Concealed Carry Corner: Biggest Carry Mistakes – Part 2

Welcome back to another edition of Concealed Carry Corner. Last week, we talked about some of the biggest carry mistakes I see new concealed carriers make. This week, I wanted to do a follow-up part 2 of last week’s article, adding in a few other trends I see regularly. A few of you have great points in the comment section last week so I took those into consideration as well. Let’s take a closer look at more of the biggest carry mistakes people make when they start out.

Concealed Carry Corner @ TFB:

• Concealed Carry Corner: Biggest Carry Mistakes
• Concealed Carry Corner: The Mythical Do-All Carry Pistol
• Concealed Carry Corner: The Importance Of Magazines
• Concealed Carry Corner: What And What Not To Carry

When people first start carrying out, they want to make absolutely sure they are carrying their weapons safely. Part of this thinking is being insistent on carrying a handgun with a manual safety. Certain firearms like the 1911 platform have a manual safety because it’s single action only which isn’t carry safe without some sort of manual safety. Other firearms however like the Smith & Wesson Shield and SIG Sauer P365 are available with manual safeties. Glocks have a number of internal safeties but no external safety on the outside of the firearm.

Part of the problem is remembering to switch the safety off in a self-defense situation. Your levels spike and sometimes your mind goes into survival mode which means you will pull your firearm and try to pull the trigger but won’t understand why it’s not firing. Most individuals under any type of stress will try to pull the trigger multiple times before realizing they need to turn their safety off. This is typically a training issue that can be resolved but even with the proper training, some people can still forget to switch the safety off if they’re really in a life-or-death situation. The easiest thing is to just be comfortable with the firearm on your body and have faith the gun won’t go off if it’s in a proper holster.

After about 20 minutes, I started to become more confident with my pistol being loaded, but at first, it took time. People who just start carrying a gun will say they feel more comfortable with their gun having an empty chamber. If they happen to need the gun in a self-defense situation, they will simply draw the pistol, rack a round in, and then pull the trigger. Sounds great in theory, but again, just like the manual safety, people will oftentimes just pull the gun and hear an audible click when they pull the trigger not understanding what happened to the gun.

There’s too much to remember when you’re fearful for your life. The fewer steps you have to take to get the weapon to fire, the better chance you have of defending yourself successfully. If you can’t seem to get around the feeling your gun may go off while loaded on your body, I suggest carrying it around your house loaded to become more comfortable. Once that anxiety of the gun going off fades and you become more comfortable, it will be much easier to carry a loaded firearm in public.

Every time I see that grip method at the range, I cringe and try to help the person as fast as possible. Depending on what grip you choose, it can be anything from less than ideal to straight-up dangerous. Taking the extra time at the range to work on your grip not only keeps you shooting safely but also makes you more accurate with practice. Grip isn’t as serious as the other two topics above, but if you want to be proficient with shooting, it’s something you have to practice and do correctly if you want to progress as a shooter.

For the new people reading this, there’s so much to learn and it’s not as simple as just throwing a gun on your belt and heading out the door. There’s a natural progression with acclimating yourself to carrying a loaded firearm. You have to be comfortable with a loaded pistol on your person without having to worry about it going off on your body. There’s no shame in taking time to be comfortable with a loaded firearm but you shouldn’t carry an empty gun or engage the manual safety on your gun.

What do you guys think about carrying with an external safety or carrying without a round in the chamber? There are mixed feelings about them so I would love to hear your thoughts on these ideas. Be sure to leave your thoughts down in the comments below. If you have questions about carrying concealed or firearms in general, feel free to shoot me a message on Instagram @fridgeoperator. Stay safe out there and we will see you in the next edition of Concealed Carry Corner.