Concealed Carry Purse [Archive]

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Willard

01-08-2023, 11:12 AM

01-08-2023, 11:28 AM

jd950

01-08-2023, 11:28 AM

Eldest daughter wants a concealed carry license. Her idea. Tried to convince her of on body carry maybe with something like the Phlster Enigma, which I already have a new one and she could have. Not interested. Wants a purse.

What is the best option for a concealed carry purse? It would contain a S&W 640 Pro or a S&W 642. Thanks!

Please excuse me for giving unsolicited advice, but...

I am not as opposed to off-body carry as many people are, but there are two critical components.

First, this is only good for someone obsessive about maintaining control over the purse or whatever. Having it get stolen or leaving it behind can be disastrous. As an extreme example, I know a guy who left his gym bag (with a gun in it) at the gym. it was found, the gun was found and the police were called. Guy charged with a number of criminal offenses because gun was left where children or others cold have found it. No more concealed carry permit for him...

Second, the gun has to be very accessible yet secure. I see women and guys carrying guns in briefcases and purses and such where the drawing of the gun is a slow "now where did that go" kind of process. The gun is then just a security blanket type of thing, not a useful tool. Other side of the coin, purse is opened and gun clearly visible or worse, can fall out. No Bueno.

That said, and since I took the time to give out unsolicited advice, I thought I should also try and help with your question:

https://www.gungoddess.com/collections/concealed-carry-purses

https://pistolpacknmama.com/concealed-carry-purses/

01-08-2023, 11:36 AM

Good info from jd950

My wife has one where the draw is from the top of the purse. It's almost like drawing from a belt holster. She carries it across her body and the strap is armored so it can't be cut. She can have her hand on the gun in the purse almost like DB's pocket draw.

BillSWPA

01-08-2023, 04:27 PM

Present your daughter with options, and let her pick the purse. Handbag fashion is something almost no two women agree on, and no man will ever understand.

I suggest something with a gun compartment accessed by a locking zipper. If she can keep the key on her person, that at least gives her a way to lock the gun compartment at appropriate times. For example, when visiting a friend with young children, the gun will be safe if the purse happens to be 10 feet away from her. Of course, this means obsessively locking and unloking the gun compartment at appropriate times, and verifying the locked/unlocked state as often as necessary to ensure that it is not locked when it needs to be unlocked, or unlocked when it needs to be locked.

Everything else in the purse is probably already heavy enough to be borderline uncomfortable. A lightweight gun should be selected to keep the total weight on your daughter's shoulder from getting too uncomfortable. Do not make the mistake of thinking that because the purse makes concealment easy, a larger gun can be selected.

The obsessiveness with which the gun must be guarded cannot be overemphasized. More than one child has managed to access their mother's gun from a purse when both the purse and child were in the same shopping card. If the child is in the shopping cart, the purse must be worn.

Although on-body carry is most desirable, some fo the on-body solutions are difficult enough to access quickly that gun purses have had better success in training exercises simulating drawing the gun while under attack. In particular, holsters that place the gun around the bra have not done well in this testing. Sometimes a gun purse is the best - or only - option.

Some purse suggestions:

https://coronadoleather.com/

https://www.gtmoriginal.com/

https://hidinghilda.com/

Some on-body suggestions:

https://alexoathletica.com/

https://www.cancanconcealment.com/

https://deneadams.com/

https://darkalleydenim.com/

https://www.kramerleather.com/collections/iwb-gun-holsters/products/inside-the-waistband-sheepskin-clip-holster

CraigS

01-08-2023, 06:20 PM

While a dedicated designed for it purse is ideal, really any purse w/ a separate zippered compartment will work. There must never, ever be anything else in that compartment. It is also good if the compartment is the one closest to her body. One way to help w/ speed as a situation developes, is if she can get the zipper open, the gun doesn't fall out, but she can get a grip on it w/o that being obvious. We used to use a small bag for walking the dog. I carried it cross body so it was hanging about 2 inches from where my gun was when in the OWB holster. My wife has gone through 3-4 gun purses. I am not sure why but she now uses a fanny pack. This particular model has the gun compartment next to her body so she can do what I suggest above if needed. Otherwise she will yank the zipper, the pack will kind of fall away, and the gun will be there in it's velcroed in position holster. One other thing. There are several holster/purse makers who offer a semi stiff panel w/ velcro all over the one side. They come in different sizes and can be slipped into a purse and used to locate a velcro holster. There are also a lot of velcro holsters available. They are usually super adjustable to fit nearly any gun. So these can be used to convert a standard purse into a gun purse as long as there is a dedicated compartment. This is important because guns seem to wander around in a compartment. Plastic guns will first sag to the bottom because of the weight of the rounds in the mag. Especially plastic guns, if there is enough room, they will end up upside down because the slide is a heavy chunk of steel. Edited to add; BTW congrats on doing a great job raising a smart daughter.

RoyGBiv

01-08-2023, 09:04 PM

Good info from @jd950 (https://pistol-forum.com/member.php?u=13093)

My wife has one where the draw is from the top of the purse. It's almost like drawing from a belt holster. She carries it across her body and the strap is armored so it can't be cut. She can have her hand on the gun in the purse almost like DB's pocket draw.

Link?

01-08-2023, 09:14 PM

Link?

https://www.gtmoriginal.com/products/concealed-carry-urban-shoulder-bag-black

I'm pretty sure it's this one. GTM-14.

Erik

01-08-2023, 09:23 PM

That looks kind of useful, honestly.

