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The Secret to Concealing Any Gun…

In cool weather I often wear flannel shirts , sometimes with a vest it's a go to when I do not need a coat. Under a leather jacket or coat I wear short sleeves though. I almost never do up my coat, when I do have to close my coat a snub is in the pocket.
 
Sld1959 said:
I might add I only carry OWB these days for belt carry.
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You’re not alone…after spending a small fortune in pursuit of a suitable AIWB rig for my 6’2”, 240 lb frame with a slight to moderate bulge in the mid-section, I gave up and went back to strong side carry employing a “Simply Rugged” OWB Cuda pancake holster for my PX4 Storm Compact Carry 9mm and couldn’t be happier! Now if I can just find a Sucker (I meant Buyer) to take that $175 Tier1 Kydex AWIB rig, that’s lying dormant on my work bench, I’ll be tickled to death! You wouldn’t know anyone with potential would you 🤔?
 
dad said:
Nice article but I have no interest in wearing an article of clothing including a hat that says anything about guns. Years ago I went shooting with a friend from high school who at the time worked for the sheriffs department. He laughed at my black gym bag I was using to carry my guns. Interesting look on his face when I explained that I didnt want to draw any attention to the fact I was carrying guns whether it be from the house to the car or any place else.
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Life Hack for carrying a rifle discreetly. - Get a good guitar case(Road Runner brand, etc) and carry the rifle in the guitar case. This is good method for carrying a firearm from your vehicle to your house without drawing unnecessary attention.

I use this hack pretty often because I live in a small town and some people are nosy. A good guitar case has front pockets for magazines. Plus when I'm driving from the Rio Grande Valley up to Corpus or San Antonio and stop at the Border Patrol Checkpoint, the rifle in a guitar case in my front truck seat, does not draw any attention from the agents. I'm sure some of them know about this hack(with all the drug and human smuggling they deal with daily. I've never been asked what kind of guitar is in the case. But I make it a point of having my USMC cap on and my "gringo" appearance and truck without a camper, gets me through the checkpoint pretty easily.

I haven't worn a Hawaiian shirt in a long time. I think it may be time to order a couple for the hot Rio Grande Valley summer. I'm retired and look like a tourist, I don't draw any extra attention usually...:)
 

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I have my full-size 45 strapped in so close, it doesn't matter if I wear a plain color T-shirt. Have been everywhere with it, including places like malls which would make you leave if they saw you carrying. Never been stopped or even looked at. Granted, this position of strapped in tight isn't for everyone, but I cannot imagine wearing a shirt with guns on it to conceal carry. This article should never have made it on The Armory Life.
 
The Night Rider said:
There's another aspect to concealment that people don't really talk about. OPSEC.

There really isn't anyone outside of my family (and not even all of them) who needs to know that I'm usually armed.

When I first got my permit I made the mistake of telling a (I thought) close friend at church that I had a permit only to find out later that he told half the church because he “Felt like they should know” I also had the wonderful experience of having another friend turn to a person who wasn’t in my circle and say "Chuck's" carrying a gun right now.” in the middle of a random conversation.

I learned my lesson.

After we left that church I made a point of not letting anyone in that church know that I had a concealed handgun permit until I joined the church security team and I was required to give the team lead a copy of my Permit and attend training classes with the rest of the team.

Even then one of the team members told my extremely anti gun sister in law that I and the rest of the team were armed even though the church board had specifically asked team members not to share that information with anyone. The approved response was always "Some members of the team may be armed."

That went over like a fart in church.

I don't tell people who don't need to know I'm armed that I'm armed.
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This is the problem with church "security teams". If your church is that big, it is too big. Not only that, the church can be sued should one of the team members manage to hit someone in the congregation in a firefight. My church doesn't have a security team and they don't know I'm carrying.
 
HereNow said:
This is the problem with church "security teams". If your church is that big, it is too big. Not only that, the church can be sued should one of the team members manage to hit someone in the congregation in a firefight. My church doesn't have a security team and they don't know I'm carrying.
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Curious regarding your comments
on church security teams HereNow. Are they based on actual experience, empirical observation, or purely supposition? I was asked, by the eldership of a local church, to undertake the trainining of one such team 18 months ago principally to ensure that what you refer to as a “potential problem” never occurs. Seems pretty wise to me…
 
There are a couple assumptions you need to start with when training a church security team. First is that most volunteers do not have the skills for precision pistol shooting, and second, you must dispell the idea that just being armed with a concealed weapons license is enough.

