State of Hardship: The Adversity of Concealed Carry

[txradioguy]

ADVERSITY IS SOMETIMES DEFINED AS A STATE OF HARDSHIP OR misfortune, or perhaps living in an antagonistic environment where danger is real and resources are limited. There are many levels of adversity, ranging from the mildly irritating to the life-or-death, and we constantly negotiate these adverse conditions. An individual who carries a concealed handgun must factor these additional concerns into the equation.

Before delving into the specifics of the adversity we might face, we must address some basic questions. The answers to these questions will serve as the foundation for formulating a solid plan that covers most conceivable conditions. Our plan must be flexible, simply because we can never anticipate every possible scenario that might confront us.

Flexibility and simplicity are paramount in formulating a plan that will have the highest likelihood of success. A plan can get complicated very quickly, and the more “moving parts” in our plan, the greater the chance one of those parts will fail.

It’s worth reviewing a few basic tenets as we lay out a course of action.

Choose Wisely

Foremost is why we’ve made the decision to carry concealed in the first place. If it’s “because I can,” that’s fine, but we still need to think through the practical, legal and perhaps moral implications that would no doubt arise were the firearm(s) in question ever put to use.

What to carry has so many variables that it could be a standalone topic by itself. You arrive at the bottom line by answering the question, “Does it fit the application?” There might be more to this than you realize. For instance, the caliber controversy is an undying topic. Consider whether a .380 ACP or a 2-inch snubby in .38 Special would be a good choice when packing through a wilderness area where there are big four-legged critters that view humans as just another meal.

A prudent person will select a handgun that can be used as easily with one hand as with two.
Conversely, carrying a single-action revolver with a 7.5-inch barrel chambered in .44 Magnum down to the corner store for a loaf of bread might not be the best option for the application either. If we had a crystal ball, we could prepare ahead of time for adverse conditions, but since we don’t, compromise is in order. Make your decision on likelihoods rather than a broad array of remote possibilities.

Other important decisions involve the size of the gun compared to the size of the hand that will be using it. One-handed operation is often overlooked in many training regimens, but understand that real-world gun use will likely occur in a very fluid environment as opposed to shooting on a range in a specific stance at a stationary target using two hands.

A prudent person will select a handgun that can be used as easily with one hand as with two, even training with the support hand in case the strong hand becomes injured or is otherwise occupied. Adversity can sometimes put us in unimaginable situations that test our equipment and our ability to use it.

Along with hand size goes the size and shape of the individual carrying the gun. Big people can generally carry bigger guns than people of smaller stature. That said, the shape of the person tells a lot about the specific locations that are feasible for concealed carry. Again, some basic tenets will go a long way in helping you decide where and how to carry a concealed handgun in any given situation.

https://www.usconcealedcarry.com/state-hardship-adversity-concealed-carry/

[Suppressed]

Goodvarticle.  Practicalities are often overlooked by the "gun-nut" crowd. And I'm not using that term in the good sense.

[Taxcontrol]

5 rules of a gun fight:

1) gun beats no gun
The hand cannon that you decided to leave at home because it is too heavy, prints too much etc = no gun

2) a hit beats a miss
The .22 that hits is worth a whole lot more than the ..44 mag that misses

3) fast beats slow
Talking about getting the gun into the fight.  The 3 seconds it takes to get to the gun can cost you your life

4) big holes beat small holes
Given the prior 3 rules, carry the biggest hole maker you can

5) two holes beat one hole
If it is worth shooting once, shoot twice

[Smokin Joe]

Goodvarticle.  Practicalities are often overlooked by the "gun-nut" crowd. And I'm not using that term in the good sense.

Some do, some don't. A big one is how well can you conceal it on your person and still have it available if/when you need it in time to use it if you have to. For every person, the answer is different. Once you have a size and shape you can hide on your physique, you can figure out what you can carry and go from there.

[sneakypete]

Some do, some don't. A big one is how well can you conceal it on your person and still have it available if/when you need it in time to use it if you have to. For every person, the answer is different. Once you have a size and shape you can hide on your physique, you can figure out what you can carry and go from there.

@Smokin Joe

It can be different from day to day for each individual. My "go to the big city gun" is a 44 Magnum Ruger double-action with a 6 inch barrel. I leave it on the seat while  driving in case I have to repel boarders,or shoot large holes in a car to get to the yahoo inside it.

My "go to the local town" gun is my 44 Special revolver with the 3 inch barrel. Fits nicely in my coat or pants pocket. I use a rubber tip off of a crutch for a "holster" to keep the front sight from tearing a hole in my pocket,and if push comes to shove,I can shoot right through the tip and the pocket.

I mostly carry a 9 shot 22 revolver when working out in the yard or walking back and forth to my shop. It got to where shooting snakes and possibly rabid raccoons with the 44 Special got too expensive,so I dropped back to the lightweight 22.

