The safer handgun for home/self defense. The revolver or the pistol?

[benEzra]

20. If one is worried about that particular mistake, one can get a pistol with a magazine disconnects.

The downside of a mag safety is that it prevents the gun from firing even if your life depends on it if the magazine is dropped or not seated enough. That's why most LE agencies prohibit magazine disconnects. So weigh the pros/cons and choose accordingly.

The advantage of *some* revolvers is power; a single round of .357 is more powerful and more effective than a single round of 9mm. The downside of a revolver is that most revolvers hold only five to nine rounds, meaning you have little or no reserve capacity, whereas a typical full-sized 9mm holds fifteen to eighteen rounds even with flush-fit magazines and so offers a much larger margin of safety. From one standpoint, shooting a revolver is like having a semiauto that jams with every 6th or 10th shot. Revolvers shooting higher-pressure cartridges (e.g. .357) are also among the loudest of all firearms, due to the barrel-cylinder gap.

I guess it comes down to how a particular individual is wired and what they can handle most competently and confidently.

One other thing I'll mention is that regardless of what one shoots, one should never point an "unloaded" gun at another human being or any other unsafe direction. The majority of accidental shootings occur when people decide that because they think a gun is unloaded, it's OK to violate the basic rules of gun safety with it (never point it in an unsafe direction, never put your finger on the trigger until you are in the process of shooting). If you treat every gun as if it is loaded, even if you think it's not, you will never have one of those "I thought it was unloaded" gun accident.