Concealed Carry: Appendix Inside the Waist Band, Trigger Control and Situational Awareness
Appendix Inside the Waist Band (AIWB) Carry has become more and more popular as internet personalities use and promote it. The ability to carry concealed is at an all time high, for us good guys, at least. Bad Guys have been doing this forever, and they usually carry stolen guns, which is likely one reason among many that they’re called Bad Guys. Anyway, a lot of good people are actually carrying, and that’s a good thing.
To be cliche, life is short, and we should embrace every day as favorably as we can, and pursue what we enjoy. However, there are days when perhaps, through some twisted, masochistic trait of my own generation, I force myself to watch the trials of the elite out there in Internet Land. Typically, it’s some tool bag with a clever screen name, whining about some microscopic thing that invites his fellow cretins of a similar stripe (also with clever screen names).
My job, at its base level, is to train people to overcome dilemmas when firearms usage is unavoidable, and all avenues exhausted. The pivotal time is at hand, and we must stop the miscreant(s) from harming ourselves, others, and/or the public at large.
Of course, since everyone is not inculcated in a constant bath of high stress, this is when the brain tends to “go Caveman’, and we’re reduced to very base behavior sets. Thus, watching/listening to these people could be considered homework, of a sort. So far, I’ve placated myself into this belief.
Since my state allowed its residents to carry concealed, I’ve had my permit. It’s utterly amazing how many people are at loggerheads about just HOW to carry, WHAT to carry, and so on. I have to be adult enough to recognize that not everyone carries a pistol as part of their daily routine, and then, with bated breath, wade into the nonsense.
One of the carry modes taking up a lot of space is the AIWB. If you don’t know- AIWB is an acronym for Appendix, Inside the Waist Band. Doesn’t that sound tacticool? Anyway, the dilemma of a LOT of these people is about potentially shooting ones self in the Femoral Artery, which turns into a soliloquy to rival Hamlet. They go back and forth, talking themselves into, and out of, this mode of carry. Usually, along the way, the second dilemma rears its ugly head, and that is, to carry chamber hot, or not? Following are one guys observations about things like these. This should be fun.
Let’s start with facts. Each of us is shaped differently, by degrees. Women are shaped differently than men.Each of us will have ideas that others won’t like. The trouble starts when people get a little, shall we say, AGGRESSIVE, about why their way is best, and then make a self inflicted video of themselves perhaps being rather silly about a debate they started themselves.
To carry inside the waistband is a life changing decision- let’s face it. All of your clothing has to be increased in size to accommodate a pistol hiding in the pants…somewhere. Common motions like rapidly squatting, bending, etc. can be challenged by the introduction of this foreign object we’ve decided to tuck into our dungarees.
AIWB people, at least out there in Internet Land, seem fixated on using full size duty pistols, and a few of these pistols are also sporting lights. As a holster maker, I’ve done a few of these, and cringe each time I do.
Let’s realize that not everyone is svelte enough to put a 2 pound gun into our Levi’s- it’s a question of Tactical Girth. I’ve tried it several times, and don’t like it. I prefer Strong Side Hip Carry, just like I carry my duty pistol- economy of motion. To be caught flat footed rooting deeply/semi-controllably with both hands in my pants,trying to access a firearm while keeping a dirtbag from ventilating me seems rather silly at least, and fatal, at most.
Also, look at the majority of these people going on, pouring their hearts out to Internet Land, and you’ll see that by and large, they are of a type. They’re typically blessed with good genetics, a lot of them appear to be physically fit, and it makes me wonder if they had enough attention as children in their formative years. The good news is, thanks to everyone having a palm sized computer now, they can extol the virtues of themselves whenever they want to.
These people need to understand that the clock is ticking for all of us, and that with life comes changes. After the age of 40, the old body just starts to degrade, and trying to keep things going smoothly takes a lot more work. Perhaps the AIWB mode won’t be so groovy then, who knows? If you’re over 40, and still rocking the AIWB carry, hats off to you. If you get the chance, check out the old Western photos of how people concealed revolvers back in the day.
