Beretta Jetfire and Minx

I was at my favorite little Mom-and-Pop gun store the other day and spotted a Beretta Jetfire in the used cabinet... for $149. Very tempting. Practically speaking it's a pretty useless gun, but my interest is more as a collectable. While it's a much better gun than most of the small .25s out there, like the F.I.E. Titan I bought 30 years ago that spontaneously disassembled after digesting about 100 rounds, it has a few features I'd call fatal in a self-defense gun  (aside from being chambered in .25 ACP.)

First of all, there's no safety. That means it has to be carried uncocked, and cocked with the shooter's thumb before firing. Second, there's no extractor, which means a misfire involves a rather complex drill:

1. Flip up the barrel via the release lever behind the trigger. (If you're lucky, the round might flip out of the barrel.)
2. Pluck the misfired cartridge out with a fingernail on your weak hand
3. Close the barrel with the thumb of that hand
4. Pull back and release the slide to chamber another round and cock the gun.

Not quite as fast as your modern DA auto. Still, my interest in this gun is as a collectable, not a defensive gun. For that reason, I'd rather have the Minx, the .22 Short version of the gun. .22 shorts are increasingly rare in stores, but they're out there. Brownells.com lists Shorts from Winchester, Remington, and CCI.