7/9/13

More Than Meets The Eye Most people immediately think of a purse when it comes to off-body carry for women, but that is not the only option, and it might not even be the best option. There are a number of choices when it comes to carrying a gun and all kinds of reasons for them. But one size does not fit all here. Even if the concept of “size” is more figurative than literal, and the gun is being carried off-the-body.

If your activity and/or mode of dress make it impractical to wear the gun on the body, various purses, pouches, packs, bags, calendars, briefcases and more can offer a very viable means of carrying a firearm in a discrete and undetectable manner. However, regardless of what “device” you choose or what style it might follow, there are a number of serious concerns about each that need to be addressed.

If designed and utilized correctly, no one should ever even know that you have a gun in any of these carriers. But the dilemma is that the more they look and perform like what they are supposed to be (containers for the sometimes valuable and important items we carry with us every day), the more that they can become the motivation for the deadly force event that requires the use of the weapon they hold. And that’s because they are subject to theft.

Suddenly, the means of concealing your firearm can become one of the reasons you might need it. I am certainly not saying that by carrying the gun you are purposely or unintentionally causing such an event. I am merely saying that if you are attacked and the specifically designed purse, bag, or briefcase you are using to carry your firearm becomes involved, there is not only the chance that you might lose your gun instead of being able to use it but in struggling to maintain possession, the act of drawing it at all can be greatly impeded.

If you choose (or have no choice but to use) a purse, bag, or briefcase to carry a handgun with you, you not only need to be aware that someone can now attack you for that carrier (without even knowing that there’s a gun inside) but you must also plan and practice for what to do if that happens.

Additionally, you need to look at the carrier itself and decide if its appearance might work against you.

For example, is your purse too upscale for where you’re going or how you’re dressed? Conversely, does it look too much like a gun bag than something that someone would normally take to work, or perhaps along to dinner or out shopping? Does that urban backpack look like something you’d wear while walking, cycling or riding the bus? Or do you look instead like you’re on a Military Op, rather than on a trip downtown? Does your briefcase look far too expensive for the job or way too tactical for a civilian? There is a reason that most enforcement agencies call this “concealed” and not “broadcast it to the world” carry and you must remember that.

However, there is a difference between keeping a low profile and not attracting attention, while still not appearing too demure, weak or victim-like. Obviously swaggering with something more intended for police work than a trip to the market is definitely the wrong approach, but so is being so low key that you’ll get singled out as a target.

What You See Isn’t Always What You “Got” Nowhere else does the overworked term “Hidden In Plain Sight” apply more in this business than it does to the area of “Off-Body” carry methods and equipment. As legal, civilian concealed carry has become more common throughout the United States, the job of obscuring a gun from view, while still making it not only readily accessible but also readily producible, has become more difficult. Fortunately, a number of manufacturers have been up to the task.

If the gun cannot be fastened to the torso, belt, leg or ankle, and if it cannot be tucked into your waistband or slipped into a pocket, toting it along in some sort of “outboard” device often becomes necessary. While movies and television often feature inventive and unusual ways of doing this, we need to separate fact from fiction when carrying a gun in real life.

For decades, fanny packs were the choice for both men and women carrying guns, while dressed casually and without the aid of covering garments. In my opinion, however, most of them should have been abandoned at least 15 years ago, but they are still around. For gun savvy people (and I would hope, all law enforcement officials), such bags scream “GUN IN HERE” as glaringly as those “Baby on Board” signs once did in our vehicles. They have also become dated in regard to certain age groups and activities.

However, they could have some applications for older people with whom such carriers like this one from Uncle Mike’s might not seem out of place, or in certain activities (biking, motorcycling, jogging, etc.) where this one from DeSantis could work. They also could help during vacations and weekend excursions where often a shoulder bag or backpack is too big, but where a waistpack from a firm like Tuff Products might fit right in as one drives, walks, sits and stands, while regularly adjusting their clothing to match repeated changes in the weather, one’s environment and moving back and forth from indoors to outside.

If that is the case and a fanny pack works for you, try to find one that is not only still in vogue (the 90’s are over) but that looks as little like a gun carrier as possible. While I would still suggest using one that is designed to carry a gun (i.e. one that employs a special compartment or an internal holster), I would also look at colors that don’t look paramilitary for you do not want to look “tactical” here. And maybe even go so far as to decorate the bag with a commercial label or two “borrowed” from something else that’s completely unrelated to firearms.

Finally, my recommendation that any fanny pack you choose should have a dedicated compartment or an internal holster actually applies to everything in this category. Merely tossing a firearm into a bag of any kind is a mistake. Other loose items can work their way into the bore of any firearm and they can also get into the individual chambers of a revolver cylinder. With pistols, bigger objects and sometimes the linings and interior walls of non-gun-carrying packs, purses and briefcases can move safety levers out of position and depress buttons; unintentionally releasing magazines. Carried loosely, any gun can move out of position (or become blocked by other things) so that a proper grip cannot be made as part of the drawing process. And carried with other things, the trigger of any firearm can be left exposed to inadvertent contact with them.