I’ve written like 3 articles for this forum now, so I’m a Bona Fide pro. This is a silly presumption, is it not? However, just as easily, I could get on my phone and do all sorts of matriculation to post video in Internet Land saying I was indeed a pro of … whatever. In my spastic way, I’m striving for analogy of what chafes my cheeks about this whole AIWB “issue”, whether real or imagined. A lot of these Logo Lovers are toting Glocks when they decry the turbulence that is their life, and their maudlin indecision to make decisions. This greatly offends me, and here are some reasons why.
These guys treat Glocks like the Hot Psycho Girlfriend- that means- hey, this gun is The Stuff, but I’m not sure where I want to hide it, and how I want to feed it- chamber hot, or not? Alas, poor Hamlet! I DO NOT get paid by Glock, I’ve just used and maintained a few hundred of them for the better part of a quarter century.
One of our poor Hamlets was explaining to the world how he had reverted from carrying a striker fired pistol (i.e. Glock), and went back to a Double Action/Single Action trigger set up, as if anyone cared. He was carrying both pistol types AIWB, and had great concern for his Femorals, and the possibility that he could take his family bloodline out of the picture if he got Froggy Finger on the Bang Switch.
This may be a time for a teaching point, if you don’t know what a DA/SA trigger arrangement is. The idea in a nutshell is that the chamber has a round in it, and things are going wrong. You get the Roscoe out of your pants (in this particular carry choice) and come to bear on the target that has the ability to end your life, or someone elses.
That first trigger press will break the shot at say, 12 pounds. Provided you have presence of mind to ride trigger reset (a skill that takes practice, but is very doable) your follow up shots will break at say 8 pounds. Basically, the first shot takes more poundage, follow up shots, less poundage. Is everyone clear, now? Good.
The DA/SA set up has been around for decades, and you typically find it in service pistols of the military/police flavors. I can say to you that I had this arrangement for a few years in the form of the HK USP 40 caliber arrangement. I could make it work, quite effectively. I can also say to you that for the average person off the street, it’s a flaming nightmare from a teaching /learning perspective -and this is only one guys perspective.
Here is why,whether you want to admit this or not, this type of trigger set up allows you to believe (at some level) that you can have the finger on the trigger, pressing out slack, and if you don’t have to fire, you could save yourself from firing , due to heavy poundage, and, perhaps you target saw the error of his ways, and dropped his gun.This is a foolhardy thought process, at its core. I’ll also step out onto a thin, trembling limb and say this, have you ever noticed the amounts paid in lawsuits versus the dollar amounts spent on training?
Now, let’s introduce the second portion of the nightmare- we know that the brain “goes Caveman” when things start to unravel. We drop into Isosceles- not Frickin Weaver, for Petes sakes, we have blood flooding to our core, yada yada yada. If you feel that the physiological aspects of high stress are worthy of further exploration, leave editorial comments, and we could delve deeper into that. Let’s carry on with nightmare , part Deux, shall we?
Admit to yourself this fact- from a uniformed carry capacity, you don’t exactly over train (typically), and if you carry as a private person….you probably don’t train, either. Not when there are A.D.D. inducing things to do, like watching (insert sport of choice here), spending thousands of dollars on a hobby like golf (nonsense), or thousands more outwitting a crafty creature…like a fish.Or, maybe you’re too busy self-decrying your plethora of problems with your phone, and sharing it with the world out there in Internet Land.
So, you have your DA/SA trigger arrangement, you got the gist of it however long ago, and managed to shoot a qualifying score of whatever dubious demand, and you’ve now convinced yourself that you are the Pistolero of the Tri County Area. Since you’ve got that rocking 6 pack o abs,(carefully concealed by just a light coat of Tactical Girth) you’ve also got the latest/greatest kydex holsterthat is capable of making you 50% better just by sticking it in your pants.
You killed the absolute HELL out of a paper target at 15 feet two years ago (granted, it was paper, and it couldn’t move, because it was stapled down real good). You hit that 3×2 foot piece of paper nearly every time- now granted, the sights are a little bit off, because nearly all of your shots went low left (you’re an awesome Righty, after all), and you’ve got that kick ass DA/SA trigger set up that the (Insert police department/military unit here) uses, and it’s All Good.Besides, we had to get home early that day, because watching cars go around in the same circle, really fast, is utterly rapture-inducing.
