So, I've been carrying for about a month now and thought I'd share my reflections on it so far.
First of all, the thing that stands out most in my mind is, "Holy cow, a lot of folks carry." No, I haven't seen other people carry much or discussed it with many others (besides here at INGO). What I've found is that nobody knows IIII am carrying. Whether I have my sidearm with me or not, everyone around me acts the same. They don't know I'm carrying. I know this may seem obvious to you all who have carried a while but for a new CCer, it's kinda a new experience. What it made me realize is that I have no clue how many people I pass by daily that are carrying and other folks have no idea how many people around THEM are carrying. I'm sure I've been around thousands of people who were carrying and I never even knew it. I mean, I've always known there were probably people at some point carrying, but now I realize it could literally be anyone anywhere, an probably is! If I'm carrying and no one is noticing, then I gotta assume a whole bunch more are too. Which is great!
A lot of my thoughts have to do with that first one. For example, I'm very surprised with how well my OWB Serpa holster conceals my p228. I mean, this is just about as non-concealing as holsters come, yet I've never been spotted carrying yet. My wife, who obviously knows I carry, will sometimes be surprised when I take my jacket off on arriving home and she then sees my gun on my hip. It's not a bad surprised, just a "Oh, I didn't know you were carrying." The other day I was going to the range with some friends and I stopped by one's house to help load some ammo beforehand. As we're leaving his house for the range he asks me if I'm going to get my gun from the car--I've had it on me the whole time in a polo without even a jacket as cover. Another time, after leaving a range shooting with my father, we stopped by Meijer to pick up some things. When we were inside he turned to me and said, "I guess technically we could have brought our guns in here with us and it would be perfectly legal." I was walking right beside him with my handgun holstered under my jacket on my hip! We had just left the range! I guess my point in all this is I was very surprised with how much people, even those who should be expecting it, will NOT notice a handgun. You don't even have to get a million dollar, custom-made, 5 year waiting list, baby-zebra-hide holster to conceal it.
Third, I'm surprised with how quickly I've become comfortable with a sidearm on me and uncomfortable with it not on me. I frequent locations that are strictly off-limits to carrying. Before I started carrying, I was always concerned about a BG coming in a shooting up the place, esp. with the nature of the locations. Now, I'm even MORE concerned and more aware that if something were to happen while at these locations I'd have absolutely no hope of surviving. It doesn't make it any better that these locations tend to be prime targets for crazies.
Finally, I'm surprised with how expensive owning a handgun can be if you "want to do it right." You think "Oh, a couple hundred bucks on a handgun... that's not too bad." But then you realize, okay so I'm gonna need to spend $50-100 on a decent holster, over $100 on my LTCH, at least 20cents/round for ammo, $50+/yr to have a membership to a range, $20 to get a cleaning kit, $20 or so for decent safety stuff (ear/eye protection), $100's of dollars on training, and then you realize there is no way in the world you're going to be happy with just one handgun
. For you, this may not seem like a big deal, but for a poor guy like me, it is. I've ended up realizing a lot of my future birthday, anniversary, Christmas, valentines, etc. etc. presents are going to have to be handgun related. No, this isn't bad, per se. I will truly enjoy what that money is spent on, but dang, these things are an expensive habit!
First of all, the thing that stands out most in my mind is, "Holy cow, a lot of folks carry." No, I haven't seen other people carry much or discussed it with many others (besides here at INGO). What I've found is that nobody knows IIII am carrying. Whether I have my sidearm with me or not, everyone around me acts the same. They don't know I'm carrying. I know this may seem obvious to you all who have carried a while but for a new CCer, it's kinda a new experience. What it made me realize is that I have no clue how many people I pass by daily that are carrying and other folks have no idea how many people around THEM are carrying. I'm sure I've been around thousands of people who were carrying and I never even knew it. I mean, I've always known there were probably people at some point carrying, but now I realize it could literally be anyone anywhere, an probably is! If I'm carrying and no one is noticing, then I gotta assume a whole bunch more are too. Which is great!
A lot of my thoughts have to do with that first one. For example, I'm very surprised with how well my OWB Serpa holster conceals my p228. I mean, this is just about as non-concealing as holsters come, yet I've never been spotted carrying yet. My wife, who obviously knows I carry, will sometimes be surprised when I take my jacket off on arriving home and she then sees my gun on my hip. It's not a bad surprised, just a "Oh, I didn't know you were carrying." The other day I was going to the range with some friends and I stopped by one's house to help load some ammo beforehand. As we're leaving his house for the range he asks me if I'm going to get my gun from the car--I've had it on me the whole time in a polo without even a jacket as cover. Another time, after leaving a range shooting with my father, we stopped by Meijer to pick up some things. When we were inside he turned to me and said, "I guess technically we could have brought our guns in here with us and it would be perfectly legal." I was walking right beside him with my handgun holstered under my jacket on my hip! We had just left the range! I guess my point in all this is I was very surprised with how much people, even those who should be expecting it, will NOT notice a handgun. You don't even have to get a million dollar, custom-made, 5 year waiting list, baby-zebra-hide holster to conceal it.
Third, I'm surprised with how quickly I've become comfortable with a sidearm on me and uncomfortable with it not on me. I frequent locations that are strictly off-limits to carrying. Before I started carrying, I was always concerned about a BG coming in a shooting up the place, esp. with the nature of the locations. Now, I'm even MORE concerned and more aware that if something were to happen while at these locations I'd have absolutely no hope of surviving. It doesn't make it any better that these locations tend to be prime targets for crazies.
Finally, I'm surprised with how expensive owning a handgun can be if you "want to do it right." You think "Oh, a couple hundred bucks on a handgun... that's not too bad." But then you realize, okay so I'm gonna need to spend $50-100 on a decent holster, over $100 on my LTCH, at least 20cents/round for ammo, $50+/yr to have a membership to a range, $20 to get a cleaning kit, $20 or so for decent safety stuff (ear/eye protection), $100's of dollars on training, and then you realize there is no way in the world you're going to be happy with just one handgun
. For you, this may not seem like a big deal, but for a poor guy like me, it is. I've ended up realizing a lot of my future birthday, anniversary, Christmas, valentines, etc. etc. presents are going to have to be handgun related. No, this isn't bad, per se. I will truly enjoy what that money is spent on, but dang, these things are an expensive habit!
and then after a second look went "or a security guard?" I told her no just an average law abiding citizen. We had a nice talk after that about IN LTCH and during it she mentioned that this was the first time someone had a gun in the store. I didn't have the heart to tell her that I had carried exactly the same way at least 3x in front of her before. But did mention that it wasn't probably the first time as most people conceal and that 1 in 10 adults in IN have a LTCH.
