MacTech's first Constitutional Carry (concealed carry) adventure!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

On Oct. 15, Maine joined the Constitutional Carry crowd, any citizen legally able to own a handgun now no longer needs to apply for a Concealed Carry permit, CCW permits are still available, and give the carrier a few advantages over someone who does not have a permit, but it is no longer necessary to have a permit, Maine allows Open Carry without a permit, so all this law really does is allow an open carrier to put on a jacket without violating the CCW permit system, it basically decriminalizes wearing a jacket when carrying.

Anyway, I decided to try out Permitless Carry today…

I grabbed my Glock 17 Gen 4 9mm, slid in a STANDARD capacity 17 round magazine loaded with Hornady Critical Defense 115 grain hollow points, and snapped the gun into my locking Bianchi pancake belt holster, I then grabbed a 33 round Glock 18 mag loaded with Hornady 135 grain Critical Duty hollowpoints, and slipped that into my left front jeans pocket…

Yes, my jeans were made on Galifrey and were constructed with Time Lord technology, the pockets are bigger on the inside, if I wanted to, I could slip my full size Glock 17 with 17 round mag into either front pocket and it would swallow it with room to spare and would not print…

I then tossed on a light fleece jacket liner, made sure it completely covered the holster, grabbed Cooper, my dog, and went out, hopped in the car to do some errands…

First, I stopped at the gas station, and fueled the car using pay-at-the-pump, it was somewhat busy, but nobody noticed or cared that I was carrying.

I then went into the convenience store, got a snack for Cooper, and one for me, had a quick chat with the clerk, she was also oblivious/uncaring that I was armed.

Back out to the car, and on to the next errand, I noticed a somewhat crowded multi-family yard sale, and decided to stop…

I got out, scanned their wares, but nothing caught my eye, children happily played on some kiddie toys in the background as people haggled over pricing, meh, nothing interesting here, maybe an “unused and new” Mr. Beer home few kit, Naaah, not really interested, besides, how do I know it’s truly unused?..

Back in the car, onto the next…
I stop in at the town library to check out a photo exhibit by a local photographer who sadly passed away a couple years back, my fellow patrons were unaware of the person carrying in their midst, after enjoying the exhibit, back to the car, onto the next…

…I stop off at a kitchen supply store and pick up a magnetic induction cooktop I’ve been wanting to try, chat with the saleswoman a bit, then head back, patrons and employees clueless that I was armed…

Get back home, try the cooktop, not impressed, so I take it back for a refund, then head back home again

Post this thread, while still carrying…

Number of times I exposed the firearm; 0
Number of times it was needed; 0
Number of times I “printed” or otherwise inadvertently showed I was armed; 0
Number of people scared by my carrying; 0
Number of people aware of my carrying; 0
How successful was concealment? 100%

All in all, so far, so good. my aim is to get through the day without raising awareness of my carrying, if I make it through the day without printing, and without clearing leather, it will be a successful day

And just as a heads up, this is the typical/ideal day for a concealed carrier, to make it through the day without needing a firearm, people who carry responsibly understand how important it is to get through the day un noticed, un hassled, a responsible carrier is not waving their gun around and scaring people, or otherwise being a jerk or idiot, the gun is there if needed, but we don’t want to have to need it

A proper carrier, concealed or open, is not a “cowboy” or “gangsta” (dear Og how I hate that term!) and te last thing we want to have to do is to clear leather and bring a gun into play, but we are not willing to be victims either, should a situation arise

Anyway, halfway through the day and the adventure has been successful so far…

2

…And the Regal theatre near me decided that they need the 17 year old female untrained usher to go rifle through my wife’s pocketbook for “safety”, while I could have had enough hardware under my shirt to end World War III
My living room looks better all the time. Just have to figure out where they source the new leather power reclining chairs.:smiley:

3

Congratulations!

How how many times in your lifetime have you been in a situation where you were a victim or a potential victim and did not have a gun?

4

Thankfully, none, but then again, I tend to not go to “dangerous” places, the first rule of avoiding dangerous places is simply to not be where danger is

Plus, I hate cities anyway, rural areas are far more firearm freindly, and have less issues with two-legged predator behavior

I’m a responsible firearm owner, you could be sitting next to me in a movie theatre and be totally unaware that I’m armed, and you would not be in any way threatened by me being armed, just because I happen to be carrying a device capable of propelling a small metal projectile accurately and at a high velocity, that would not put you at risk, simply because I would not employ said mass-driver unless I had no other choice and all other alternatives had been exhausted.

Let’s use a hypothetical movie theater active shooter scenario here…

I’m in a movie theatre when a gunman breaks in and starts shooting, and I happen to be armed, my primary objective is to extricate myself from the area, my gun is for my protection only, not the general public, I’m not a cop, it’s not my job, the gun will only clear leather if I am under direct threat (or if I’m with a family member that is threatened, but not a stranger)

It’s not my responsibility to protect you, that’s your responsibility, chose your own method, be it firearm, knife, martial arts, running and hiding, hoping for the best, putting a towel over your head so the gunman can’t see you***
***this is assuming you’re dealing with a Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal that happens to be carrying a gun… Hey, it might happen… :wink:

5

Right. And why, as that reasonable firearm owner, is it so burdensome upon you to apply for a CCW permit? You need a license and registration and insurance to drive a device capable of propelling a large metal projectile accurately and at a high velocity that would normally not put anyone at risk except under unforeseen circumstances. Why is it asking too much to fill in a form and get a permit for your oh-so-harmless metal peashooter that would do the same?

