VI – Self-Defense – Page 27

Checklist: Matters to Consider When Deciding on a Handgun

If you’re thinking about becoming a handgun owner, you may be wondering how to begin. Perhaps the thought of walking into a gun store makes you nervous. Or confused. The extreme variety of firearms from which to choose can be daunting and baffling.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, The 4 Basic Rules of Gun Safety ]

Click the image below to enlarge this PDF document created by SemperVerus to help you narrow the options to your specific situation. Download, print, and take it to your gun store to work through the choices with a knowledgeable and helpful firearms retailer.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Self-Defense Training Directory ]

Checklist: Matters to Consider When Deciding on a Handgun

[ Read the SemperVerus article, The Process of Becoming a First Time Gun Owner ]

To help you compare how you handle different firearms, see this list of worthwhile items to evaluate compiled by TacticalProfessor Claude Werner for testing and deciding what gun is right for you. Also see his Pistol Evaluation checklist.

You may find A Glossary of Gun Terms by AmmoMan.com, Gun Glossary For Women Shooters by Carrie Lightfoot at The Well Armed Woman, USCCA’s Terminology Guide, Pew Pew Tactical’s Handgun Training Terminology You Should Know, and USA Carry’s Firearms Terms for the Beginner to be useful in your personal firearm education.

Also see TheTruthAboutGuns.com for “Guns for Beginners” articles, GunMagWarehouse.com for A Beginner’s Guide to Buying a Handgun, and Pew Pew Tactical’s Beginner’s Guide to Guns.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Learn the Basics of Ammunition with Winchester^® Educational Infographics ]

And learn about USA state gun laws at

[ Read the SemperVerus article, A Directory of Holster Makers ]

Invite SemperVerus^® to present its 5 life-changing success-generating components—prepare, aware, be, know, do—to your organization to inspire and motivate your members.

Join the SemperVerus Brotherhood™!

Jeff Cooper’s Principles of Personal Defense

Col. Jeff Cooper, creator of the “Color Code” that sharpens a person’s situational awareness, is also the author of the booklet, Principles of Personal Defense, in which he describes 7 characteristics a person should strengthen in themselves to best be able to ward off a violent attack. They’re primarily technique-oriented.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, The 5 Elements of Self-Defense Law ]

SemperVerus^® has added the component of biblical insight as a foundation to each principle, in keeping with the understanding that Scripture inherently supports the right of self-defense as presented in the booklet, The Case for Biblical Self-Defense.

1. ALERTNESS — “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8 (NLT)

2. DECISIVENESS — “An indecisive man is unstable in all his ways.” James 1:8 (HCSB)

3. AGGRESSIVENESS — “Be angry and sin not.” Ephesians 4:26 (KJV)

4. SPEED — “With blinding speed and power he destroys the strong.” Amos 5:9 (NLT)

5. COOLNESS — “God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” 2 Timothy 1:7 (ESV)

6. RUTHLESSNESS — “Hate what is evil.” Romans 12:9 (NIV)

7. SURPRISE — “Be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.” Matthew 10:16 (NIV)

Read in full the booklet, Principles of Personal Defense.

Invite SemperVerus^® to present its 5 life-changing success-generating components—prepare, aware, be, know, do—to your organization to inspire and motivate your members.

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SemperVerus™ Brotherhood/Sisterhood Launches to Help People ‘Stay True’

Comprised of 5 Catalysts + 1 Tactical Agent:
Prepare, Aware, Be, Know, Do, +Self-Defense

SemperVerus™ (Latin for “Stay True”) is a new dynamic motivational communications operative that has as its mission to inform, inspire, persuade, impel, and invigorate men and women to personal life-changing positive commitment, decision-making, and responsible self-defense awareness. It accomplishes this objective through its website and Twitter stream (semperverus.com and @semper_verus), publications, reminder wristbands, the SemperVerus Brotherhood™ and SemperVerus Sisterhood™ pledge, and group presentations.

“The best antidote to a culture shifting to bad behavior is to re-normalize good behavior,” says social observer and author Seth Godin. SemperVerus (the “V” in Verus also stands for the Roman numeral 5) believes the best way for a person to avoid drifting off-course into bad behavior—deviating from his or her life’s “true north” of fulfillment, happiness, and civic well-being—is by attending to 5 transformative catalysts that culminate in 1 tactical agent:

I. Prepare: putting your life into proper condition and readiness to successfully handle material and spiritual foreseen and unforeseen circumstances.

II. Aware: heightening attentiveness to be alert to—and anticipate—dangerous potentialities and temptations, as well as edifying opportunities.

