Handgun for Prepping? Good or Bad?

I'd love to see a video on the importance (or lack of importance) of Plate Armor/Plate Carriers for a prepping scenario. I'm at a point where I can afford it, but I don't know if it is necessary.

Which is more common now, 9mm or 40 S&W?

For prepping, handguns are necessary as a secondary or tertiary firearm choice, not as an only gun.

A sidearm is there to get you back to your main battle rifle or shotgun, and as a concealed carry when in a place that long guns are not easily carried or socially acceptable.  It is NOT a 1st choice weapon.

Semper Fi

Handguns would be great. The design must have second strike capability and single round loading capability.

some dort of handgun / kitgun capable of being used for ccw and in a pintch be converted to a more ful size/maybe a .410 revolver or repeater that can have inserts (multi cal firearm) yet able to lay a reasenably reasenable amount of lead yet not killing all your suply of ammo 
great vid:)

1/2 my time I am in an Urban City, the other 1/2 i'm in the burbs.

My overall go to handgun is a 9mm. My two options are my glock 17 and my M&P9. I prefer my m&p9 but I've trained much longer with my glock 17, extra parts are much easier to find, as it is the most common handgun in my region, cops use them in my areas. Why 9MM, well it's equally available my my areas, there is hardly 30 yards without cover anywhere in my area, and actually in IMO urban areas, you'll be building clearing a lot, which sometimes a short gun keeps you concealed easier. My glock is much lighter then my MBRs, ammo can be kept quite easily, conceal carry is an option. I think it's a great option based on my locations.

On a note on penetration capabilities of 9mm, If I come across hostile people with body armour of sorts, honestly I was probably screwed if I actually had to engage them head on anyways. Urban situations (and most others too) when shtf you typically don't want to be engaging anyone if possible, as unlike the single house in the woods with a light on, no one knows where people are in the city.

IMO, I would go with a glock 19 over a glock 17 just because I can conceal the 19 better and I can use a 17 magazine in the 19 in case I need a high capacity mag or I run out of ammunition and I happen to find some loaded 17 mags.

Great advice.

I think a handgun is an all around good option

Urban area: Glock 17 
Rural area: .357 mag revolver, 5-inch or 6-inch barrel. 

I like the M&P a bit better than that Glock as well, but yes, I find the Glock magazines in gas station stores sometimes, ha. A revolver is not a bad choice for that specific situation as well. I would recommend a .357mag. Great power and can shoot .38 special as well. Also you do not need any magazines or other equipment. It is ready to go with just the gun, though you can run it faster with speed loaders. Major drawback though is you are losing a lot of capacity and ease of reloading.

Good of course, as long as you also have a rifle. :)

I think glocks, berettas, cz 75s and clones, and anything that takes smith and Wesson 59 magazines r all good options for prepping handguns because their magazines r all very common. they also shoot common ammo.

I think a handgun is def a good prep tool. It's the one you're most likely going to have on you. Aside from mass anarchy you probably won't be using long guns outside of hunting. The pistol is still going to be your main self defense gun. Unless the world becomes Mad Max style. 

Great video, great thoughts. I think a police trade in Glock 22 is a great option. You get a multi caliber platform for under $450 with a 9mm conversion barrel. Having options is great. I recall 9mm being all gone and .40 was less money then 9mm and you could buy it.

Not that .40 is best but two is one. One is none in the prepping world.

I'm glad I don't have to make that choice. But if I could only have one, I'd choose a shotgun.

I always keep a gun in a box of cereal, just in case the Black Mamba stops by.

I think the most important point is sticking to common calibers, as you pointed out 357 sig and or 10mm while they may be effective I have yet to see any ammo on the shelf for these calibers. 9mm, 40 and 45 I see all the time, not to mention the potential for barter. Although ammo is probably going to be something that everyone will want but nobody is going to be willing to trade. If you think about it you may provide ammo for someone to attack you or your family if you trade ammo.

Another good point is common firearms, parts and mags that are hard to find now will be impossible to get if things were to go bad. I'm not sure of how many pistols are out there than you can actually change the caliber on, I know glock and sig make some. Thats a big deal because you can buy the required parts now and always have them if you need them.

I try to stay away from odd calibers, not because they don't work, because they are hard to find and expensive if or when you do find them. I also don't use steel case ammo, I understand it is a lot cheaper, it's also one and done. I save through reloading, although with what I have spent on tooling and supplies. I could have an insane number of rounds, I prefer to have an infinite number of rounds.  With a single 8# keg of titegroup @ 4.5 gr. that yields 17,500 rounds, by time you do the math it works out to pennies per round. To put it another way if you shot 50 rounds a day, it would take 350 days to run out. Now I'm not sure if anyone would ever shoot 50 rounds every day, however they could do that for almost a full year. Then if you add in factory loads you would be well over a year.

cool fact: the thumbnail gun gets a suppresor once the video is marked as watched

my go to handgun is my S&W M&P 9 Pro Series

If I could only have 1 gun it would probably be a 12 or 20 gauge shotgun, either pump or side-by-side. Super common ammo and if things really go sour you could saw the barrel and stock off and have a really compact yet powerful defensive tool. I would definitely not knock someone for choosing something different. AK, AR, SKS, SU-16, mini-14, 357 revolver, 22 mag revolver, Glock 19 or maybe even a decent pistol caliber carbine. Hell even a 22 rifle is not a bad choice.

My Sig P226 DAK, 40SW is my go to gun

What about a vid on prepping in a state with 10 round ammo mags..?