If it were possible for both of my triggeer fingers to develop nausea from pecking out this type of hogwash, both would be vomiting, but this is how a LOT of people equate their abilities-part time average shooter (at best) with an over abundance of self inflected Bad Assery.Dangerous.
Back to Hamlet. He’d had a DA/SA trigger- most likely from a former profession. He got on the CCW/Poly pistol bandwagon, and rode it all the way to town. At some point, the festering thoughts of Femoral piercing, and junk shooting started to foment rebellion in his mind, and he said to himself “Self, we should go BACK to that other kind of trigger, you know, that one that absolutely prevents me hurting my little self, while releasing the hounds on these Bad Guys I’m fantasizing of. Both he and Himself were content with that, and he felt that through his epiphany, it should be shared with all who chose to read his tale of convoluted logic.
Back to reality, and Glocks. They have changed the game. If you choose to deny that, fine. I’m a trained, certified Armorer for Glocks, and feel it prudent to share a few truths.Striker fired pistols now appear in many formats by various makers, and what they do, and how they make their bits/pieces work is stunning, I’m sure, but I’m sticking to Glock, because that’s who certifies me. I’ve been an Armorer for other platforms of pistols as well, but, that’s not germane right now.We’re going to show you something through a display that you will perform.
Step 1- take your Glock, and empty it. Visually, verbally,physically verify the damned thing is empty. We need to be absolutely certain the firearm is EMPTY. If you screw this up, someone could die. Things get no simpler than that-no margin for error here.Even better yet- divest yourself of all external factors that might distract you from what is about to happen. That means get rid of the damned phone (no one wants to see you pursing your lips as you gush on about whatever you ate- no one cares. By the way, those photos are not SELFIES- they are LONELIES. If you are so out of touch that you have to take pictures of yourself, or food, reconsider carrying a firearm, at all.
Step 2- We have an empty Glock. Now, really look at the trigger- and note there’s a “tab” in the center. Do NOT touch the tab, and charge the slide- that means , pull the slide to the rear, as if you were chambering a round, which you do not have, because you have no bullets or magazines at all. We are in Learning Mode. We have an empty, charged pistol at this point, and we’ve noticed there’s a “tab” inside the trigger shell. This is our Trigger Safety. While still not touching the Trigger Safety, put both trigger fingers on either side of the Trigger Safety, and pull to the rear as hard as you can. Pull that damn thing back until you feel light headed, and the pistol is shaking in your palsied hands, and what happens?
NOTHING! this is Exhibit A- if you don’t put your booger hook on the Bang Switch until you’re ready to engage, the gun CANNOT fire. Simple. Now, if you get Froggy Fingered (a.k.a. stupid) and initiate the firing sequence, well, the 3 safeties of the Glock will work as designed, and the round will detonate. The gun is an inanimate object, and to function, it needs a stimulus.
You are exactly that- your finger is the stimulus. If the target is “your junk” when you suffer from mental flatulence, well, hopefully you can diall 911 as you leak out. By the way, you’ve got about 120 seconds. Maybe the Bad Guy won’t rob you as you fade out. (You probably don’t carry a tourniquet, anyway- that pocket is for carrying your phone, after all.) Ergo, it is logical to NOT put the finger on the trigger until you are ready to fire. Maybe someone should make that a rule, or something, and put it out there to the shooting community at large, to get everyone into the proper frame of mind…
Glocks are DAO- the BATF says so. DAO means Double Action Only, and they come from the factory with 5.5 pound triggers. This is good enough, leave it alone. Perhaps you have some other flavor of striker fired pistol, like a Springfield XD-these are considered SAO-or, Single Action Only. It’s really fun to listen to “experts” pontificate about how the XD trigger is “smoother than Glock”.