III. Be: developing rich personal leadership character of exemplary moral and ethical quality.

IV. Know: becoming a life-long learner to clearly, and with certainty, apprehend situations from which to benefit personally and others.

V. Do: resolving to intentionally and skillfully act to accomplish positive and fruitful outcomes.

+ The sum total of these 5 catalysts cultivates the strategic and tactical agent of Self-Defense: the intelligent ability to responsibly protect yourself from menacing spiritual and physical threats.

The SemperVerus website blog is a regularly updated source of developmental information and curated resources for personal leadership and self-defense, with articles focusing on the Prepare, Aware, Be, Know, Do, and Self-Defense categories, such as:

A list of links to organizations that support the Second Amendment.
A list of links to self-defense training resources.
A list of links to mobile apps for instruction in dry fire, self-defense, survival, travel, personal leadership, and more.
A list of important judicial decisions regarding self-defense law.
A collection of every USA state’s constitution article that establishes the right of armed self-defense for its citizens.
The 4 basic rules of gun safety and links to basic gun safety videos.

As a motivational impetus, SemperVerus invites people to join the SemperVerus Brotherhood™ or SemperVerus Sisterhood™, where adherents are invited to pledge to stay true to common virtues as outlined on the website (semperverus.com/brotherhood).

SemperVerus is also the publisher of the pocket-sized booklet, The Case for Biblical Self-Defense (ISBN 978-0-692-08979-8; 26 pp.; $10; available by emailing staytrue@semperverus.com). For those who consider the Bible to be their authoritative guide for life and personal behavior, this booklet answers in the affirmative the question, “Is it biblical and in accordance with Christian faith to be ready to employ lethal force to protect your life from an imminent and wrongful life-threatening attack?”

Contact SemperVerus (staytrue@semperverus.com).

Invite SemperVerus to present its 5 life-changing success-generating components—prepare, aware, be, know, do—to your organization to inspire and motivate your members.

Join the SemperVerus Brotherhood™!

Important Judicial Decisions Regarding Self-Defense Law

The following legal decisions concern the law of self-defense. Some of the rulings are final and others are not. They’re presented here, along with salient excerpts, to be read for their excellent judicial logic about the absolute civil right of armed self-defense as established by the framers of the US Constitution.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, USA State Constitutions Providing for Armed Self-Defense ]

US District Court for the District of Maine ruling: Andrea Beckwith, et al. v. Aaron Frey, Attorney General of Maine (February 13, 2025) by Chief US District Judge Lance E. Walker (pdf).

This ruling grants a preliminary injunction blocking Maine’s 72-hour waiting period law for firearm purchases.

“The acquisition of firearms is covered by the Second Amendment’s plain text.”

“If a citizen cannot take possession of a firearm then his or her right to possess a firearm or to carry it away is indeed curtailed….Acquiring a firearm is a necessary step in the exercise of keeping and bearing a firearm. Any interpretation to the contrary requires the type of interpretative jui jitsu that would make Kafka blush.”

“Firearms have always been articles of commerce. There is nothing novel or nefarious about that basic reality that would warrant torturing the concepts of keeping, bearing, or carrying to exclude from their meaning the acquisition or purchase of a firearm.”

“Because the act of acquiring a firearm, including by purchase, falls within the ambit of what it means to keep and bear arms, it is presumptively protected by the Second Amendment.”

“[S]tatutory disarmament in the absence of individual cause is inimical to our Nation’s history and traditions. It is to the Second Amendment what a prior restraint is to the First. I have little trouble finding irreparable injury in this context. As with cases involving the First Amendment, even a temporary deprivation results in irreparable injury.” *

Circuit Court of the Second Judicial Circuit, White County, Illinois ruling: State of Illinois v. Vivian Claudine Brown (February 10, 2025) by White County Circuit Court Judge T. Scott Webb (pdf).

This ruling says the Second Amendment is sufficient to possess a gun in your home, and state-mandated cards are unconstitutional.

“[I]f there exists a place in this life where a person should feel safe and protected, it is within the confines of one’s home. Self-defense within one’s home should be honored and revered as nowhere else on Earth.”

“[T]he Defendant’s possession of a .22 caliber rifle within the confines of her home, even without a valid [state-mandated] FOID [Firearms Owners Identification Card] card falls squarely within the protections afforded her by the Second Amendment.”

“[T]he right to armed self-defense is the same outside of the home as it is inside.”

“Quite frankly, it is asinine to think that in this ‘land of the free and home of the brave,’ one must petition the government and pay a fee to be able to enjoy the fundamental Constitutional right to protect oneself inside one’s home.” *

[ Get the SemperVerus booklet, The Case for Biblical Self-Defense ]