I developed and conducted a 20-hour church security team course. The first day focused on law, tactical gun handling, clearing stoppages and reloads, carry and concealment methods, gun and equipment shakedown, and basic marksmanship with a 150 round course of fire. Failed guns and gear usually shows up here. Here I am most interested in building safe gun handling skills and confidence in the student's ability to put rounds on target quickly. Those who have skills become apparent very quickly.

Day two consists of dozens of increasingly complex scenarios on the range where the student fires 400 rounds during the course of the day. Moveable barricades are essential to continually change the environment. Here we focused on team communication, movement, use of cover, tactical gun handling, avoiding crossfire, CQB, and precision shooting. Decision making is always an element This is where poor quality guns and gear will fail. I kept spare guns and gear on hand for that reason.

I pushed students to their accuracy limits and beyond. Only a few can consistently make the precision shots and some will never attain the standard. It is unreasonable to expect all volunteers on such a team to build and maintain SWAT level gun skills. Some will have the skills, most will not. Here is a key point: Make all your students attempt the difficult shots in multiple scenarios even if you know they don't have the skills. It is vitally important that all team members know their limitations and understand the shots they SHOULD NOT attempt in the church environment.

I sent my students away with the admonition that this is just a start.
They should get to the range on a regular basis, and just as importantly run through team training scenarios inside an empty church.

Understand that a one or two day training is woefully inadequate. Ideally we would run a two week program but that is just not realistically going to happen with a volunteer group, so you do the best you can with what you got.
 
HayesGreener said:
There are a couple assumptions you need to start with when training a church security team. First is that most volunteers do not have the skills for precision pistol shooting, and second, you must dispell the idea that just being armed with a concealed weapons license is enough.

I developed and conducted a 20-hour church security team course. The first day focused on law, tactical gun handling, clearing stoppages and reloads, carry and concealment methods, gun and equipment shakedown, and basic marksmanship with a 150 round course of fire. Failed guns and gear usually shows up here. Here I am most interested in building safe gun handling skills and confidence in the student's ability to put rounds on target quickly. Those who have skills become apparent very quickly.

Day two consists of dozens of increasingly complex scenarios on the range where the student fires 400 rounds during the course of the day. Moveable barricades are essential to continually change the environment. Here we focused on team communication, movement, use of cover, tactical gun handling, avoiding crossfire, CQB, and precision shooting. Decision making is always an element This is where poor quality guns and gear will fail. I kept spare guns and gear on hand for that reason.

I pushed students to their accuracy limits and beyond. Only a few can consistently make the precision shots and some will never attain the standard. It is unreasonable to expect all volunteers on such a team to build and maintain SWAT level gun skills. Some will have the skills, most will not. Here is a key point: Make all your students attempt the difficult shots in multiple scenarios even if you know they don't have the skills. It is vitally important that all team members know their limitations and understand the shots they SHOULD NOT attempt in the church environment.

I sent my students away with the admonition that this is just a start.
They should get to the range on a regular basis, and just as importantly run through team training scenarios inside an empty church.

Understand that a one or two day training is woefully inadequate. Ideally we would run a two week program but that is just not realistically going to happen with a volunteer group, so you do the best you can with what you got.
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I tip my hat to your experience in this area, and would relish the opportunity to know more about the structure of your class…it sounds intriguing and beneficial. I don’t want to reinvent the wheel in working the team I currently instruct. Oddly enough, I am employing the same approach that you aparrently have already implemented. I’d like the opportunity to carry this conversation further offline if you’re amenable.
 
In the IT world, the first rule of cybersecurity is "Don't talk about your cybersecurity". I think ccw is the same.