Well, since it’s a SAO, and a Glock is DAO, it damn well ought to have a smoother trigger. Geez…If you want to see if the same exercise works with your XD,try it. The caveat remains the same, make sure the gun is unloaded, chamber empty,no magazines in the area, and Rock On, Willie.
Back to our Hamlet- ah, the lamentation. I wonder if Hamlet knew any of this, or if he just drank the kool-aid from wherever he’d first came across the DA/SA flavored pistol. His “logic” was first, carry the DA/SA (likely because it was mandated), switch to poly striker (was this a band in the 80’s? Poly Striker? I might have seen them in concert) and somewhere along the line, he had his Epiphany (which he shared, remember?) and went back to DA/SA to preserve “his junk”.
Arguably, he now is carrying a more complicated pistol, and he has to remember that reset thingy to get a lighter series of follow up shots(under excruciating stress). Isn’t it great to live in America, where you can own multiple pistols, and you can fumble around and buy pretty much any trigger set up your little misinformed heart desires? Isn’t this a polite way of saying “do what you want”?
No aggression here, just thought invoking statements designed to spur you into making educated decisions, rather than the rants of a guy who perhaps is missing some pretty pivotal points.But hey, he’s skinny enough to carry his gun AIWB, so that’s awesome, just ask him-never mind, he’ll TELL you.
If you go into concealed carry, you owe it to everyone (those around you too, not just yourself) to explore the various facets of each carry type. This can get expensive, or, you can borrow stuff from peers to try in the name of science. Make your own decisions, and don’t drink the kool-aid of the person you may be borrowing gear from. They may have valuable insights, but, you are the alleged adult who has opted into this very serious endeavor, that carries enormous gravity.Each carry mode has virtues, as well as pitfalls.
Regardless of which mode you choose- there is one constant that you cannot purchase- Situational Awareness.I can say to you that I’ve carried a sidearm to protect myself and others for nearly 3 decades, and a lot of these “experts” who work themselves into a lather with their “tutorials” on the You Tube would definitely have my antennae up, if we occupied the same space and time. I’m a passionate guy, and I get the concept, but some of these people carry on vociferously, and their eyes are open a little too wide. Some of you understand what that means.
Has Situational Awareness ever really changed? Granted, the tools we use in tandem with it have indeed changed. Holsters only came in leather, once upon a time. Then, nylon was going to save the world. Some embrace change, while others claw against it. Kydex has revolutionized things, and yet there are those who resist it. Are they wrong? I can encourage you to have Awareness, but can I truly teach it? I can have you tell yourself to “watch for things”, but the damned phone will trump my words, nearly every time.
The sad truth is that the phone has become the bubble of the Grass Eater. The analogy of Sheep, Wolves, and Sheep Dogs is at an all time high, and the frickin Sheep Dogs are getting obsessed with the phones, as well. If you’re really invested in the kydex wave, get yourself a holster for your phone, and keep it there.
The flock truly needs you, as now they tend to pay their bills with the phone, and their whole little life is sunk into that collection of parts as they go about their “day” , rapt and absorbed. Who knows, maybe they’re watching a video put out by a misinformed “expert” on how to carry the pistol they’re paying no attention to.
So, what did we learn?
Lots of people are legally carrying today
Lots of these people may not have Situational Awareness
You cannot purchase Situational Awareness (even on your phone, and there’s no app for it)
Everyone is unique, and carry options vary
Tactical Girth, physical size, body shape, age, and potential physical infirmities will dictate what works for you
Your carry mode means Absolute Squat if you do not practice the necessary manipulations dry at home, and hot on a range
If you find yourself in a true gunfight, don’t over analyze shooting your Femorals, or “junk”, (if toting AIWB style)- that’s where training comes into play. If you DO over analyze, it’s okay, because maybe the Bad Guy will shoot either of those areas for you
Being passionate about a topic is fine- with proper knowledge of the topic. Attempted Coercion through hostility is NOT passion
Lots of people carry striker fired pistols, and all stripes of trigger set ups in between
If you don’t press the trigger, the gun won’t go “BANG”
Bonus Item, Number 11- Was Poly Striker really a band? Are you sure?
Featured image courtesy of NightHawk Custom
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