When to Carry

[ToddG]

(from another thread...)

A lot of times I take off my gun and holster if I'm gonna be home for the day and throw it back on if I'm running out for something.

You're lucky. I don't live in a place where criminals never enter the home. (cough, cough)

Point well taken and I've thought about it on multiple occasions. It would be far faster to draw from concealment than to make a mad dash for my gun, I'm not quite up to Usain Bolt speed.

Even if I thought the gun was accessible quickly enough where I'm sitting right now to type this, what happens when I get up to use the bathroom? What if I go upstairs to get some water? Odds are I'm not going to carry the gun with me... now I've occupied a hand I might need for whatever else I'm doing.

If I leave the gun behind and that's the unlucky moment someone breaks in, now there's a gun lying in plain view for him to use in his nefariousness.

Assuming a holster comfortable enough to let me drive for hours at a time or sit at a restaurant with friends for hours, it should let me lounge around the house without too much trouble.

It also means less administrative handling of the gun which means less chance to make a mistake of some kind.

[Shellback]

Even if I thought the gun was accessible quickly enough where I'm sitting right now to type this, what happens when I get up to use the bathroom? What if I go upstairs to get some water? Odds are I'm not going to carry the gun with me... now I've occupied a hand I might need for whatever else I'm doing.

If I leave the gun behind and that's the unlucky moment someone breaks in, now there's a gun lying in plain view for him to use in his nefariousness.

Assuming a holster comfortable enough to let me drive for hours at a time or sit at a restaurant with friends for hours, it should let me lounge around the house without too much trouble.

It also means less administrative handling of the gun which means less chance to make a mistake of some kind.

All good points. However, in the scenario you're describing you need to be wearing proper pants with a belt. I tend to be very casual around the house and if I'm going to be home all day I usually revert back to my breakdancing days, a la Run DMC, and sport my Adidas track pants. Comfy for lounging and great for rolling around wrestling with the little guy who's almost 2 1/2 and an aspiring dinosaur ninja.

If a home invasion scenario were to unfold in this situation it'd be a mad dash to my gun, kept well out of reach of little guy, that's readily accessible to me and the wife. I'll also admit to making the assumption that our Belgian Mal would be engaging said bad dude while I'm accessing my gun. He's the typical protective, fearless Mal who's also been security trained and I've done quite a bit of bite work with him.

Is it the perfect solution? Absolutely not and I realize that there's plenty of room for error in my "plan" but I'd like to hear what other people's solutions are.

[Erik]

Is it the perfect solution? Absolutely not and I realize that there's plenty of room for error in my "plan" but I'd like to hear what other people's solutions are.

Like you, much of the time I'm lounging around the house, I'm in my lounge wear (sweatpants or shorts). My usual solution is to keep the gun in the holster that's mounted in the bedside table drawer, so very much like yours. The better solution, which I sometimes adopt, is a smartcarry holster. It's what I do, for example, if I know I am going to answer the door for something like a pizza delivery. It works great under sweatpants and shorts. There's no excuse for my not doing that all of the time, really. The only time not to do so would be if I was going to have a drink while lounging.

[Dave J]

How about perimeter hardening?

IIRC, Tom Givens mentioned having installed metal doors on his house that would not be easily kicked in as one method for gaining time to access a firearm. No doubt he's given similar consideration to his windows. That, plus a good dog and an alarm system, and I think the odds of an intruder making it in before you had time to open a well-placed security container are pretty slim.

That said, if nothing prevents you from carrying around the house, then why not do that too?

[David Armstrong]

I carry around the house, but some would argue it is not a real gun. My Beretta Mdl 21 in .22 LR rests comfortably in my sweats pocket.

[TCinVA]

If I'm wearing pants, I'm wearing a pistol.

If I'm lounging in my canary yellow Speedo, the gun is within wingspan.

[ToddG]

Interesting tangent.

First, let me be clear that I'm not calling anyone out or saying anyone's choice is wrong. We all make decisions based on countless complex factors that cannot be summed neatly in a two paragraph internet forum post.

Having said that, the comments about clothing choices at home surprise me. Conventional wisdom here at PF, I think, is that if someone claims "I cannot carry anything bigger than a toenail clipper because of my clothes," the answer is to find better clothes. Dressing around the gun instead of finding a gun to fit your favorite piece of wardrobe...

So again it comes back to priorities. If you're comfortable out and about wearing jeans or (belt-able) shorts, why not wear them around the house? Especially if it means you can then actually be armed as opposed to being in the vicinity of a gun?

[Tamara]

Because I am lazy and forgetful, I put my pistol on in the morning when I put on my jeans and I remove it at night when I get ready for bed.

It's not so much that I'm worried about ninjas rappelling through the window during the day, but rather that the alternative requires too much decision-making and remembering and coonfingering of loaded guns for my comfort level...

[Shellback]

I carry around the house, but some would argue it is not a real gun. My Beretta Mdl 21 in .22 LR rests comfortably in my sweats pocket.

Claude Werner rocks one on a daily basis. Granted he does a lot of training with that pistol and his method of carry but he's comfortable with the terminal results.

[jon volk]

Good thread. I never wear sweat pants around the house so I always have something on with a belt. That means my g17 is always stuffed down my pants. The wife used to sarcastically ask "really?" when we'd just be lounging around on the couch till I asked what would happen if someone kicked the back door in RIGHT NOW. If I'm going to go through the trouble of carrying a gun some of the time, may as well do it all the time.