man-made or naturally induced matters not). Outside of those two, hunting, and training, my rifle just doesn't see the light of day. The pistol, on the other hand, is my daily companion and is accessible and deployable in a wide variety of situations: eating out, going to the mall, traveling, and generally being out and about. So for most of us, the pistol will be the primary go-to firearm when things go sideways - simply because it's always there. But sometimes you may be in just one of those situations where you require more than a pistol, but when a full-size rifle is just not appropriate or convenient to have with you. In this context, I think the need is going to be more than just 0 to 5 feet encounters given the increasing frequency of mall, theatre, school, church, etc. shootings where longer distance engagements are involved. This is where I see the value of RDS (Red Dot Sight) on a pistol, especially for the "over 40" crowd. From a civilian social chaos perspective (back to that civil unrest scenario), however, pistols become secondary to a larger pistol-caliber carbine (PCC), which would in turn be trumped by the rifle-caliber carbine. For the Military, they would designate this the realm of the Personal Defense Weapon, or PDW. Strictly speaking, a PDW is a small and compact weapon that fires full-auto, has a smaller round than a typical assault rifle or carbine, and can defeat soft body armor. The intent of the PDW is to provide non-front-line combatants a reasonably serious fighting tool that is less bulky and ponderous than an issue rifle. The idea is that they are able to put up a fight if necessary with a weapon capable out to 150 meters or so. For a long time, the PCC filled this role with weapons like the H&K MP5. By the late 80’s, it became evident to many militaries and law enforcement agencies that pistol-caliber carbines were losing their effectiveness against adversaries equipped with the most modern lightweight body armor. While small rifles chambered in 9mm Luger allowed their users to minimize their “load out” weight and size envelopes, the guns left a lot to be desired in the performance department. Yes, you can use the same ammunition in your pistol as you can in your Heckler & Koch MP5 – but the rifle’s slightly longer barrel length and full automatic fire capability only gave moderate increases in effectiveness. The FN P90 Personal Defense Weapon was developed in Herstal by Fabrique National between 1986 and 1987. The primary design objective was essentially to introduce a modern replacement for the pistol-caliber carbine to equip military personnel whose prime activity was not that of operating small arms. Troops such as artillery, signals, transport and any whose duties required that they be effectively armed for self-defense but who did not need to be burdened with a heavy weapon while performing their normal tasks . This carbine would be just as lightweight, have select-fire capability, and deliver a high-velocity, lightweight round capable of doing a number on light body armor. The P90 has since been marketed as a special operations and law enforcement weapon. The P90 is a blowback weapon firing from a closed bolt. The overall design places great reliance on ergonomics, for example, the pistol grip, with a thumbhole stock, is well forward on the receiver and in front of the action of the weapon (known as a bullpup configuration) so that when gripped, the bulk of the receiver lies along the firer's front (weak side) arm. The controls are fully ambidextrous; a cocking handle is provided on each side, and the rotary selector switch is located under the trigger. The gun that resulted was nothing short of…well… futuristic. It was created with the use of modern (for the 80’s, anyway) materials and design techniques. Largely made of polymer, the gun held a 50-round top loading magazine, was extremely compact, and even included an integrated reflex sight. Hello, end-of- 20th century! It is quite the modern take on the venerable bullpup carbine design. The most controversial part of the P90’s design is the ammunition it fires. To the well-informed, the 5.7x28mm cartridge is simply a cut-down 5.56x45 (.223 Remington) cartridge. The latter, used every day by hunters stalking tiny to medium-sized game (like prairie dogs and other varmints) is also NATO’s “go- to” cartridge for the individual soldier. US politicians heard about the armor piercing capabilities of the new cartridge and basically declared them “cop killer” bullets. What our esteemed members of congress declined to tell the American public was that MOST rifle bullets with high ballistic coefficients and moderate velocity will also pierce light body armor. I won’t get into the effectiveness of the round just yet (that will come a little later) – but simply to establish a baseline for those unfamiliar with the 5.7x28, just think “it’s half of a .223”. The previous statement isn’t 100% true, but it will do for now. Some of the 5.7mm bullets used in commercially available loadings are merely lighter .224 bullets, and can also be loaded into .223 cartridges. The size and weight savings allowed FN to pack 50 rounds into a small magazine, and the 5.7’s lack of heavy case taper allowed them to design “stick” magazines instead of “banana” shaped ones. Since weapons meeting these criteria are all but unobtainable for civilians due to their fully-automatic select-fire nature, for non-military use I like the term coined by author B.R. Kurtz in his book "Size Matters", the Civilian Defense Weapon, or CDW. Even moreso than a Military PDW, the CDW is meant for covert carry. This is not in the same class as a Concealed Carry Pistol and it isn't meant to be. Obviously, the applications for such a weapon are going to be limited, but when the time comes that you need something more, the CDW at hand is going to be way better than the full- sized Battle Rifle in your safe at home. Almost epitomizing the essence of the CDW concept, the P90’s development represented a nice leap forward in the compact rifle market. And much to our delight, FN began selling a civilian-legal semiautomatic version in 2005. This rifle is appropriately named the PS90. The PS90 differs from its submachine gun counterpart in two ways. First, the select-fire switch and capability has been removed (making it semi-auto only), and the barrel was lengthened to 16.1” in order to meet US regulations on minimum barrel length (16”) and minimum firearm length (26”). Other than that, the gun is pretty much the same as a P90. This is why we love FN. This weapon is my first choice for a CDW, the FN PS-90 in an SBR (Short-Barreled Rifle) configuration, which allows you to legally shorten the barrel back to the P-90's original 10.4" length. This requires some additional paperwork and a $200 tax to the BATFE per gun, but really transforms the weapon into the handy little CDW it was originally designed to be. For this exercise, I suppose maybe we should consider what a PDW/CDW really is and not be locked into THE definition. Personally I do think it's something more than a pistol (and less than a rifle); but I think maybe a RDS equipped pistol is capable of filling this role--depending on the set up and the operator. I'm a fan of an RDS-equipped pistol, but honestly a set up with a large-MOA dot and typical shooter performance beyond pistol ranges, it just doesn't fit what I think the definition of a PDW should be. My AO (Area of Operations) is suburban, so a PCC/SMG (Pistol Caliber Carbine/SubMachine Gun) will work well in this situation for most people as their PDW.