When I am wearing the minimum amount of clothing in hot weather,I carry a Kel-Tec 9mm. In cold weather I carry anything I want,plus my 44 Special in a coat pocket.

NOT a big believer in holsters, I AM a big believer in if I THINK I MIGHT need a gun,having  the gun IN my hand and pointed where it needs to be pointed. I don't care how fast you think you can draw from a concealment holster,I can shoot through a coat pocket quicker.

If I am out walking around in my yard at night,I normally carry a 12 gauge riot gun with magnum loads of number 4 buckshot,and a 357 magnum for backup in case I happen to bump into that damn bear that likes to take a dump by the telephone pole in my yard. I have seen him in the daytime and he's not huge,but you don't want to get into a wrestling contest with a bear. Not even a 350 or 400 lb black bear.

My M-1 Garand is my alternate weapon of choice for walking around in the yard at night. I don't have any neighbors within a mile,so I don't have to worry about harming innocents,and nobody wandering around in my yard after dark is an innocent. You don't get here by accident. Off the main road x 2.

If I were going to Newark,Detroit,or Atlanta,I would be in the market for something belt fed and 30 caliber.

No,I am NOT the most "sporting gentleman" you will ever meet. A friend of mine and myself once stopped a whole damn bar full of blacks that were screaming stuff like
"kill the honkie MoFo's,etc,etc,etc and advancing towards us because we wanted a cold beer,and by accident walked into a "black bar" in Pleiku filled with hostile black REMF's. We were obviously guilty of  not being black,and we stopped the advance by pulling out pistols and grenades and sitting them on the bar and smiling at the crowd. It's amazing how quiet a crowd of hostile blacks can get by just showing them a smile and a grenade.

 We finished our beers with no more hostility in the air,waved bye-bye to them,and left.

 I am SOOOO freaking glad I wasn't in the regular army and have to deal with that rear echelon racial shit on a daily basis. The only downside was I never expected it when around black soldiers,and it always came as a surprise.

[NavyCanDo]

To me conceal means exactly that, hidden from view. Nothing erks me more than to see some bozo wearing a tight muscle shirt and you can see imprinted on it about belt level "Made in Austria".   
Nobody knows I am carrying, and I'm not weighted down with a huge heavy uncomfortable object hanging from my belt.  I choose the smallest yet most lethal gun I am comfortable shooting, and I practice shooting frequently.    For me I rotate a  9mm Shield and a 9mm XDs. And I am well equipped to carry IWB, OWB, and even Pocket for both.    On occasion, when I have to deep-carry I will carry a .380 LCP in a Pocket.

For Home defense I have different weapons of choice, though I am still carrying the above during hours I'm awake. At my bedside is a .45 XDm, and a 9mm M&P Pro with lights, lasers and night-sights, and only a few steps away an AR-15 also well equipped for a nighttime encounter.

Am I a bit paranoid by carrying, and having a gun for every situation, like some would think?    Not at all. I enjoy the heck out of shooting, and teaching my son as my father taught me. You want to see a 15-year old kid have some fun, take him to a thrift store to buy fun stuff to put holes in, and then take him to the country. Works every time. And we parents are up against some pretty stiff competition these days.   

 

[sneakypete]

For Home defense I have different weapons of choice, though I am still carrying the above during hours I'm awake. At my bedside is a .45 XDm, and a 9mm M&P Pro with lights, lasers and night-sights, and only a few steps away an AR-15 also well equipped for a nighttime encounter.

Do NOT pick up that AR-15 to use for defense inside the home unless you are the only one in the house. Especially if it has FMJ bullets. Or any other rifle,as far as that goes. They just have too much penetration,and even if you shoot a armed intruder,the bullets can pass all the way through him and kill a family member in another room.

Think "Maximum impact and minimum penetration" Forget 00 Buckshot magnum loads. Killing an intruder is a secondary concern. Stopping him or her in their tracks before they harm you or someone in your family should be your prime focus. You shouldn't give a damn if you kill them or not,but what you HAVE to do is stop them. IF they happen to die as a result of this,tough titty for them,good for you. If they happen to survive and the police show up to rescue them,good for both of you.

I  used to load up swaged lead hollow-base wadcutter 38 Special reloads to give to women I knew when I lived in the city. I'd load them backwards,and ad modest velocities they would expand to 72 caliber. In other words,EVERY once of energy in the bullet strike would be imparted to the person getting shot,and no one that happened to be behind them was in any danger of getting hit by that bullet. These were VERY mild loads and easy to shoot and quick to recover for follow up shots.

You could easily do the same thing with 41 Magnum,44 Special,44 Magnum,or 45 Long Colt loads. Just make sure the loads stay below 1,000 fps because swaged bullets are very soft and will start to melt if loaded too hot,and this will load up the grooves in your gun barrel and cause high pressures.  I recommend less than 800 fps to be on the safe side,but higher than 600 fps.

