light weight concealed carry handgun

Question
What do you recommend for a very light weight personal protection handgun.  
Is there a really light weight Glock?  How much weight are we talking about?  
Thank you

Answer
Kathy,

"Really light weight" is hard to quantify. I have carried various different handguns from steel revolvers to steel and aluminum autos. For my applications, the Glock is the absolutely lightest and most comfortable to carry. However, my other criteria are that my gun has to be in a caliber that has a reasonable chance of stopping a fight (9mm or .40 in my case. I find .45抯 to large and heavy), and I carry almost exclusively in a strong-side hip holster. The Glock (19 or 23) is the only gun I have found that doesn抰 feel like it抯 dragging my pants south by the end of the day.

You need to calculate in your equation how much ammunition the gun carries. For example, an empty Glock 19 weighs less than an empty Ruger SP101 5-shot revolver, but once ammunition is introduced the Glock weighs more.

A Ruger LCP weight only 9.4 oz. However, it carries only 7 rounds of the rather anemic .380 (better than nothing, but a better back up than primary gun). You could get an S&W scandium revolver chambered in .357 magnum (I wouldn抰 want to shoot it) and carry .30 Special +P in it. These will weight about 9.5 oz and give you only five shots.

By contrast, the Kahr PM series pistols are chambered in a better cartridge (9mm or .40, but in such a small gun I抎 recommend the 9). These weight 15.9 oz unloaded and carry 7 on board. The Glock 26 weights 19.75 oz and carries 11 rounds of 9mm in the magazine. The Glock 19 is less than an oz. more, but will give you 15 rounds in the magazine (which will increase the weight).

If what you are looking for is a pocket pistol that you can carry in something like a Don Hume pocket holster and that will be unobtrusive, but will also give you a reasonable self defense cartridge, I抎 suggest looking at the Kahr MP9.