Although there are many and veering methods of concealed carry I would defer to a comment made by a young Special Air Service Captain I worked with in Northern Ireland in 1972.At that time I had been detached from the British Parachute Regiment and was operational with a small group that was being run by said SAS captain, We worked in a mufti roll or covert as it is called to day.. My issue weapon was a Browning Hi power pistol along with a 9mm sterling sub machine gun (selective fire capability) that I was want to carry in a shopping bag as I walked around Londonderry or Belfast, successfully I may add. Until one day the barrel of the Sterling pocked a hole in the shopping bag slide out of the bottom and clunked on the floor. I was fortunate on two accounts, one this took place in what we will call a Royalist area and two at that time I had a very heavy Australian accent not having been totally detribalized, only having left Australia some two years before. I was very quick to assure the local shoppers I was not an IRA gun man and not having an Irish brough (accent). Being a very young undercover solider, a mortified one at that I was lucky they believed me and did not call the B specials. In fact much to my embarrassment some of the older ladies wanted to take me home for a cup of tea as I was a poor wee darling with a very red face.
A pistol is not really a Soldiers’ weapon and is normal only issued to medics and support arms, in the Australian Army it is almost totally forbidden as it makes you look different and you increase the danger of sniper fire I would agree with Heather one should experiment with dress and different kinds of concealed carry, and even the type of firearm to be concealed especial with regard to the ladies, we know you like to look nice for us, a pistol / self-defense firearm is no good in the safe as the old saying goes “The best gun is the one you have in your hand when you need it.” This brings me full circle to the Special Air Service Captain that ran me in Northern Ireland. On one operation (my first, I had a cocked and locked 9mm Browning holstered, and I was his back up! After the operation he called me aside and without any drama or unpleasantness explained to me “if you need your pistol and it’s not in your hands when you need it don’t bother trying a fast draw as you will already be dead.” It was only later when I became an SAS (Special Air Service) soldier that I realized SAS (Special Air Service) soldering is mostly team consensus, communication and learning from others experience past mistakes and knowledge with a lot of originality thrown in.
How right Heather is practice, practice and more practice, experiment, test and try, I would also suggest without detracting from Heathers advice. One should learn to hone ones awareness skills, Try to get to the psychological (mental stage where you just have that feeling things don’t look good or feel right .So that Henry Colt, ( I am a 1911 kind of man) or whoever is your traveling companion is snugly in your hand ether at your side or just out of site with you hand a little to your back, no one will see it. Play the game “What If “as you approach your car or house “What if “the door is open, what if bad people come out as I try to go in where is my firearm where is my first cover est. what if things don’t look right. Think of what is normal in your everyday life make mental pictures remember them, then you will instantly recognizes what is abnormal. Remember solve the first problem first, stay alive neutralize the bad people the legal stuff is another problem don’t think about it do that later, your immediate problem is stay alive. Stay away from the “Normalcy Bias “It’s never happened going to happen, so it won’t happen ever”. Life changes take place in seconds or thousandths thereof, death travels at 960ft per second or much faster.
Keep in mind,
1. Jesus’ loves you
2. what is for you will not go past you,
3. but don’t tempt the Lord. He has given you a mind and firearm along with the knowledge and ability so uses it. He maybe a little busy at that time saving someone who is not as smart as you.
Hosea 7:11
“So Ephraim has become like a silly dove, without sense; they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria”
(They call to wicked governments, the UN)