Don't forget,swaged lead bullets loaded to around 800 FPS or less did a FINE job of killing outlaws and wild Indians back in the 1800's,and the people of today aren't any more bulletproof than were the people of the 1800's.
 

[Smokin Joe]

@Smokin Joe

I like the A-75 Astra in .45 for a town piece, and std Colt mags will fit with a tiny amount of doctoring to the notch in the mag. Double action out the gate, decocker, but not DAO.
In winter, I have a (okay give me crap) Ladysmith wheel gun in .38+P in the parka pocket, and I can buy a new parka if I need it. Light, hammerless, nothing to hang up, but the only reason to draw it is to use it, so why telegraph a punch and take a chance on being outdrawn?

When I am wearing the minimum amount of clothing in hot weather,I carry a Kel-Tec 9mm. In cold weather I carry anything I want,plus my 44 Special in a coat pocket.

I like the PF-9, had one, a relative (by marriage) stole it, but I can't prove it. He knows better than set foot on the place ever again (They divorced and he's out, now, anyway, so he has no excuse to be here). I should get another, because the Sig is just too thick with thin clothes, even though I like that P-228.  In cold weather, a coat can cover anything, but the pocket gun is the first line of defense. "Stay frosty, wait a second, I got it right here."--hand in pocket, game over.

NOT a big believer in holsters, I AM a big believer in if I THINK I MIGHT need a gun,having  the gun IN my hand and pointed where it needs to be pointed. I don't care how fast you think you can draw from a concealment holster,I can shoot through a coat pocket quicker.

Yep, but sometimes you gotta do the holster thing.

If I am out walking around in my yard at night,I normally carry a 12 gauge riot gun with magnum loads of number 4 buckshot,and a 357 magnum for backup in case I happen to bump into that damn bear that likes to take a dump by the telephone pole in my yard. I have seen him in the daytime and he's not huge,but you don't want to get into a wrestling contest with a bear. Not even a 350 or 400 lb black bear.

Still no bear here, although with moose moving back in, it is likely a question of which major predator and when, not 'If".

My M-1 Garand is my alternate weapon of choice for walking around in the yard at night. I don't have any neighbors within a mile,so I don't have to worry about harming innocents,and nobody wandering around in my yard after dark is an innocent. You don't get here by accident. Off the main road x 2.

If I were going to Newark,Detroit,or Atlanta,I would be in the market for something belt fed and 30 caliber.

I understand that sentiment. There are some places I just don't go. Newark, Detroit, Atlanta,  parts of Chicago and NOLA, East St Louis, to name a few. Nothing there I need to see, anyway.

No,I am NOT the most "sporting gentleman" you will ever meet. A friend of mine and myself once stopped a whole damn bar full of blacks that were screaming stuff like
"kill the honkie MoFo's,etc,etc,etc and advancing towards us because we wanted a cold beer,and by accident walked into a "black bar" in Pleiku filled with hostile black REMF's. We were obviously guilty of  not being black,and we stopped the advance by pulling out pistols and grenades and sitting them on the bar and smiling at the crowd. It's amazing how quiet a crowd of hostile blacks can get by just showing them a smile and a grenade.

 We finished our beers with no more hostility in the air,waved bye-bye to them,and left.

[Funny how a show of overwhelming force leads to moments of civility. I, too have seen the conversion from "MoFo" and attitude to "Yes sir, may I help you sir?", but with a lesser display of intent (It was just a nice smile and a machete).

 I am SOOOO freaking glad I wasn't in the regular army and have to deal with that rear echelon racial shit on a daily basis. The only downside was I never expected it when around black soldiers,and it always came as a surprise.

I didn't have that experience, but I could date that change by what was happening stateside. The whole "white man's war" thing was raised in concert with the hippies (communists, fellow travelers, and useful idiots) and the incited race riots (more communists, fellow travelers, and useful idiots) hijacking the Democrat party while calling themselves "The New Left". (Unfortunately, they're still around, and the Democrat Party has become the Party of communists, fellow travelers, and useful idiots. Unfortunately, they are taking over the Republican Party, too, because the (alleged) right doesn't have the spine to resist, and decries those who do.)
But you'd think guys who faced a different and bigger threat (another whole country full of SOBs who really want to kill you) would put it aside, deal with the common enemy, and not fight among themselves. But then, when the Communists started pushing that shit, it was to reduce combat effectiveness and try to cause insurrections in the ranks.

They were winning the propaganda war, and that's the one we lost in at home, not the one in SE Asia. The same MSM, the same 'news organs', even some of the same people are still at it, and all this sixties redux crap is just an extension of that 'long march'.

