Carrying Concealed.
Oddly enough, my belt wasn’t the problem (the one I used is a belt that was given to me by a former friend who couldn’t wear it - it’s really stiff, so I figured it would work well for a short test run) - my pants were.
I’m in-between sizes constantly, so I usually buy a size up. The pants that I’m rotating now are a size 14, and they’re a slightly higher waist than what I’m used to, but when I wear them for just a day (sorry, I’m not someone who washes her jeans upon wearing them once, unless they actually get dirty), they stretch out. So they fit me beautifully when I first put them on, but as the day goes, I find myself hitching them up more than I’m comfortable with. Cinching my belt helps this, but then there’s the issue of the bunching material in the back, between the belt loops.
Clearly, the time has come to find better jeans, quality-wise. It’s easy, when you’re just wearing the clothes to school all the time, to not worry about them being a little baggy and whatnot.
Whenever it gets to the point where I’m going to want to carry concealed ALL the time, I’m going to have to find a different, and probably less-flattering, form of pants with a higher waist. Since I can’t carry on campus, it’s not like that’s going to affect how I dress for school, but out and about in the evenings and weekends, that’s definitely going to be an issue.
Anyway, I decided to try out my concealed-carry-fu yesterday evening while picking folks up and going grocery shopping for the get-together I held last night.
I used the holster I’d bought for my XD, because it turns out it’s on the list of holsters that can be used for the S&W 60, as well. It’s not ideal, but given that it was most definitely sweatshirt weather, it did the job.
My one “oops”: I forgot that I was going on a college campus to pick folks up. It was a Saturday evening, so it’s not like anyone was there, but that kind of drove home the whole inconvenience of that particular issue. If you’re going to a campus, and you have to go elsewhere afterward, and you’re going to either want or need your weapon after your short jaunt at school, what the hell are you supposed to do?
Well, I just left it on and pretended like I wasn’t wearing anything. It wasn’t hard to do - I forgot that I had it on a couple of times, even though I could clearly feel the weight of the holster and gun against my hip. It wasn’t forgetting that I was armed - I just wasn’t as hyper-aware of being armed than I’d been led to believe, if that makes sense. I guess I’ve been waiting so long for the permit that the carrying just seems like something I should have already been doing.
Off to Kroger we went, and to the liquor store.
One of my friends knew I was carrying, and I’d put her on “poke me if I start fidgeting” duty. If my hand hovered around my side for too long, I wanted her to give me a cue so that I would stop doing it. She never said or did anything to me, so I can only assume I acted naturally.
I found myself, for the first time, thinking about what actions I would take if someone did something like yoink my purse on the way to my car. Obviously that’s not a shooting offense (especially if they grab and run - shooting someone in the back for taking your wallet is seen as an automatic social-ist or racist move in this city, even though them stealing it could fuck you over waaaaaay more than someone coming into your house and stealing your TV or something), but what would I do?
It kind of opened my eyes a bit - THAT was my hyper-awareness. Not that I was carrying, but that BECAUSE I was carrying, I had to act differently and more diligent to what was going on around me. I found myself getting antsy when my friends fell too far behind me in the store.
As I watched the security guard at the front of the store, letting a small child play around on one of those motorized scooter-carts, it kind of hit me, finally, that in the event of some sort of emergency? I’m all I have. I can’t rely on anyone else. And I do have a responsibility to those who are around me to be prepared to fight for them, too.
That sort of responsibility doesn’t make me any less inclined to carry, but damn, I’ve got to get a better holster and some sturdier pants.
I really think they should start making half sizes in pants. It would make things so much easier.
Try a Thunderwear concealed holster. It goes under your pants instead of on your belt.
http://www.thunderwear.com/
Mine was great when I was changing sizes.
CRIKEY!!!
That’s just way too close to my genitalia. Yeah squeaky doesn’t have to worry so much about naughty bits geing “muzzled”, but YIKES.
Please note that I said “Muzzled” and NOT “Nuzzled” so get your minds out of the gutter.
will Thunderwear make a girl look like she’s packing something other than a pistol?
MadWomanMeg - it definitely would - but more than that, I’d like CONSISTENT sizing throughout. I mean, men use inches as a waist measurement. Why can’t women’s pants do the same thing? A size 9 in one brand is a size 12 in another…how does that make sense?
___
GeorgeH - That looks really neat…but one problem I have is that due to some health issues I’ve dealt with, I already have something of a pooch on my lower abdomen, which makes me already look like I’m prego. I don’t know if I want to add to that, and this device looks like it’s wonderful for people with flat stomachs, but what about those of us who aren’t exactly in tip-top shape?
___
Gregg - It’s no picnic having anything “muzzling” around my naughty bits, either…lol. When I was carrying yesterday, my biggest complaint other than my pants being all weird was that when I was driving, the gun position was reminiscent of my bike seat which causes me so much discomfort.
___
Breda - el-oh-el. Polterwang!
LOL @ Breda. That might actually discourage most people, I think.
Squeeks, although I haven’t bought one yet, I head a concealed carry belt is a good investment.
Looks like a regular belt, but it’s reinforced so your pistol doesn’t wag around.
I carried a 5″ .45 around for a few years in a Ted Blocker Mod 12. I bought it after asking a guy in a gun shop why he was the only one not carrying. Turns out he was; he had a .45 under his tucked in polo shirt, in a Ted Blocker rig.
I’ve found IWB requires a size larger pants, and works less well now that I have a gut. (I’m working on it…) I used to be more concerned about my weapon printing till I realized that everyone thinks it’s a cell phone.
I’ve also noticed that “hippy” women have the worst time finding a good concealment holster. My wife has to wear hip huggers to get the angles right, anything with a higher waist ends up jamming the butt into/under her ribs. She also has good luck with speed holsters that angle the butt out on a guy, but end up being perfectly flat to her ribcage. My sister in law is a state cop and does a bit of under cover work. She uses thunderwear to get around the hip problem.
Try the Clipdraw. Thinnest “holster” available, and it connects directly to the lip of your pants. Works great on my J-frame Smith.
regarding the “oops”:
What you do in that situation is lock it in the glovebox before getting on campus, but that only works for nonstudents.
“It is an exception to this offense that the defendant was a nonstudent adult and possessed a firearm contained within a private vehicle operated by the defendant and the firearm was not handled by [him] [her], or by any other person acting with the expressed or implied consent of the defendant, while such vehicle was on school property.”
Also regarding the “oops”:
You did the right thing. If you are adhering to the tenet of concealed carry properly, there should be no indication that you are carrying. The primary downside is that a difficult choice could face you; if you were placed in a situation where using your concealed weapon was beneficial, you would then have a risk versus reward conflict to resolve that wouldn’t even exist if our modern American society respected the Second Amendment right that so many American have fought so hard for.