Author: Kim du Toit

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.