How "concealed" are you in your personal life?

When I open carry it's pretty obvious to anyone who isn't totally oblivious to life around them. When I pocket carry those who are more observant than the average person may notice the outline of the grip through my pocket, but most will not know or care. When I carry IWB under an untucked shirt no one knows but me and my family.

Most people I'm close to know that I'm carrying. Strangers may or may not notice even when open carrying. No one (stranger) has ever made a comment to me about being armed. An acquaintance did ask me where I bought my holster a few days ago while open carrying. He said he just got his license and wanted a good holster for his M&P.
 
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colt_saa said:
Here is Florida almost 10% of the residents have Concealed Carry Permits, so it is a very friendly environment. In States like Illinois, California or New Jersey I would bet that the opposite is true, and let's not even think of New York city
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Illinois is actually very gun friendly. It's the Chicago democrats who run the state who are not. They are elected by the dense population of liberals in the collar counties around Chicago.
I cannot think of one business in my town that bans carry.

Thanks for the replies.
 
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Can’t open carry here in Florida, not that I ever would even if it was legal. Always conceal carry and never flaunt it. Never wear any pro-gun t-shirts or have any decals on any vehicles. Never get into any gun discussions with people I don’t know. Only my wife and kids are aware of it. My wife and I don’t discuss gun issues with co-workers. Even my kids know not to talk about guns with their friends. I like to keep a low profile and stay under the radar. The only place I talk freely is here on the S&W forum.
 
max503 said:
Illinois is actually very gun friendly. It's the Chicago democrats who run the state who are not. They are elected by the dense population of liberals in the collar counties around Chicago.
I cannot think of one business in my town that bans carry.

Thanks for the replies.
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In my very young days (high school), we moved from Chicago and it's suburbs to Florida

Choosing Florida as the relocation point had much to do about Firearms and Freedoms

Back then it was almost impossible to get a carry permit unless you had political connections.

All firearms in the City of Chicago (and a few suburbs) had to be registered, you could not buy a box of ammunition in Illinois without having a Firearms Owners Identification Card (FOIC), and the State was TOTALLY unfriendly to all NFA Title II items except Short Barreled Rifles with the requirement that they be "Curios or Relics".

Machine Guns, suppressors, short barreled shotguns and I think many AOWs were big no-nos in Illinois.

I admitte that I have not followed the laws there since moving away, so if they have become more relaxed I am not aware of it

I am happy to be in a State that imposes no restrictions on it's citizens beyond what is in Federal Law
 
There's still no NFA stuff in Illinois but CC is reasonably easy because a judge forced it down the politicians throats. The biggest pain is the 16 hours of training initially.

Chicago pulled some BS with requiring anyone with a liquor license to post "no CC" signs in order to keep their license. So that even encompasses hotels. But like I said earlier, anywhere I am is no longer a "gun free zone". It may sound cavalier, but if you don't post armed guards for my safety, you have no right to restrict my ability to protect myself.
 
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I have one good friend I have know all my life and worked with side by side building homes for years , hunted and fished with for all of my at the time 25 years of Concealed carry and one day he ask me if I ever thought about getting a Concealed Carry License and I said sure have and raised my shirt . Blew him away as at that time I carry a tp40 kahr and I told him how long I had carried .

Even tough he has been a hunter going back 45 years he never owned handguns so I taught him to shoot a handgun went over safety and holster carry and loaned him a handgun to use in his CCL course and now he has a 44mag revolver to hunt with too . Then helped our electrician we use so he could get his CCL . Well in NC its called a CHL Concealed Handgun License but ccl easier .
 
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I think telling anyone other than closest friends and family that I carry defeats the purpose of concealed carry.
I never had someone come up and ask if I was carrying. Only once did I notice a guy checking out my front jeans pocket where I had a gun. He didn't say anything to me but I noticed he noticed the outline form of my gun.
One time at the Post Office I was wearing an owb holster but without a gun in it. My shirt was not covering the holster. Some guy in line asked if that was a gun holster. I said yes but it is illegal to have a gun on PO property so that was why I had no gun. The PO cashier nodded her head when I said it was illegal to have a gun on PO property. I will not do 10 years in jail for carrying a gun on PO property.
 