[Smokin Joe]

Am I a bit paranoid by carrying, and having a gun for every situation, like some would think?    Not at all. I enjoy the heck out of shooting, and teaching my son as my father taught me. You want to see a 15-year old kid have some fun, take him to a thrift store to buy fun stuff to put holes in, and then take him to the country. Works every time. And we parents are up against some pretty stiff competition these days.   

My granddaughter and I went to a gun show and there are usually guys with odds and ends for sale there, too. She bought a whole sack of golf balls from a guy who was excited and asked her where she golfed. I laughed and told him "She doesn't, but likes picking them off with my Sig the most..."

[sneakypete]

@Smokin Joe

But you'd think guys who faced a different and bigger threat (another whole country full of SOBs who really want to kill you) would put it aside, deal with the common enemy, and not fight among themselves. But then, when the Communists started pushing that shit, it was to reduce combat effectiveness and try to cause insurrections in the ranks.
 

That racial nonsense was pretty much restricted to the REMF's. Despite what the media was reporting,I never heard of a line unit that had those problems. Yeah,sometimes a butthead punk officer might get fragged,but it was because he was a fool and a danger to everyone. His race had nothing to do with it.

People in line units relied on each other to stay alive,and skin color didn't have a damn thing to do with it.

We had NONE of that nonsense in SF. If you were a out and out racist,you were in the wrong place and your team sgt would make sure you weren't there very long.

The only time I spent in a conventional unit was the first 90 days I was in VN. I got off the plane with my arm in a sling and pulled muscles in my back. Reported in to the SFOB and went to see the CSM when I was told I couldn't stay with SF because of my profile,and he promised me he would personally send a jeep and a driver over to pick me up and bring me back on the 91st day,so off I went to a conventional leg signal battalion. It's  hard to say who liked who less. MOST of my problems were with the suck ass junior E-4's running around with acting NCO stripes,wanting to act like little Napoleons,and the asshat career leg NCO's and the infantry branch NG officers hiding there to avoid combat.

I ended up being the company armorer because I knew nothing about working in a communications center,and none of them knew anything about weapons. They were still being issued M-14's,but they weren't allowed to touch them. They stayed locked up in arms racks,and I was the only one that had the keys.

Got along GREAT with the E-4 and below white guys,and even with most of the blacks. Had a brief run in one night with 1 or the 4 self-proclaimed "Black Panthers" that clung together like the pusses they were,and ranted and raved about "fight-tin de white mans war" while refusing to do anything. I mostly ignored them,but one night one of them was feeling froggy,and I ended up shoving a couple of inches of P-35 barrel down his throat,and he came to see and understand my POV. By the time I walked away I had him answering to "Boy" and "bleep". I told him and his three co-conspirators that they knew where my bunk was and they were free to come after me anytime they wanted,but I slept light and would kill every freaking one of them grave-yard dead if they ever tried to pull any crap on me. They were all as quiet as church mice the rest of the time I was there.

I was a little worried about losing the friendship of some of the regular black guys in the platoon,but a couple of them came up to me the next day and told me they considered those idiots to be bleep too,and to not worry about it.

On day 91 CSM Odom sent a E-7 over with a jeep and orders transferring me back to the 5th SFG effective immediately,and I was so happy I almost wet myself. Never been so bored in my life,and never worked anywhere else in my life with supervisors (NCO's and Officers) who were useless scum on that level. The one good thing that came out of it was it gave me a better understanding of all the "FTA" stuff and hatred the draftees and 3 years and out enlistees had for the army. If that had been all I knew about life in the army,I would have hated it,too.

[NavyCanDo]

My granddaughter and I went to a gun show and there are usually guys with odds and ends for sale there, too. She bought a whole sack of golf balls from a guy who was excited and asked her where she golfed. I laughed and told him "She doesn't, but likes picking them off with my Sig the most..."

Each Valentines Day since my son was 5 or so, my father-in-law gives him one of those hokey Hallmark stuffed animals that you push the press here button and it goes into a  dance and a song.   My son not caring for these gifts anymore saves them for plinking day, and blows the hell out of them with his 10/22, and lets me finish them off with the AR or my .45. He always has us video the destruction and stuffing and parts flying everywhere,  and he watches it over and over again.    As  long as Grandpa doesn't find out, he'll keep getting these free targets.

[sneakypete]

Each Valentines Day since my son was 5 or so, my father-in-law gives him one of those hokey Hallmark stuffed animals that you push the press here button and it goes into a  dance and a song.   My son not caring for these gifts anymore saves them for plinking day, and blows the hell out of them with his 10/22, and lets me finish them off with the AR or my .45. He always has us video the destruction and stuffing and parts flying everywhere,  and he watches it over and over again.    As  long as Grandpa doesn't find out, he'll keep getting these free targets.

@NavyCanDo


Uhhhhhhh........