That is sad that a police officer can’t defend himself and others without fear of being convicted and going to jail. The laws seem to favor a criminal so much that it makes one wonder why a person would want to be a cop any more.


Fabio any gun will work for defense, some choices may be better then others, but there is no wrong choice. It also has a lot to do with what you feel comfortable with.

Whatever the choice, try to get out and practice as much as you can. This is more important then the actual choice of what gun you like.

I would like to make two suggestions to increase the versatility of your allowed two guns:

1. A single shot shotgun/rifle like made by New England Firearms/H&R or Rossi can be had as combination guns or additional barrels of different calibers may be able to be purchased. Since the frame part is usually considered "the gun", you might be able to have a single, very versatile gun with multiple barrels this way.

2. You might also look at the various adapter things made by a company called MCA Sports. http://www.mcace.com/ They would also allow you to get multiple use from a single gun.

The MCA sports adaptors work well, not for rapid fire, but you will have a very useful gun with them.


These inserts are great for survival. It will allow you to shoot all kinds of calibers in shotguns and rifles. They are very well suited for hinge shotguns.


Prices are not too high, a good value for what you get.

Fabio, if I may chime in with my two cents......I would consider, if it were me, of going with either
A) .38 special revolver and .38 special rifle
Or....
B) .38 special revolver and 12 gauge pump shotgun.
Either way I believe the .38 in a 4" to 6" barrel wil offer the maximum stopping power with the minimal recoil and maintenance. You or your wife should be able to handle anything shy of hot +p+ with little felt recoil (assuming you can even find +p+ ammo or that your gun is safe to fire it)
The rifle will give you the advantage of little felt recoil, longer range and accuracy than the pistol and be a resonably reliable round for stopping man and beast. Disadvantage to snake killing unless you can find .38 special snake shot, which I have seen here in the us.
12 ga. Shotgun is good against ANY kind of critter, 2 legged or 4 although you or your wife may have a harder time with recoil. Get familiar with the different sized ammo (slug, 000, 00, bird shot etc...) By chooseing your ammo wisely you can set up for differnt threats at different ranges as well as have a fine weapon for hunting.
That narrows it down a little, hopefully you can convince the lovely wife to purchase a firearm of her own, 12 ga shotgun and rifle/handgun in .38 special would be optimal IMHO
Best of luck, I hope this helps a little.

-Bill Liptak

There's a reason why one of the preferred weapons for anti-boarding operations aboard ship is still a good old pump 12 gauge shotgun.

There's a lot to be said for the effect on the rest of the assailants when they see one of their own get folded in half at the waist, picked up and tossed out the door like he had a rope tied to him and the other end tied to a runaway bull with a hot shot stuck on his rump.

Downright demoralizing.

A double is okay, but then you lose the effect racking the slide on the pump gun has on an intruder in the dark. Almost as good as the sound a big blade going "swoosh" through the air, and not knowing quite from which direction the sound came.

Yes, I likes to play with my food before I eats it...sometimes.

Do you really think a .380 has more "stopping power" than a .38 Spl? Really?

I am, amongst other thing's, a trained Soldier. I have been trained to shoot fast & accurately. To count my rounds as I fire them and to know when to reload. I was carefully trained to treat the threat in front of me as a target, not as a person. To shoot, kill, and then switch targets. I have serious reservations about the ability of ordinary people with limited training to fire, re-cock and fire a pump action under stress at one or more targets. I think that they will fire one shot and then succeed in jamming the gun. Unless they practice, practice, practice. Which may not be an option with ammo controls.

To understand the laws Fabio is dealing with, read the summary at http://www.afn.org/~afn18566/brazil.html.

Another article from the NRA: Why you should care about Brazil

Tough laws if you intend to stay legal. Read the part on the black market.

I agree wholeheartedly with the idea of practice. Learn to reload at the club and shoot a lot of Skeet doubles and shotgun combat courses if available. Assuming you go with a pump shotgun, train such that you always pump the shotgun following a shot so that it is a natural movement and you don't need to think about it.

Buy ammo when you can, there will come a time when you can't.

Hello Russ,

I have only two choices for a shotgun, CBC (http://www.cbc.com.br)or Boito (www.eramantino.com.br). I have to choose one of them.

For the revolver,I think I'm going to buy a Taurus (need to choose a model) with 4" barrel and a cilider for 6, 7 or 8 cartridges.

Fabio