Jeff Gonzales....Good advice

Jeff Gonzales - Concealed Carry Mistakes

A gun is better than no gun, but you need to properly conceal said gun for it to be truly valuable. Telegraphing your intentions, like a punch sets you up for failure.

START WITH THE RIGHT CLOTHES

One mistake I see in the concealed carry market is failing to select the proper cover garment. A cover garment is the main item of clothing you use to “cover” or conceal your blaster. It varies from person to person, but a big chunk of the mistake we see are when you try to force some combinations to work. The combination of holster/firearm/garment needs to be well thought out and practiced in advance. I just spoke with several friends of mine who carry daily in the performance of their duties. They oftentimes have to tailor or customize their cover garments. While that may be a great way to ensure their cover garment is optimized, it is not very likely for the average everyday carry practitioner. I discourage custom packages simply because you should be able to carry with anything off the shelf. You may not have the custom luxury, but if you develop a dependency you may find yourself in a real pickle when you run out of custom clothes or time to get them customized.

STOP FIDGETING

Comfort is a big part of being able to conceal well on an everyday basis. Most people really don’t carry every second of the day. That is a personal choice, but you should consider whether you could conceal from sunup to sundown. If you haven’t tried that little experiment I would encourage you to give it a shot. Start with an inert pistol and just keep it concealed from the moment you wake up until the moment your head hits the pillow. You will learn so much as it relates to comfort and the more comfortable you are, the more confident you will be about your cover garment. We all have to deal with different environmental conditions, some of us have extreme heat, while others have extreme cold. You will need to conceal in whatever your conditions and be comfortable to avoid the constant fidgeting or adjusting we often see.

BAD CHOICES

Selecting the wrong firearm is probably the biggest mistake I see people making. I reference my earlier comment about “a gun, is better than no gun”, but after a while you really have to consider whether your selection of firearms was the right one. So, how do you go about selecting the best option for concealed carry? My recommendation is not to select a firearm because it is reduced in size, thinking it will ideally make the best choice. Instead, create a list of criterion for your everyday carry requirements. Once you have done that, try your best to find the best match. Don’t hold onto the notion that just because so and so is carrying some super cool blaster you can get away with it, think whether or not it is practical for you. Probably the most important factor when considering is whether you can actually shoot the firearm well. If you cannot shoot it well in training then what makes you think you will shoot it well in the real world.

Nobody is perfect, but sometimes we just make bad choices out the gate.

- Jeff Gonzales