Getting comfortable with carrying

[okespe04]

I got my CHL here in Oregon a few weeks ago and have been carrying every day since. I feel kind of funny about always having a loaded firearm in my pocket. I know how to handle the firearm but I almost feel irresponsible for packing all the time. Did anybody else feel this way when they first started packing?


North Americans Arms 32 apc in a pocket holster with one in the pipe at all times.

 

[Rodentman]

I never felt "irresponsible." Now I feel funny if I don't carry. I feel like something is missing, which it is.

 

[wyocarp]

I would feel a little weird if I carried a 32 acp. I am in the camp of anything is better than nothing, but I would seriously consider a larger defense gun so that there would be a reason to feel different.

 

[Isher]

Relax -

Environmental change, here. I am carrying a loaded weapon.

Similar to figuring out - at 30 second intervals -

Whether your jeans are buttoned.

Its normal.


isher

 

[okespe04]

My Ruger LPC got recalled as soon as I got it so I bought the guardian to hold while the LPC is gone. Is the .380 a reason to feel different?

 

[orchidhunter]

okespe04, Think how funny you will feel if you need it and don't have it. orchidhunter Now I guess you feel like one of those uncompensated Ruger beta testors. Good Luck, orchidhunter

 

[FunkyD]

You will eventually get used to it, just never get completely used to it, knowwhatimean?

 

[bja5006]

not irresponsible, but paranoid.

felt like everyone could see it. i know they can't, and now, something is missing if i dont have it.

years of Judo havent even given me the same sense of safety as my .357mag

 

[j_charles]

Same experience here... and a fellow Oregonian. The first couple weeks, I was sure I would get spotted. I carry IWB 4 o'clock, and felt like if I sneezed, it would show. Now, a couple months down the road, I just check it if I bend in a way that might let my shirt come up a little, and don't really worry about it otherwise. I realized pretty quickly that 90% of people out there are not looking for a gun, so they won't notice mine if it prints a little.

 

[Ghost Walker]

One in the pipe is obligatory, huh!

 

[threefeathers]

After a while you don't even think about it.

 

[Kind of Blued]

I carried around the house for a couple of months before getting my permit. That must have helped. The first time I carried in public (at Wal-Mart, of course) I felt like I finally had what I'd been missing for a long time.

It may have been because when I was at home, carrying the two months prior, I was capable of defending myself and my family, and when I went out, I was not.

My best advice is to strap on a S&W N-frame for a week. After that, the little .32 in your pocket will be no big deal.

 

[Mad Magyar]

The first time I carried in public (at Wal-Mart, of course)

Didn't everybody?

 

[Shadan7]

It's like getting a new car - at first, you notice all the other cars like yours, and you're paranoid about someone bumping into it. After a while, you get adjust to the new reality and relax.

It *will* become completely second nature after a while, to the point where when you are not carrying it will feel distinctly odd. While on a trip overseas recently for a couple of weeks I never did get used to the idea of not carrying, and fairly often found myself absentmindedly checking where my pistol had gone.

7

 

[okespe04]

I won't even get up to make coffee in the morning without it in my pocket. Kinda strange yet feels kinda right.

 

[The Bushmaster]

Pack? Carry concealed? Oh...You mean that extra weight on my right side counter balanced by an extra magazine and folding knife on the left side...

After a while you forget it's even there unless you leave home without it. Then you will feel naked and vulnerable.

 

[FoMoGo]

After a while you forget it's even there unless you leave home without it. Then you will feel naked and vulnerable.

Aint THAT the truth, I feel VERY strange without my pistol on my side.
It is a part of my wardrobe... no different than putting on my socks or underwear.


Jim

 

[michiganfan]

No I never felt irresponible. I felt that everybody was watching but now I think I could go around with a missle launcher and nobody would notice. people are not very observant.

 

[mljdeckard]

I agree with rodentman. I had to live in CA for a year, and every time I went out, I felt like I was being forced to get in a car and not be allowed to wear my seatbelt. When I went back home, I put it on as soon as I crossed the Nevada border.

Over time you will condition yourself to see where it will help you, and you will get over it.

 

[Wolfeye]

It makes me feel not paranoid, but very Republican. (I live in uber-liberal Seattle.) I think packing a revolver while hiking in Alaska when I grew up helped to make it feel "normal". It felt strange to switch to carrying something so small; to this day, I don't feel like anything less than .357 is enough.

You get used to where you can't carry, and how to keep gun-hating friends & relatives from finding out. I have some friends who'd disown me if they knew, but I chalk that up to differences in lifestyle, not whether what I'm doing is irresponsible or wrong.

My wife had something interesting to say about that. She grew up (and still is) liberal, but feels that gun owners are much more responsible and grownup about firearms than antigunners. All it took was for her to take a chance to find out what we actually think & do.

Some people hate guns and think they're right, some people like guns and use them as hunting tools or a shield to protect their families, and they think they're right too. I think there is no right or wrong in this, but rather "responsible" and "irresponsible". Irresponsible to me would be waving my gun in public, or not teaching my future kids to respect guns. Irresponsible to a gun hater would be allowing the general public to own them. The truth is never simple, especially if someone is blinded by their fears.

 

[exflatlander]

I moved a lot for work over the past few years and ended up in Massachusetts after several years in gun-friendly states.

After jumping several hoops to get my permit and finding a gun that I liked that I could buy in this state I am better now (unfortunately the list of guns that I can't buy is much longer than the list of those that are legal in MA).

 

[orionengnr]

...but I almost feel irresponsible for packing all the time.

Actually, once I moved to TX, got my CHL and started carrying, I felt irresponsible for having not carried for all the years before...and mighty resentful of the legislators that had helped to prohibit it in IL and CA...

 

[Borch]

For me carrying came natural and is just second nature. My Dad is a retired county sheriff. Growing up I was surrounded by his friends who were and still are all cops. I work in corrections at the county level and pretty much all of my friends are cops or corrections officers. So carrying a gun has always just been a way of life in my family. It was hard for my wife to get used to until I was confronted by a less than happy former inmate, then she got used to it real quick and now she is toying with the idea of beginning to carry.

 

[theken206]

its not the world looking at you diffrent, its you looking diffrently at the world and those in it

 

[franconialocal]

My friend...same story

A friend of mine recently moved here from Australia and became a U.S. Citizen (well..."resident alien") and CC's due to my constant hounding about 2A rights THAT HE NEVER HAD IN HIS COUNTRY. THIS IS A GUY THAT REALLY FELT STRANGE doing it at first because of the "stigma" in his country (e.g. force fed a particular "sentiment" about weapons). He felt very out of sorts doing it. He certainly did feel like he was doing something bad even though he is completely legal. It was funny at first to see him shift gear, CC locations, etc. almost compulsively!!! Now he has "relaxed" a great deal and I couldn't be happier knowing that he's "on my side" when we are out and about!! Another convert!!!

-Your feelings are normal.....