Any women with concealed carry permits?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Himself dragged me to a class yesterday, and you are not going to believe this - he changed jackets at the last minute and left his wallet in the other jacket, with his driver’s license, so he couldn’t take the damned class! I didn’t even want to carry concealed! (I did want to take the class because I wanted to feel more confident about my gun education, as I do keep them in the house.) And then the guy was such a douchebag (I hope he isn’t a Doper, as I know he’d know who I was) and I was so pissed about it, that I flunked the shooting test by two shots. Made 100% on both of the tests, but I have to redo the shooting test. God, how embarrassing. So now I can get a Florida non-resident permit and carry just about anywhere else on the Eastern seaboard except for here, if you can believe it. I’m sure I’ll get it the next time. Anyway. Humiliating.

If I DID want to carry concealed, how do other women do it? I mean, I don’t own a belt (neither did any of the other women in my class - I borrowed one from my boyfriend, somebody borrowed one from her dad, one had to go to Target to buy one, etc) and I certainly don’t wear a belt every day, or a jacket. I absolutely refuse to wear a fanny pack. The special purses seem really unsafe - the number one situation I can imagine needing to shoot somebody outside of my house involves, you know, somebody trying to steal my purse. Not to mention that I can’t even get my cell phone out of my purse when it rings, let along get a gun out and shoot somebody with it.

So is there a sane way for a normal woman to carry concealed safely?

And please, no comments about what an evil gun nut I am. I just sat through eleven hours of a class where, when we got to the “are you a member of any group trying to overthrow the government” question on the application, the instructor laughed and said, “Anybody a Democrat?” and I just do not have patience for you today. I raised my hand and got a nasty look from my seatmate, I tell you what. To rub it in, I told her we did a good job on the overthrowing front. :slight_smile:

2

Know a lady park ranger who keeps her backup gun in a under the boob rig.

My wife uses a fanny pack mostly or jacket pocket or pants pocket.

Her weapon is really small.

I use a trailer for mine… :smiley:

3

How does she get at her, er, under the boob rig?

4

ELEVEN HOURS? sheesh.

I would really feel like shooting him after that long.

Not being sane or normal, I may be of little help.

I DO have a black leather fanny pack as my primary purse. We ride motorcycles, and it’s just the best way to carry everything with me. It is ON me when I am walking around a store, or in questionable areas, or within 50 miles of crazy Exes…
I would like to have a elastic belt that wasn’t a hassle to get in and out of, and that had a minimal profile. Pockets come in handy. I have a clip holster, but my bones poke out in the wrong places for it to be comfortable.

Each person is built differently, and has wardrobe picks.

I keep mine where I do, when I do, because I want to always, ALWAYS have it in the back of my mind, that I am carrying. For my safety, and for others. It’s a terrific responsibility, and shouldn’t be taken lightly.

5

My google fu isn’t bringing up what she described. I think it was like a half t-shirt with elastic and velcro, but I didn’t get that close. She can unbutton 2 buttons (or rip them) and have that gun out before you could blink.

I would like a lighter version, just a belt of velcro and elastic with a pocket over my ribs.

6

Well, there was a soupcon of drama - was the button over his gut going to give way or not? That’s what kept me going for the FREEZING COLD eleven hours - imagining that button thread slowly unravelling. Particularly after I flunked the test halfway through the day! Especially since it got a lot colder after I admitted to voting Democrat.

I give the guy credit - while it got a little political earlier, it was in a context that I considered quite acceptable in a CWP class. And it wasn’t him who gave me the dirty looks.

If it’s significant, I have a .357 Smith and Wesson, but if I were in fact to carry I’d consider getting a smaller, lighter gun (which my dad wanted to buy for me but the gun store people correctly convinced him I’d never practice with because it’s so uncomfortable.) I’m not really willing to go semiautomatic, though, because I’m afraid of getting my thumb broken and I like the mechanical simplicity of revolvers. Although it seems I might actually need more than five shots, since I flunked the damned test. My dad was humiliated too.

7

So, if what I’m envisioning is accurate, you’d have to be wearing a shirt with buttons or be able to pull your shirt up fast?