“Constitutional Carry.” Christ, this fucking country.

6

Thank goodness you are out there making the streets safe. It’d be pandemonium otherwise.

7

I’d wager the vast majority of people shot or killed while going about their business in public, at school, McDonald’s or wherever, have never been victims of criminal violence in the past.

People who carry guns for safety do so for the same reason bicyclists wear helmets and drivers carry car insurance - so they’ll be protected in the rare event such protection is needed.

8

I might take that wager. Most shootings occur in high-crime areas where criminal violence is relatively common.

Of course, most people killed by gunshot pulled the trigger themselves.

To the OP: if you want to indulge your delusion that your carrying a gun makes you and others safer, go ahead. But you still can’t bring it into my house.

9

Not a fair bet. Most of the people shot in those areas are not innocently going about their business at school, McD’s, etc.

10

Today’s adventure concludes rather anticlimactically, nobody noticed, cared, or made a fuss about me concealed carrying, which is as it should be, it’s called “concealed” for a reason

I ended up the day with the same number of unfired rounds as I started with, actually I ended up with more, as the last destination was my local sporting goods store where I picked up another box of 9mm cartridges, basic plinking ammo, the cheap stuff, nothing special

The only difference between today and a day where I don’t carry? My belt was a few ounces heavier on the right hand side today, nothing more, I could have done the day without the pistol and the end result would have been the same

No one got scared, intimidated, hurt, offended, got their feelings hurt, and thank Og there was no need to decide if I needed to make an unpleasant life changing decision.

The only difference between myself and a non carrier today is the fact that I would have merely had one more tool at my disposal, should I choose to use it, if a dangerous situation occurred, and even then, if I was in a bad situation, and I could extricate without having to bring the gun into play, I would choose to extricate while keeping the gun holstered and hidden.

It’s there if needed, but I don’t want to need it, simple really.

11

duplicate post…

12

Having been in the military as it seems you have not, we will not count those times.

When the crazy kicked in the front door of our suburban house in Tulsa Okla. while the family was eating dinner. ( had guns )

When there was an attempted car jacking of my car while I was on a date. ( had gun )

When an irate land owner came at a friend & myself when he thought we were on his land. We were not but he did not know his boundary line very well in the woods. ( had guns )

Not having a weapon did not keep one of my sisters from being raped. ( no gun )( that really made things all better )
Do you contend that is the way it should be?

I know for a fact that not having a weapon did not keep my 18 year old daughter from being murdered. She was in her apartment in a nice part of town. ( no gun )

My older sister had to resort to a ‘church key’ to keep a middle aged man from killing himself & her while she was giving him dual instruction to get his private pilots license. ( no gun )

My Dad had some instances also, but that was pretty long ago now so I’ll not bring those up. I was raised in houses with many guns, all loaded, standing in a hall closet or my parents room until we got one of our own.

7 kids, never an accident, never played with, never shown to neighbor kids, never handled until we were old nuff, etc., etc…
( lots of guns )

They were treated like dangerous hammers, tools that could be deadly.

By the time one of us was big nuff to open the closet door, we already knew to not mess in there. No meant no. I think we knew that at about 6 months of age. ::::: shrug ::::::

I may chose to die for you but damned if I’ll die because of you.

:stuck_out_tongue: :cool:

13

Unless you have a metal detector by your front door, how would you ever know?

14

If you’re not frisking all your house guests, you’re doing it wrong.

15

How hard were you typing that? Did you clear leather?

16

Poor Kim. Not even the people who think God hates gay people can stand her.

17

I can’t understand why OP even thought it would be a good idea to post that here.

18

Awesome story, bro. And I mean that without sarcasm. It’s great to point out that concealed carriers are just normal people and not a threat to the paranoid masses. FWIW, I don’t own, posses, or carry a weapon, but I support the right to do so.

In some states they have “may issue” versus “shall issue” laws. That terminology may be unique to Michigan, but it really means that some places simply won’t give you a permit. Even in Michigan (now “shall issue”) it’s required to attend a lengthy safety course, whether or not you already possess the knowledge to be safe. Given that it’s okay to open carry without a permit in Michigan (without the course), then yes, requiring a course is an undue burden versus the alternatives.

Did you know the “concealed carry” also means within your automobile? Perhaps I’m legally open carrying (I don’t carry at all, remember). As soon as I step into my automobile, it’s now considered concealed, even if still visible.

Yeah, it’s a burden.

19

Thanks for carrying, and contributing the safety of society as a whole. I’m not always armed, for one reason or another (many of whom inhabit this board), so I appreciate when others are.

Free Rider Problem, and all.

20

A gun carrier pleads, with the SDMB “liberals” I guess, that some gun carriers are sane. The fact he felt such a post was needed demonstrates the huge communication failure between American “sides.”

:confused: are you appreciating the protection he’s explicitly not offering to you? (And, will you explain the underlined clause? :cool: )