An interesting take on the concealed-carry thing:
So how do we blend in? Well, for starters, when you decide to join the concealed carry lifestyle and have a defensive gun on you whenever you can, you’re going to have to figure out how to conceal your gun. For years, the conventional wisdom on this was that a gun should be comforting, not comfortable, and that you had to “dress around the gun.”
We should keep in mind, however, that the source of that advice was usually someone with a military or law enforcement background. The mission of both of those professions is radically different from the mission of the armed citizen, and that affects how they think about their guns. Fashion and cultural issues aren’t really applicable for most military servicemen, and aside from undercover work, not really an issue for law enforcement as well. For the rest of us, the idea of “dressing around the gun” is yet another roadblock on the path to the concealed carry lifestyle.
What we’re seeing now, though, is a new generation of firearms trainers whose roots are in the world of the armed citizen, not in the precinct or barracks. Trainers like Claude Werner and the crew at Citizen’s Defense Research stress training with real-world concealed carry solutions. In addition to this, the popularity of small and thin 9mm pistols like the Smith and Wesson Shield and Springfield Armory Hellcat and new methods of carry like the PHLster Enigma mean that it’s easier than ever to have a pistol on you when you need it the most, but not look like you have a pistol on you.
For various reasons, I find it very difficult to blend in, and I have no explanation for it. You know that situation when a comedian or magician picks out someone in the audience to participate / be humiliated in his show? If I’m in the audience, there’s a 90% chance that I’ll be the one picked out.
And that’s before I carry my big ol’ 1911 in its Don Hulme leather holster. Now, given that I have a body shape that’s more like Lizzo’s than Amanda Holden’s, it means I have to wear a tent-style shirt to ensure that my carry rig doesn’t “print” to any interested onlookers. (In summer; in winter, one of my several coats or gilets generally does the trick.)
However, I do have a sartorial characteristic that may help in the concealment business: I wear a hat. And of course never a stupid baseball cap because I’m a.) not a baseball player, b.) not a farmer and c.) not a nine-year-old boy. Generally speaking, it’s a Panama-style or fedora in summer, and a wool cap in winter:
Now what those lids do, I’m told, is make me even more distinctive in appearance. So how does that help me to “blend into” a crowd?
It doesn’t. What it does do is draw attention towards my head and away from my gun, giving me if needed a precious second or two to respond to a potential threat. And, of course, if things start going sideways, my plan is always to ditch the hat to take away the identifier and make me less conspicuous.
Not that I’ve ever thought about the situation, or anything. [eyecross]
I know it’s not perfect, but it’s what I’ve got. At least I have a plan, flawed though it might be.
I carry a Ruger LCR in 38 special with a shrouded hammer in each of my 2 front pockets
They’re both minimalist from a size and weight standpoint
I practice law and I almost always wear a sport coat, which gives me extra pockets to keep my keys (you would think I was a night watchman), reading glasses and cellphone
This, I have a very small revolver in each pocket and my money clip (I don’t carry a wallet) and credit cards in my left front pocket
Even the Ruger LCRs print at some level and they require that my pants have robust pockets so I do not have to constantly have them resewn
When I finally retire one day, I can wear less dressy pants which have patch pockets and are made of more durable fabric
So this is the perspective of someone who is still in the better dressed element of the work force and who scrupulously carries every time he leaves the house
I carry daily, without exception – a fairly plain polymer 9mm. I routinely carry it inside waistband, strong hand, about 4:00-4:30. And if I’m in a t-shirt or some untucked short or jacket, it covers easily.
However, I’m usually in a button-down (a lawyer, like mulonlabe28 above). If I’m not wearing a jacket, I generally DON’T make any efforts to cover the butt sticking out. And I find myself just going, covered or not, and not worrying about it. Where I live, it hardly gets a second look, either at the grocery store, Wal-Mart, or the restaurant, or anyone else. In 15+ years of carrying, I’ve yet to have any negative comments; on the contrary, the rare comment is generally either questioning about the model of gun and/or in support. But then, I live in sane America.
I decided to stop worrying about covering all the time, and just go. I don’t put it in a flashy holster or a tactical rig, intending for all to see. I simply keep the gun in a low-key working comfortable holster. No muss, no fuss. I’m not looking for attention, but I’m not hiding from it either. My goal is to simply show that carrying is normal. I don’t doll up my vehicles with gun stickers, or political stuff. I wear message t-shirts from time to time, either 2nd Am. or cultural/political conservative, but again, around here, that’s hardly odd. I’m a “moderate” here; on the east or left coast, I’d be a hard-core right winger. I KNOW hard-core right wingers; they have no idea. . . .
Often it is simply assumed I’m law enforcement. Actually had a lady chat me up in a convenience store about some issue I don’t particularly remember; she though I was a deputy sheriff. I routinely deal with our local LEOs, and they generally don’t give a person carrying a normal gun in an appropriate holster a second thought. It’s routine (but then, I know many of the local LEOs. I’ve had many of them on the stand . . .).