I wonder how people use OWB and some IWB and still remain concealed when lounging around, at home or other places. Those methods wouldn't work for me. That's why I pocket carry. Everything is a compromise.

There's a number of people I work with who belong to the same club as me. One of them held up a gun rag in the lunch room and hollered across the room, asking if I wanted to read it.:mad:
There have been rather large concealed-carry bull sessions in our lunch room. I avoid those. Many women at my work either have CC permits or show interest.

The other day this middle-aged woman told everyone in the room that if she ever shoots anyone she is going to empty the magazine on them. She said her CC instructor told her to.
The reasoning is it would be evidence that she was totally scared and freaked out. Supposedly, if someone has the presence of mind to shoot once or twice, they aren't really terrified of being hurt or killed. Emptying her gun would be evidence that she was totally freaked. She said her instructor was a cop from the Rodney King riots.
 
Like many here - anyone that knows me knows if my pants are on, then some sort of hardware is present.
There's a lot of OC here, which I don't participate in. And the general public is mostly blind with regards to awareness of someone carrying concealed at all.
Mostly a non-issue and not a topic at all.
 
The instructors also stated that identifying himself to the armed assailant before having the gun fully drawn was a deadly mistake
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That should be intuitively obvious.

Back on the subject, aside from my family, I never disclose that I'm carrying. We also never discuss what we own etc.in public, or with friends. The kids are particularly good in that regard.
Familial Eastern European paranoia in action. ;)
 
Off topic history lesson

Gundalow said:
This may be a little off target regarding the thread, but a large number of members likely carry concealed and also carry a badge presented after retirement, or their current badge if still active. You may also have occasion to visit a bar. Thus, below may be of interest to you.

Back in the 70’s, Firearm’s instructors at NYPD’s Rodman’s Neck range included the below during one of their classroom instructions:

If you are in a bar after your tour of duty, in plain clothes, and the bar gets held up, identify available cover. If the thieves decide to also rob the patrons, and start searching each for wallets, it is recommended that you consider making a move for the cover when the thieves are distracted, and draw your service revolver to engage the thieves. This advice was based on a statistic that has stuck in my mind since that class. Statistics complied by NYPD disclosed that if the thieves found your shield while searching the patrons, you had an 86% chance of being executed on the spot, because in the mind of the thieves, you are the biggest threat to identify them after the armed robbery.

The instructors also relayed an incident in which an off duty officer having a drink was killed during a bar robbery. The thief had his gun drawn; the officer decided to intervene and identified himself as a police officer while withdrawing his service revolver. The thief turned quickly and shot the officer in the shoulder, knocking him off the bar stool before the officer could fully raise his revolver. The thief then went over and executed the officer. The instructors advised it would have been best for the officer to have done nothing, unless the officer had no choice, in which case his first move should have been for cover, if available. The instructors also stated that identifying himself to the armed assailant before having the gun fully drawn was a deadly mistake.
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Although only a young teenager at the time I remember reading a news story published here about 1978/79.

In the early 1970's the SCOTUS ruled the death penalty unconstitutional. Immediately the homicide rate of victims in and witnesses to violent crimes went up. The criminals' were thinking apparently along the lines of "If I get caught I will go to prison for a long time. If I kill this person I probably will not get caught. Even if I do get caught they will not execute me, I'll just stay in prison for a long time. Therefore I have noting to loose and all to gain by killing this person.

In the mid '70's the SCOTUS reversed it's ruling and reinstituted the death penalty. Violent crime homicides immediately went back down to previous levels.

Given the timing of the above post I would suggest that the incident described occurred during this period of time.
 
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Muss Muggins said:
Well, the people are gun friendly, especially downstate, south of Springfield. Some of the best goose hunting in the country across the Mississippi from me. The laws however, while improving, are not . . .
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The best goose hunting in my area is by the parks all year long. Just wait for them to cross the road and slam!:)
 
When I get dressed there's a holster on my belt. When I leave the house there's a gun in it.

I don't carry around the house. In fact, I only have one gun downstairs, but it's pretty handy.

My wife, my mom, and my sister all know that I carry. Only a couple of close friends after that.

I suspect that most everyone I know would be completely surprised to find out that I have a gun whenever I'm out and about.
 
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