how do you carry your weapon and why?

I prefer concealed carry. I carry all the time and wherever I can do so legally.

My primary carry gun is a Para Ordnance P14.45. I carry that in a Galco King Tuk kydex/leather IWB holster at 3 o'clock. With a shirt/sweater over it it disappears. Nobody is the wiser and its easy to get to if and when I need it. I can drive, sit down, walk, run, climb etc. without discomfort. IWB carry of a full size handgun does take some getting used to though but once you get used to it you will feel naked without it.

My BUG is a Khar CM9. I sometimes carry only the CM9 if I'm in extremely light clothing (but that's rarely since even with just a pair of shorts and a t-shirt I can conceal my P14). When I carry the CM9 its always in a pocket holster in my back right left pocket. Nobody else knows its there and I can walk about with confidence knowing its there. I'm right handed (thus carrying the P14 at 3 o'clock) but I carry the CM9 in my left pocket and draw with my left because of two reasons: its my BUG (my right hand will have the P14 in it) and also because that's how I practice carrying and drawing that particular gun so I stick with it.

I DO open carry on occasion - usually when I'm too lazy to pull on a sweater or when I'm going to an OC rally/event. Most of the time that means my P14 is in a leather slide holster at my 3 o'clock. My CM9 is also always hidden away in my back pocket. The only other time I open carry is when I'm hunting, hiking, boating, fishing and/or camping.

Carrying any weapon at all requires that you are constantly vigilant and cognizant of your surroundings and those near you. The trick of course is to be that way all the time without looking like you're paranoid all the time lol.

Findlithui wrote


1) I am a CA native. Born '52, right outside Berkeley.
2) "you were not open carrying legally unless you were in a very rural county with less then 100k people in it. If you were there, there was no un-rest".
I was not in a very rural county. I was not in LA.
I was carrying legally (at the time - laws have changed).
There was the threat of unrest.
With all due respect to a moderator - I was there, you were not.
3) 2013 - MI, but I was concerned about a NATIONAL situation that got resolved for three months a few hours before it was to start. You are right - it did NOT get that bad. I'm grateful for that...

We are just having a conversation here... so no need to add a 'all due respect for a moderator'... I'm not due any extra respect as a moderator in a conversation.

I was born in Monterey CA... and I was also there in the 1980's... and I can't recall any situation of unrest. 1992, Rodney King Riots... if you lived in LA or Oakland then you had some unrest. If you don't mind, could you explain what was going on in the 80's that you would consider unrest that caused you to open carry?

As to the law changing... I'll have to do some research on that... but open carry has been illegal in Ca for as long as I can remember except in smaller (less then 100k population) rural counties where the local sheriff has allowed it. CA has, as far back as I can recall, been less then friendly to legal gun ownership.

So... were you open carrying in preparation for a possible unrest this year then? You said that there were two situations of 'unrest' where you preferred open carry... citing this year as one... but we didn't actually reach that point... did you carry open BEFORE it reached anything, because you thought it might?

I looked at something like that to ware when I go jogging... but I settled on a Remora for that use.

applejack wrote
If the shoulder hosters were bad, they would not be mans oldest way to carry a weapons(the romans used shoudler hosters to carry there Gladius swords or so i have been told. also i have seen shoudler rigs for swords like in the moive the last samurai)

Just going to throw this out there, but you're making a fallacious argument here (it's an appeal to tradition). Just because it has been used for however long in the past, does not mean it is better than a new way.

Personally, I prefer IWB. I've got a Crossbreed Supertuck that should be getting shipped to me in the next few days.

all true. diffent hosters for diffent people. It just my point when people say the shoulder rigs are unsafe because they point the gun at someone standing behind you, i always like to point out many hosters do too. purse hosters,most off the body hosters like fanny packs or things like that, small of the back carry, FBI cant, and belt hosters that crossdraws the barrel is point off to the side or at a angle were if it did go off it would hit someone.

Findlithui wrote


Gen laston (I hear you).... but I have to admit - I would rather have my gun pointing backwards than at my *enis .

Not I... if there is going to be an accidental discharge... I would rather take the brunt of it then some random person behind me. I don't know about you... but I could live better with whatever the resulting injury on myself might be then I could with someone else being shoot by my gun.

I almost always ware a belt holster, either inside or outside the waistband, that points the muzzle of the gun down. Incidences of me bending over at the waist enough to actually direct the muzzle of the weapon behind me are almost nil or maybe even nil. I typically bend down with my knees, which keeps the muzzle pointed down... and am not typically bending over that much in public anyway...

...wouldn't want to send the wrong impression, would I?

So yeah... I get that a gun has no reason to just 'go off' while in a shoulder rig pointing behind me... but I carry condition 1 always... and I can't get rule 2 out of my mind... "NEVER LET THE MUZZLE COVER ANYTHING YOU ARE NOT WILLING TO DESTROY". Guess I'm unwilling to destroy random people and ok with destroying the ground at my feet or my leg or knee.

Findlithui wrote
But I would still rather catch one in my right leg or ass than blow off my *enis .

Oh, well if those are my choices then yeh, me too.

L Driggers (fallen) wrote
Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you happy to see me.

Both.

My goal is NOT to save other customers, but to save myself. There is no social compact that requires bank robbers to allow customers to live. I have read of many similar accounts where customers were sequestered and then executed. Don't want to participate in that.

Also, a semi-intelligent robber would not assume, because no one is shooting at him, that no customers are armed. If a search reveals that a customer is armed, what then? I don't think I want to rely upon the kindness of sociopathic thugs who've already expressed a willingness to use lethal force to take FRN's.

Addendum

I've thought about this scenario quite a bit, since I could have been in the midst of it that particular Wednesday morning.

I have the benefit, which you do not, of knowing the branch office's layout, where customers wait in line, entrances, opportunities. The entrance into the CU is a portico which everyone must passthru before stopping at the doors to enter. This is the critical juncture, the moment of greatest weakness for an armed group. Each must negotiate that door. This is where to strike, if one is paying attention. It will go down very quickly. One must be prepared with a plan and ready to execute it.

What probably would have happened that morning, if I had been there, depends where I was in conducting my business.

(1) waiting in line--my back is to the door in some positions while in line. But since it was soon after the CU opened and only a few customers were there, I might have been near the front of the line, with my back to the doors. Not good. Who is going to be checking his six every few seconds? No one. (I do have a glasses frame mounted rear view mirror I used when cycling--should this be SOP for going to the CU? Yeah, it gets weird.)

(2) being served at the counter--my attention will be foused on the business at hand. This is the worst possible moment.

(3) leaving the CU -- if I am not out of the building, this is the proverbial "stand off". Whoever gets to the door first, loses. If I am in condition white and openly armed, I get eliminated. If I am aware and see the group approaching the door ARMED, I can draw while finding cover--blading on the door frame/entrance structure while moving to my left (right handed)--there is no other cover--shooting through the glass doors.

One may think I'm obsessing. If this had gone down and I had been shot as possible threat (that fanny pak, or bulge under jacket or shirt), I'd really have something to obsess over during the months following, if I survive. Been there--anyone who has ever been assaulted, relives those moments unwillingly as they crash into ones consciousness. "I could have been killed." "What could I have done differently to maximize my chances?" "Replay the scenario..."

Such questions reveal much. Pass or play.