Handguns, including your old 1911 and my plastic Glock, are minimal defensive guns at best--they just happen to be very handy, and a man fights with what he has. Introduced at last year's SHOT Show, the Ruger Lightweight Compact Pistol (LCP) is a handy pistol, indeed.

Its size and caliber relegate the LCP to a back-up role for most of us, and there it excels. On the rare occasion when a full-size handgun would print through your red Speedos on the beach, the LCP could serve as a primary weapon. In either case, the LCP is reliable and accurate--attributes seldom associated with pocket pistols.

Other small-gun designs count on the mass of the slide to hold things together during firing, making the pistol heavy. Ruger's engineers started with a locked-breech, tilting-barrel design utilized by many larger pistols. The barrel and slide are locked together when surfaces on the breechblock cam against the hardened takedown pin. As the slide and barrel move rearward after firing, the barrel unlocks from the slide and ejects the spent case as it tilts down to receive the next round from the magazine.

Return pressure from the dual-captive recoil springs force the barrel and slide back into the locked position, completing the firing cycle. The system is less sensitive to changes in operating pressures and bullet weights.

The LCP looks and acts like a striker-fired pistol--the action cocks the hammer halfway, and the trigger rotates the hammer to fullcock and then releases it--and could be described as single-strike, double-action-only. The small hammer is never exposed outside the slide. The long, smooth trigger pull--the sample gun's trigger averaged 6 pounds, 9 ounces--is enough to prevent unintentional discharges but not enough to prevent pinpoint shot placement. The other fire controls are very similar to striker-fired pistols and include a magazine release and slide stop.

There is no external safety, and the slide does not lock open after the last round. The slide can be locked to the rear by pivoting the recessed slide lock up into a frame notch. It is a nice feature that allows shooters to show clear during practice and makes cleaning the gun possible without disassembly.

To break the gun down for more thorough cleaning, simply double-check to make sure it is unloaded, remove the magazine, and pry the takedown pin, located on the LCP's left side, out of the frame. The slide slips right off the 7075 aluminum chassis imbedded into the glass-filled nylon frame. The recoil spring is then removed, and the barrel is pivoted down out of the slide. After reinstalling the slide assembly, a small spring detent must be depressed with the takedown pin before it can slide back into place.

Currently, the LCP is only chambered in .380 Auto, a cartridge that has recently undergone a renaissance of sorts. Just about every big ammo company makes premium self-defense rounds in bullet weights ranging from 90 to 102 grains. From the 2.75-inch, broached-rifled barrel, velocities should run 900 fps on the light end down to 820 fps for heavier projectiles.