A gun is better than no gun, but you need to avoid making some concealed carry mistakes to be effective. Telegraphing your intentions, like a telegraphing a punch sets you up for failure.
Start with the right clothes
One mistake I see from those new to concealed carry 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 to everyday carry and avoiding common pitfalls. 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
Of all the concealed carry mistakes, selecting the wrong firearm is probably the biggest. I reference my earlier comment about “a gun, is better than no gun”, but consider whether the firearm selection was the right one. The best method for selecting a firearm for concealed carry is to think of it from a longevity perspective. My recommendation is not to solely select a firearm because it’s small, thinking it will ideally make the best choice. Instead, create a list of criterion for everyday carry requirements. Then try to find the best match based off the criterion. Don’t hold onto the notion that just because so and so is carrying some super cool blaster it is the best choice. Think whether or not it is practical keeping longevity in mind. An important factor to consider is shooting performance with the firearm. No firearm is a perfect match. Putting a significant number of rounds downrange to create familiarity is the best way of knowing if the firearm is an ideal carry gun. It is also the best way to build confidence; which will go a long way towards comfort. The more comfortable the firearm feels, the more likely it is to be carried; which is the ultimate goal.
Nobody is perfect, but sometimes we just make bad choices out the gate.
