Mr. Harrychristopher....one of the most eloquent and well thought out series of posts I have read in a long time...do you happen to live in the People Republic of Taxsachusetts?
As to pocket carry...I was just wondering if you have practiced at all drawing the gun while seated seat belted in a car or in the booth at a restaurant...
Thanks again for all your thoughts and observations...
Bob
Due to family obligations I am in fact at present located in that state whose support of lawfully armed citizens is sung about by one and all around campfires far and wide.
I understand the direction of your inquiry pursuant to pocket carry and how the issue of accessibility can be hampered by this method of concealed carry. I have tried several decent OWB holsters but find that I just do not enjoy having the gun riding on my belt.
As in most endeavors in life there is no free lunch as they say. I give up a certain degree of firearm presentation flexibility relative to the draw from a seated position in a public domain while employing the pocket holster. But at the same time I also gain what I believe could be a rather vital positive element in a potentially frightening interpersonal interaction the merits of which may lead me to believe that I am facing an actual articulatable threat of death or grievous bodily harm.
A professional LEO's job requires "riding to the sound of gunfire" as part of the implementation and execution of their positional responsibilities. As such their training focuses on the threat of possible violence as an expected part of the dispatched call. A regular citizen will not necessarily have any forewarning that a potential life and death encounter has suddenly enveloped them because they have not been trained to consider that possibility as part and parcel of being out and about in public.
The criminal's intent is to surprise their victim so they can gain immediate control of the situation to their advantage. A normal individual facing this sort of threat is at a decided disadvantage because they now have to react to the criminal's action. In this sort of interaction the person who initiates it has the distinct advantage over the person who has to react to it.
A IWB or OWB requires 2 hands to access the concealed firearm, one to remove the concealing cover and the the strong hand to present the gun. The ability of the potential victim to think and function with any degree of physical or mental acuity will be severely degraded by the stress that this sort of situation has now overcome them.
Their stomach feels like it has dropped to their feet, their mind is racing at nano speed trying desperately to accept the jeopardy that they now find themselves in and work out a successful response that will keep them alive and out of jail and bankruptcy court, their vision will be the purest form of tunnel vision that they have ever experienced and their hearing will be so focused on the threat that a tractor trailer could drive right up next to them and they would not even notice it. All in all it will be, if they survive it, one of their life's more memorable moments.
The reported severe degradation of fine motor skills may impede their ability to quickly uncover the gun and draw it with any realistic hope of trying to catch up to the force continuum that has been set in motion by the attacker. Since they have to use 2 hands for the draw from a belt holster that is not worn openly they now have limited ability to ward off the attacker with their non-dominate hand since it will be engaged trying to clear the covering from the holster.
So after finding oneself in this nightmarish scenario what possible edge can a lawful concealed carry individual possibility have to work with? How about we use the non-dominate hand to attempt to ward off the threat as a means to try and gain whatever tactical distance between ourselves and the threat as we can. And how about we have the firearm firmly in our grasp BEFORE the threat has even materialized which is how we come to have that spare arm to fight off the attacker with in the first place.
We now find ourselves able to employ the same element of surprise as the threat has employed against us initially because they did not know we were armed in the first place and actually paying attention to what was going on around us. One can stand around in public with their hand nonchalantly parked in their front pocket and nobody is going to raise their eyebrows and say what is that person doing with his hand in his pocket? This act looks normal and nonthreatening even when one is surrounded and inundated by a plague of snowflakes of biblical proportion. This hand in the pocket is firmly grasping the grip of the gun and ready to present it without further delay compared to unholstering from a belt mounted holster. It is a surprise to the threat because it is unexpected since they expect to see the classic belt holster draw routine. This surprise might just possibly be of real use in trying to save a life in this sort of encounter....ours.
Sitting in a vehicle or public booth of some sort is going to slow the presentation but I believe that even in this situation the pocket holster is still a viable option should one choose to avail themselves of it. It is not perfect by any subjective standard but drawing from the pocket still strikes me as a bit less convoluted than having to lean into position so that I could uncover the gun with one hand and draw it with the other.
Hopefully, at the end of the day, thinking about such events will turn out to have been an academic exercise and we will be able to practice sufficient situational awareness and avoidance so we never have to go thru the soul corroding experience of fighting to stay alive. One expects that sort of stress in an active war zone but i was under the impression that we had not reached that state of being just quite yet.
Harry