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.pinimg.com%2Foriginals%2F5c%2Fa 3%2F65%2F5ca365877ce26f40f1bff58014017999.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=757d964ef92415afe90ee9149d9520ba4279663d202092 40e27acf4941ee0090&ipo=images

CleverNickname

01-08-2023, 09:37 PM

TGS

01-08-2023, 10:12 PM

My ex-wife liked the CCW bags from Travelon and Pac-Safe, had both. They're also security bags, not just CCW bags....so, cut resistant, clipped zipper pulls, RFID blocking walls, etc.

Don't know if it helps to narrow things down, but they're more utilitarian black and earth-tone nylon in appearance. She's a woman that wore a work shirt, 5.11s, and redwings to work everyday and is more blue-collar girl-next-door type that didn't like fancy bags. She thought CCW bags as commonly available were "vomitorious" (her words) and generally only suited to women who still wear the same hairstyle they had in the 80s.

Just checked and Travelon still has CCW specific bags. PacSafe didn't seem to have it mentioned as its own category, but might still have the feature...don't know.

https://www.travelonbags.com/shop/anti-theft-bags/concealed-carry-collection

https://pacsafe.com/collections/bag

DDTSGM

01-09-2023, 12:38 AM

Link?

https://www.gtmoriginal.com/products/concealed-carry-urban-shoulder-bag-black

I'm pretty sure it's this one. GTM-14.

My wife has this one: https://www.gtmoriginal.com/products/gtm-czy-51-buffalo-leather-town-tote

It draws from the side.

alamo5000

01-09-2023, 02:04 AM

The place I work at has clearly written rules against carrying on the job. As a work around I bought a Vertx sling bag. I like it a lot. It's substantially better than leaving my stuff in the car. What they don't know won't hurt them.

In any case it's a very good bag and there are several different kinds to pick from.

True it's not ideal to carry in a bag, but then again I didn't ask for opinions on it. It is better to carry on your person but it does bridge a gap, especially in situations like mine.

RoyGBiv

01-09-2023, 09:09 AM

My wife has this one: https://www.gtmoriginal.com/products/gtm-czy-51-buffalo-leather-town-tote

It draws from the side.

Wife and daughter both have similar bags, but not for carry..... I just sent them that link and offered to pay if they agree to carry...

Thanks.

Caballoflaco

01-09-2023, 09:30 AM

Wife and daughter both have similar bags, but not for carry..... I just sent them that link and offered to pay if they agree to carry...

Thanks.

It would be interesting to hear what your daughter thinks of the styling of a purse like that, because I don’t think I’ve I’ve seen a woman under 50 regularly carrying a purse that size in public since the mid 2000’s.

RoyGBiv

01-09-2023, 09:32 AM

It would be interesting to hear what your daughter thinks of the styling of a purse like that, because I don’t think I’ve I’ve seen a woman under 50 regularly carrying a purse that size in public since the mid 2000’s.

She just bought a very similar one for work.... "Just" ... as in.. might still be able to return it... :rolleyes:

Computer... exercise gear/clothes... large-format printed materials... etc.

DDTSGM

01-09-2023, 02:06 PM

Wife and daughter both have similar bags, but not for carry..... I just sent them that link and offered to pay if they agree to carry...

Thanks.

We got hers at Cabella's, they had a pretty good selection.

DDTSGM

01-09-2023, 02:14 PM

It would be interesting to hear what your daughter thinks of the styling of a purse like that, because I don’t think I’ve I’ve seen a woman under 50 regularly carrying a purse that size in public since the mid 2000’s.

Wife and daughter both have similar bags, but not for carry..... I just sent them that link and offered to pay if they agree to carry...

Thanks.

The one I linked is not that large:

Overall bag size: 12" Wide x 10-1/4" Tall x 5-1/4" Deep
GTM compartment size: 9" Wide x 7-1/2 " Tall

It was smaller than the Coach bag it replaced.

Not on the topic, but the Coach bag, which cost me north of $600 for Christmas 2021, now resides in her closest along with numerous other 'good' purses. Every time I think about asking her to sell them if she's not going to use them, I slap myself, go look in one of the gun safes, and remind myself of how often I actually shoot my CMP 1911, Garands, and the M1 carbine I had to have.

RoyGBiv

01-09-2023, 03:24 PM

Not on the topic, but the Coach bag, which cost me north of $600 for Christmas 2021, now resides in her closest along with numerous other 'good' purses. Every time I think about asking her to sell them if she's not going to use them, I slap myself, go look in one of the gun safes, and remind myself of how often I actually shoot my CMP 1911, Garands, and the M1 carbine I had to have.

That was good for a laugh!
Partly because my daughter has, finally, started selling off some of her unused clothing and other gear.
She and Wife were talking the other day about Wifes' handbag collection possibly being worth more than she paid since it's a lot of "vintage" gear.
I did not comment for reasons similar to you Dan. :o

Cookie Monster

01-09-2023, 04:36 PM

I have no experience and I am not a lady but I think about this:

https://hillpeoplegear.com/Products/CategoryID/1/ProductID/184

Chuck Whitlock

01-13-2023, 11:15 PM

https://www.gtmoriginal.com/ Gun Tote"n Mamas

My wife has had one of these for several years. It has held up very well.

We used Velcro to put a Kydex shell holster for her Glock rather than the "one size fits all" that came with the purse.

My wife has used 3-4 different cross-body purses from GTM. I think she's using the "Boston" one now. All have been well made and are still serviceable. A couple of cheaper ones that she has ordered have fallen apart.