8

When I first started carrying, I had to completely change how I dressed. My job required that my weapon be concealed, in a holster and my only holster choices for my primary weapon, were an outside the belt , inside the pants, or shoulder. I learned to start wearing belts, and instead of a jacket, I usually wore a t-shirt or tank with an unbuttoned shirt over it. I did once buy a holster which was basically a wide belt of elastic and velcro with a pocket. I found it to be very uncomfortable. Depending on your body shape, different holsters are going to be more or less comfortable and concealable. I know a woman who is very thin and who carries the same weapon, in the same holster that I do. She does a much better job of concealing hers- I suspect it’s because she’s straighter from her waist through her hips than I am.

9

I don’t think I’ve seen a park ranger uniform that wasn’t button down.
Are park rangers wearing bulletproof vests now?

Because it sounds like she’s got a B.U.G. patch on her vest–unfortunately, my google fu is weak and I can’t find a sales page with descriptions or varieties, but basically, it’s just a pocket sewn on to your bullet proof vest that holds your backup gun in case some clever dick gets your weapon off you (or your fancy department issue semiautomatic jams).

But not really useful for a private citizen, although now that I think on it, there’s no reason to not make a version that goes over the shoulders, strapping around the chest and holds the gun underneath the shelf of boobage, like a secondary bra for a deadly udder. Except for the possible chafing issue. And accessibility would be a minor problem as you’d need to be able to get your hand up and into your shirt pretty quick.

I haven’t taken the class yet, so I don’t really know, but I want to have a CCW just in case. On the offchance. So I’m already looking at long odds of ever needing it, right? And then I think, well, what are the odds it’s going to be a quickdraw situation? Even in an easily accessed shoulder or hip holster, if I’m facing Your Generic Nightmare Bad Guy and it’s already gone so bad that deadly force is needed for my defense, well, I guess that means he’d already have his gun to hand, and would I really win that quick draw? Probably not. (Although I’m confident in my accuracy, if not speed, if that counts for anything.) So, an over the shoulder Bersa holder wouldn’t be such a bad rig, betting against the very long odds of ever needing such a thing.

And there’s a cynical part of me that says that the better concealed a weapon on a woman is, the less trouble she’ll have, simply because the gun silhouette, the knowledge of the gun will pique a troublemaker’s interest, either for goading or more seriously, trying to take it off her. There will always be dumbasses spoiling for fights or wanting to challenge/prove something to their tiny dicks.

As I said, I would like one just in case and because it is a right that I believe in, despite being a pinko commie Democrat. My mother was attacked in Balboa Park while handing out leaflets for the Globe theater and brutally beaten (she had to learn to walk again, and lost much of her hearing) I believe that if she had a weapon that day she would still be alive today, not to mention saved other women from this man as well. He was caught, after doing it to another woman, sentenced to seven years, served four, and is now serving over a hundred years consecutive sentencing after getting caught again for the same thing, twenty odd years later. My mother didn’t die that day, but the damage this man did to her, to our family, to others, is incalculable.

Anyway, I plan on carrying mine in my purse (I wear a cross shoulder bag anyway), in a coat pocket, or on a hip holster under a loose silhouette shirt for walking.

10

My aunt has a CCW permit (much to my discontent… crazy woman… ), and I have absolutely no idea how she CCW’s. I think she just tosses the gun in her bag.

You might look into a small revolver (.38 revolver) or Kahr semiautomatic (9mm), and maybe a small of the back holster.

A few common options, depending on your body shape are Small of the back, Under the shoulder, ankle (I can’t imagine how that’s comfortable… but I guess you get used to it), hip and alternate hip.

A quick rundown of a few of the advantages / disadvantages of each one.

Small of the Back.
A: Pretty concealable on most body shapes, great for Left or Right handed. Very easy to access in most situations.
D: It can get uncomfortable. Especially if you sit for long periods.

Under the Shoulder
A: Very concealable, very comfortable. Also easy to access and quick to draw most of the time.
D: You have to wear a T-Shirt with an unbuttoned jacket or overshirt for this to work. Not suitable for warm climates or warmer times of year.

Ankle
A: I have no idea, I guess easy concealment if you’re wearing bell bottoms.
D: I would imagine this is very uncomfortable, and difficult to draw from.