I often wear untucked shirts and larger t's in summer to help conceal, but I'd like to mention the one thing that's helped me over the years and that's being comfortable with yourself. If you can ignore it then others will too. If you're worried about it you will give yourself away constantly with your mannerisms. Looking like a bandit or thug, wearing a hoodie in July, standing and walking weird, safety checking your holster or shirt etc. are all telltales that get my attention in a store are odd behavior that will cause me to keep an eye on the person.
I found some really comfy wrangler pants with a larger phone pocket in the right front where the watch pocket would be and started putting my lcp in there using only a pinned frame clip to hold it up. It's been so comfortable I often forget it's there. I have several pair now and wear them to work. They look just like business pants when I wear my tech/consulting jacket with the low front tool pockets. It's also worked well on a great many long hikes.
I've actually had to run back to my car on occasion where I wasn't supposed to carry because I forgot I had it until I saw the signs, I.e the old courthouse for jury duty and at the health clinic where I weighed more than I should.
 
The Night Rider said:
I've seen this discussion on every gun forum on the internet multiple times. There is a similar discussion on Glocktalk that's been active for 12 years. Clearly, this is something that interests us as concealed carriers.

I've formed my own ideas. I  love Hawaiian shirts. I don't wear them because they're not common here and they draw attention. I try to avoid things that cause people to take a second look at me.

I avoid the overtly "Tactical" brands, especially 5.11. I've said this before but two security companies have issued me 5.11s as uniforms. CSPD wears them and the El Paso County Sheriff's detective unit wears them. There's a line in the discussion on Glocktalk that I think is really true.

"Cops and criminals notice people that dress like cops."

A criminal might not be able to tell you those are "5.11 Stryke pants." but I bet they can tell you that cops wear those.

Every time people start talking about the Tactical clothes or the 5.11s somebody says nobody notices it and every time I hear that I point out that some people do notice it and usually the people that do notice it are the very people that you do not want to draw the attention of.

I also try not to make any major style changes in my wardrobe. If you start carrying a concealed handgun and you all of a sudden change your whole wardrobe someone is going to notice and they're going to want to know why.View attachment 35865

I try to blend into the crowd around me. I live in Colorado Springs and around here a lot of people dress like they do most of their shopping at REI

I went to church a few weeks back.wearing my old Vasque hiking boots, tan Wrangler cargo pants and an olive green Columbia hiking shirt.

I got out of my car and ran right into a guy who was wearing Salomon trail runners, tan cargo pants and the same color Columbia hiking shirt. His was short sleeved though.

Most of the time I look like a bean in a pile of beans.
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I'm as untactical as one can be, but I love the 5.11 stryke pants! The size is perfect for me to conceal IWB. On everything else, I'm with you - no stickers on the cars, no gun-related apparel (certainly not a freaking Hawaiian shirt with guns on it!), etc. My dress has totally changed since I began carrying but I'm always looking for new ways to be the gray man and not call attention to myself.
 
HayesGreener said:
There are a couple assumptions you need to start with when training a church security team. First is that most volunteers do not have the skills for precision pistol shooting, and second, you must dispell the idea that just being armed with a concealed weapons license is enough.

I developed and conducted a 20-hour church security team course. The first day focused on law, tactical gun handling, clearing stoppages and reloads, carry and concealment methods, gun and equipment shakedown, and basic marksmanship with a 150 round course of fire. Failed guns and gear usually shows up here. Here I am most interested in building safe gun handling skills and confidence in the student's ability to put rounds on target quickly. Those who have skills become apparent very quickly.

Day two consists of dozens of increasingly complex scenarios on the range where the student fires 400 rounds during the course of the day. Moveable barricades are essential to continually change the environment. Here we focused on team communication, movement, use of cover, tactical gun handling, avoiding crossfire, CQB, and precision shooting. Decision making is always an element This is where poor quality guns and gear will fail. I kept spare guns and gear on hand for that reason.

I pushed students to their accuracy limits and beyond. Only a few can consistently make the precision shots and some will never attain the standard. It is unreasonable to expect all volunteers on such a team to build and maintain SWAT level gun skills. Some will have the skills, most will not. Here is a key point: Make all your students attempt the difficult shots in multiple scenarios even if you know they don't have the skills. It is vitally important that all team members know their limitations and understand the shots they SHOULD NOT attempt in the church environment.

I sent my students away with the admonition that this is just a start.
They should get to the range on a regular basis, and just as importantly run through team training scenarios inside an empty church.

Understand that a one or two day training is woefully inadequate. Ideally we would run a two week program but that is just not realistically going to happen with a volunteer group, so you do the best you can with what you got.
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This is the content I'm here for!
 
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