Concealed Carry Fashion Part 1

I was looking for a Carhartt or similar vest today that was long enough to cover my pistol.  Now, I approach concealed carry differently than other people do.  To me, concealment is secondary to defensive shooting.  Which means, I want the most powerful handgun I can conceal, and I want to be able to present that firearm as fast as I can.  While there are many other ways to carry a firearm that are more concealed than how I carry, none of those allows rapid presentation of a powerful firearm in a gunfight.  So, I start from the gunfight and work my way to what I am going to wear rather than starting with what I am going to wear and figure out how to conceal a gun most covertly.  I see this as a defensive thinking mindset over a style mindset (which somewhat bothers me, actually), so I've described below a few ways to carry.

I always tell my students to keep the firearm on your person.  Never, never, never carry a gun in a purse or a laptop case or a satchel; if I steal any of those from you, I just got a gun.  Which means I am limiting myself significantly in how I carry a concealed firearm.  I can carry Dirty Harry's .44 Magnum in a laptop case.  Since you have to carry on your person--and this is really a non-debatable issue for me in my classes--you are reduced to a few ways of carrying a pistol and their advantages and disadvantages.  For why this is so important, please watch this great Youtube video!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDwQCOJVXq4

The three o'clock (note: I'm writing as a right handed shooter, obviously left handed people this would be nine o'clock) is the fastest, most efficient way to present the gun from concealment; as opposed to a leg holster which is faster but open-carried.  Three o'clock position is where cops carry their sidearms for a reason.  It is where your arm is attached in line with the firearms.  However, it is also very difficult to conceal.  Width of the firearm is what determines how easily it conceals, and putting a hard metal object against your hip bone makes it stick out.  You can't effectively conceal a pistol with a t-shirt like this, regardless of what the commercials tell you.  Having said that, the reason I almost always carry this way is for the very important reason that I can draw the gun with one hand from behind a concealing garment very quickly and start to engage immediately.

Four o'clock is almost as good.  The gun's a little farther away, so a little slower, but still able to get it with one hand.  It is also easier to conceal carrying on the back of the hip and the curvature of your spine than on you hip bone.  It is conceivable to wear thin clothing and conceal on the four o'clock, but there is an extreme risk of exposing the gun when you tie your shoe, or reach for the top shelf, if you dress that way.

I am not a fan of appendix carry, personally, because I am not a twenty-two year old fashion model with a six pack, but if you are, it's almost as good as four o'clock carry.  Once you get to the gun, it is faster than four o'clock; concealment is a little easier, it is less likely to be exposed.  Having said that, the biggest problem I have with appendix concealed carry is that you MUST use two hands to get the gun out quickly.  If time is a factor, you have to grab the concealing garment upward with your weak hand to draw the pistol with your strong hand.  That's no problem as long as you are a far enough distance away from your attacker to make those two moves before he can close the distance.  However, violent crimes often don't happen at that distance.

Shoulder holsters: never, ever, ever, ever buy a horizontal shoulder holster!  First, the same thing is true of a cross-draw holster, you are presenting the grip of your gun to your opponent.  Mostly, however, it is a really bad day when the gun falls out of whatever doomed-to-fail retention strap it has fighting gravity, and hits the floor in public.  Plus, you are pointing a gun at somebody all the time behind you.  Guns don't "just go off," however it breaks a fundamental of firearms safety to never point a weapon at something you don't want to destroy.  Vertical shoulder holsters are another matter.  Vertical shoulder holsters are what I use to conceal full-size handguns.  Concealment is great (so long as you don't take off your jacket), and you can get to the gun with one hand.  Disadvantages are that presenting the gun is slow; you have to reach across your body and backhand the pistol forward.  My philosophy of shoulder holsters is that they are really good for full-sized handguns and weather allows concealment with a jacket.

The "12 o'clock" carry.  I can't even discuss this without cracking jokes.  In all seriousness, there's no need for this, as it has no greater advantage than appendix carry, with all of its strengths and weaknesses, but the risk of sticking a gun down the front of your pants is way more than I want to take.

The slightly-less funny ankle holster.  First of all, ankle holsters were designed for back-up guns, not your primary firearm.  If you carry a back-up, fine, put it on your ankle.  But otherwise, physics is against you.  You not only have to use both hands, you have to use one leg, to draw the gun.  Very slow.  Very complex series events to draw the gun, from a disadvantageous position when you get it out and start engaging.  And it does not really offer any advantages in concealment.

Instead, I recommend pocket carry.  I have a small .380 ACP caliber gun that I can carry in a pants pocket holster.  This is the total compromise of my philosophy of starting from the gunfight and working your way to what you're going to wear.  However, sometimes what you wear is dictated to you, like a formal occasion.  Then, rather than going unarmed, I carry the pea-shooter in a pocket holster.  The holster is the important word there.  Don't throw a gun loosely into pants pockets; they make special holsters and gun-mounted clips for pocket carrying of small pistols.  A gun rattling around in your pocket unsecured could lead to a bad day.  I wear this when concealment is absolutely essential, recognizing I have sacrificed firepower and speed of draw, but a small slow gun is better than no gun in a gunfight.

That brings us to the weak side cross-draw, the "ten o'clock."  The advantage is that you can get to the gun with one hand.  The disadvantages out-weight the advantages, however.  First, it is slower; you have to reach across your body to draw, and you have to present the weapon in a backhanded motion.  Second, it's very easy to expose a gun in this position.  As a result, third and most important, like the horizontal shoulder holster, you are pointing the grip of your gun at your opponent.  In a grappling situation, that is really bad.

Lastly, small of the back.  Tactically, it is every bit as good as 4'oclock.  It is massively uncomfortable if you have to sit for any length of time.  You can get to the gun with one hand.  You can draw relatively fast.  It is relatively good at concealment, except when reaching high.  I don't like that you can't see to re-holster, and re-holstering usually takes two hands, which is not nearly as big of a problem as drawing, but it's something to think about.  You cannot carry a very large thick (meaning, in general terms, powerful) handgun this way very comfortably.

In conclusion, I firmly believe that the three o'clock position is the fastest, most efficient way to present a gun.  I recognize that you have to dress a certain way to pull that off, and many people do not want to dress that way (including me sometimes).  And sometimes you can't dress that way for weather or occasion reasons.

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