A Kel-Tec P32…For Self De

March 10 Blue Press Section 3 1/13/10 1:01 PM Page 60 60 A Kel-Tec P32…for Self Defense? By Sydney Tanner and Jim Nosker While even a .25 ACP or .22 LR is better than A self-defense weapon’s purpose is to no firearm at all, there’s no reason to settle for a promptly stop a threat, when that threat is an caliber so small when anything more powerful is individual capable of causing you death or great available. That focused our attention on Beretta’s bodily harm. As such, the ultimate self-defense .32 Tomcat, Kel-Tec’s P32 and P3AT, and Ruger’s weapon would be a long gun – neither a 12- LCP. A couple of rounds of .380 ACP downrange gauge shotgun nor a .30 caliber rifle is too eliminated the P3AT and Ruger LCP from the run- much. But since they ning, leaving the P32 and don’t work well for dis- the Tomcat. Due to its creet carry, we generally smaller size and lighter rely on handguns, weight, the P32 was the despite their markedly front-runner. reduced power. According to Kel-Tec, It would seem to stand the P32 is the smallest to reason then – all things and lightest .32 ACP pis- being equal – that when tol ever made. We could we select a handgun for find nothing that contra- self defense, we want one dicted that. Empty, the with plenty of power. But pistol weighs six and a all things are NOT equal, half ounces, or about 44 and that’s precisely why percent of what the plenty of downright small Beretta 3032 Tomcat tips handguns are finding their the scales at. A loaded way into people’s pockets seven-round magazine and purses. adds another 2.8 People’s physical limi- ounces. Carry the pistol tations often affect their with one in the chamber choice of firearms. Years Kel-Tec’s P32 with pocket clip compared to a Gerber and a full magazine, for of going to public ranges ATS E-Z Out, which is 4.5 inches long. a total of eight rounds, have led us to suspect that such limitations should and you’re still only lugging about nine and half be taken into account even more than they are. ounces. That’s just two-thirds of what the Tom- We’ve witnessed people trying to master firearms cat weighs empty. that were just too much for them. No weapon Roughly, the P32 weighs about a third of what does any good if it’s not with you when you need a steel-framed snubby .38 Special revolver or a it, or if you can’t accurately deliver its firepower Walther PPK/S .32 ACP pistol does, while only when the chips are down. being about half as thick as the wheelgun. It With those thoughts in mind, several concerns weighs less than a North American Arms mini- quickly became apparent when Sydney began revolver or the discontinued Walther TPH, both shopping for a personal chambered in .22 LR. handgun. On bad days, her In every dimension, it’s arthritis, shoulder injury and considerably smaller than an improperly healed old common .32 autoloaders, fracture of her forearm limit such as the PPK/S and how much she can lift more Mauser HSC and it also than any doctor ever will. comes out on top when com- She’s also limited to how pared to other tiny .32s such long and how heavy of a trig- When carried in a front as the Seecamp LWS, NAA ger pull she can manage. jeans pocket by its clip, Guardian and Cobra CA 32. Trigger pulls need to be light Kel-Tec’s P32 looks like The Seecamp and NAA enough and short enough for a common pocketknife. Guardian are a little shorter, her to accomplish even on but the Kel-Tec is thinner, days when her hands don’t want to work. weighs less and costs considerably less, plus it It didn’t take more than a couple of trips to carries one more round. While the Cobra costs dealers’ gun counters for the majority of the even less than the Kel-Tec, it’s larger in every handguns in stock to be eliminated. Revolvers dimension and it’s alloy frame makes it the heavi- were mostly too heavy and their trigger pulls too est of the group of tiny .32s. long. Most available metal-framed autoloaders With perhaps the exception of the Walther and were too heavy. Notable readily available excep- Mauser, none of these pocket guns have sights tions were Baby Brownings in .25 ACP; Beretta anyone would really be happy about. Therefore, and Taurus .22s, .25s, and .32s; Ruger’s LCP; and the Kel-Tec’s notch on the rear of the slide and lit- Kel-Tec’s P32 and P3AT. tle bump on the front is neither a surprise nor.

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