Handgun Conceal And Carry Options - Part 3

Handgun Conceal And Carry Options - Part 3

You have decided to purchase a handgun and carry it under the legal requirements of the state you live in. You have also decided to carry your handgun in a holster designed to be attached to the belt or your pants in the waistline area. We referred to this as waistline retention in a previous article. Overwhelmingly, this is how most civilians choose to carry a handgun, and it is the preferred method of most criminal justice professionals. But how safe is it? We are faced with a double-edged sword. Carrying a handgun or other defensive weapons using waistline retention allows for quick weapon acquisition and stronger defense – yet you remain vulnerable to these same items being removed quickly by an adversary. We need to look deeper into issues surrounding self defense shootings.

Lesson in weapon retention:

Research regarding law enforcement officers killed reveals 20-25% are killed with their own handguns by an adversary. How can this be? Many holsters are marketed as having exceptional retention capabilities. These holsters are designed to make it difficult for an adversary to take a gun away from you. However, it takes just a bit of practice with many of these retention holsters to become proficient at removing the handgun from the holster. For other items on a belt system (baton, radio, handcuffs, pepper spray,) the adversary simply needs to unsnap a latch or flip a Velcro tab and pull the item out.

Primary consideration: If 20-25% of officer deaths result in an adversary using the officer’s handgun to kill them, and most officers use waistline retention (belt systems and belt holsters) – either the carry system is less than desirable, or training in weapon retention is substandard.

Lesson in shooting:

Most self defense shootings occur at 10 feet or less. Some studies report up to 90% of civilian shootings are at 2 feet or less. If we accept most self defense shootings occur at 10 feet or less, a large frame gun, although it may be a personal preference, is not required nor will it improve accuracy from a practical standpoint.

Although not the intent of this article, please recognize that caliber and cartridge research consistently point to the cartridge being the deciding factor in “kill” or “one-shot stop” rates. In other words, it is not the caliber of the handgun that determines effectiveness at this range. It is the cartridge. Do your homework when choosing a handgun caliber and cartridge for self defense. This information is free on our website. Since some people do have preferences for large frame and caliber handguns, a good concealment method should allow for small and large frame guns.

Primary considerations: smaller frame guns are more easily concealed.
Choose a handgun your hand is comfortable with, and one you can shoot with accurately. Choose the cartridge carefully.

Additionally, if an adversary unexpectedly pulls a weapon out and threatens me from a distance of 10 feet or less, I should be thinking about using my hands for defense because I will never be able to retrieve an appropriate weapon in time to use it. This principle simply implies that the adversary’s action is always going to be quicker then my ability to process the unfolding scenario and react appropriately. There is significant research regarding this phenomenon.

Primary considerations: even if I am carrying a handgun or other weapons, will I have time to get them out and use them against an adversary? Criminals do not usually advertise from 50 yards away their intention to harm you.

Another lesson in shooting:

Lethal force situations require assessing the situation and determining what force is appropriate. The brain then interacts with the body in order to get the body to retrieve the appropriate weapon. For many, this may require fine and complex motor skills as the hands locate and un-holster the gun, then bring it to a shooting position. The traditional shooting method for many people is to bring the handgun to eye level, aligning the rear sights of the gun with the front site to the target – using their dominant eye. There is mounting evidence this traditional shooting style does not mesh well with how the brain and body react under high stress.

As a Master Firearms Instructors we train our clients as follows:

1. Locate the handgun and pull it out.

2. Point the handgun at the adversary extending the arms from the sternum area.

3. Squeeze the trigger.

Also known as instinct shooting, you will notice this technique primarily relies upon gross motor skills; pull and push movements with arms. This technique is based on physics, body mechanics and high stress principles. Our client’s accuracy is in the 90% plus range at 21 feet or less.

Primary consideration: as few steps as possible should be required to retrieve a handgun or other weapon, and gross motor skills should be utilized. Fine and complex motor skills should be eliminated. Note: we do recognize that placing the finger on the trigger and squeezing it is considered a fine motor skill, which is impossible to eliminate.

By: hipper
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