Hip.
A: Most common kind, easy to train with, fast to draw
D: This is really very dependent on your body shape, not everyone can wear a hip holster and conceal, some people are just to slender in certain dimensions for it to work.

Alternate Hip.
A: A bit easier to conceal than hip holsters, because you can get them tilted at different angles, although this is a disadvantage for certain bodyshapes.
D: Relatively awkward draw.

All of this is from working with some of these holsters in a Non-CCW environment, and my discussion with CCW holders, I am not a CCW license holder, and I am not an expert. I am an educated layman.

11

Bwahahaha!

Don’t assume the bad guy is going to have a gun - he could well have a knife, a baseball bat, or just his fists. We were told that a normal adult can run 20 feet to stab you in 1.3 seconds or so, so it definitely would make a difference in how fast and comfortably you can draw the thing. I’d be concerned with a cross body draw, also, because your arm could get pinned. On the other hand, surely you shouldn’t plan to carry in such a way that you wouldn’t be doing it when you needed it, as the first rule of gunfighting is “bring a gun”.

12

A site that I often see recommended for women considering getting a CCW is The Cornered Cat, which discusses gun choices and holster selection among many other topics.

I’ve heard many instructors opine that carrying in a purse is unsafe for the very reason you state–the possibility of an attacker going after your purse. In addition, you have better control over your gun when it is on your body than when it is in a bag that could be set aside.

Carrying on-body is, in my opinion, much easier for us men. This is partially due to holster design–many more men than women carry, so most holsters are designed to fit a man’s body shape–and partially due to the fact that wearing loose clothes is much more accepted for men than for women.

Would pocket carry be a consideration? It requires a small gun and decently-sized pockets. If your revolver is a J-frame (small-frame S&W, 2.5" barrel) it could work, but a small auto like the Kel-Tec P3AT is flatter than a revolver.

13

My mother has a concealed carry permit, and she uses a “gun purse”. To me, it looks like a regular purse, with two halves and a shoulder strap. The gun fits in a pocket between the halves of the purse, so when she’s walking with the purse on the strap over her shoulder, her hand is on the gun. If she needs it, all she has to do it pull the trigger. No need to draw or anything…just point the purse in the general direction of the attacker. Prolly would not want to reuse the purse after an incident…but it seems workable for general purposes. She carries a .38 S&W double action.

Granted, to a trained eye, a woman with her right hand apparently inside the back of her purse is probably toting a gun…but it’s still subtle enough that you wouldn’t think of it unless you were looking for it.

14

When I carried, I usually carried mine in a purse with a zippered side opening.

I had no plans to draw it in the event it ever came up – if I needed to shoot somebody I didn’t expect to advertise the fact beforehand and I did not expect to care about the stuff in my purse particularly either.

In general, women need to carry somewhere not at your waist and not at your hip, as these areas curve on women in ways they do not on men for whom the holsters are mostly designed. Where that is depends on your body shape – I have a very short torso (well, I am just very short in all dimensions, but still) so I mostly carried (when not in the purse) either roughly at my appendix or at my kidney. Women with longer torsos than mine can carry above the waist, I gather. In my case, well, there’s just no there, there.

15

A couple of options from the NRA store, not that any of these are ideal;

Conceal Carry Vest. Not that I’d wear one.

Tactical Jacket which would work great for cold weather.

Elastic Belly Holster

They have a couple of gun holster purses, as Oakminster mentioned. I dunno, I think they’re too “take away” -able.

16

I just wanted to let you guys know that for men, they have, and I can’t stop snickering even just typing it, “Thunderwear”. Hee hee hee!

Does this not seem like poor planning? I mean, aren’t people going to notice you rooting around in your drawers to remove your gun before you go into the million places you can’t carry? What if you “print”?

17

I was just really happy to be here!

The article is probably padded for print-prevention.

18

Suuuuure. That’s why it’s padded. You know, in my day we called that the “roll of quarters”, or possibly the “tube sock”.

19

That’s just an added benefit! :smiley:

20

There is also a CC case that looks exactly like, and infact doubles as, a day planner.

Suitable for men or women. But with pretty much the same objections as a purse. Can be grabbed or left unattended.