Off-Body Carry, Part 3 - Reflection

Click here for Part I - The Basics.

Click here for Part II - Purses

I realize I sounded a bit like a whiner in Part I when I was talking about how the different closure ripped up my cuticles or knuckles. I know, in the heat of the moment, I'm unlikely to feel any cuts to my hands, and the important thing is to get to my gun and get a good master grip. It might seem like a silly thing to take into consideration when looking at a purse, but it's worth thinking about. Let me explain: in order to draw effectively, you must practice. If practicing causes physical damage/pain, guess what you're not going to do? You got it, practice.

I've been on a weight loss journey for the past year, so I've shrunk out of my Hip Hugger and haven't wanted to spend the money to buy a new one, since it's likely I was going to have to replace it again. Being summer, I lived in workout clothes, which meant I wasn't wearing pants or shorts with belt loops for an IWB or OWB holster. Without a belly band that fit, I'm ashamed to say, my daily carry habit dwindled to zero. It was rare that I had a gun with me.

I've never been one to carry a purse (other than to the movie theater, to carry my 'illegal' candy), so it was a change. It's still a conscious effort for me to remember to grab my purse on the way out the door. However, I love that I not only have my gun, but I have my pepper spray, flashlight, knife, and IFAK. I like having "options between a harsh word and a gun".

Vicki pointed out that in the winter, when we carry on-body, sometimes the gun is harder to access because of all of our layers, but with a purse, we can just slip it on over our coat. Living in Colorado, it's not unusual to wear at least three layers: shirt, vest, coat. I'd always leave my vest unzipped and only snap my coat so I had easy access to my gun if I needed it. When the wind is blowing, that's not very comfortable. It wasn't something that I'd put much thought into, but I'm looking forward to being able to zip up my winter coat this year. 

I intended to carry the Slim purse for a month and then switch to the bigger one (the Tour bag), but I like the Slim so well I haven't made the switch yet. 

I've practiced until I'm comfortable with the Slim, but haven't spent enough time with the Tour to be entirely confident with it. It's big, but the thing that is a bit concerning to me is that the gun pocket is the middle pocket, and I've found that the zipper takes a bit more focus to find and unclasp than the Slim. If I overload the large pocket, which is closest to the body, it tends to lean outward, semi-obscuring the zipper on the gun pocket.

Part of me wants to say that I won't make the change to full-time purse carry, but a big part of me is calling myself a liar. It's just so easy, and I understand why so many women do it. I do feel more comfortable with on-body carry, but find that I am far more consistent in carrying in a purse. I don't have to dress around the gun, or make sure that I am wearing pants with a belt. Not to mention, urban camouflage is kinda awesome. No one looks twice at a woman's purse.

There are drawbacks: 

1) You must keep your purse under your control at all times. This means not leaving it on your chair, or in a shopping cart, or laying about where unauthorized people can access it (not just kids, but anyone who shouldn't have access to a gun).

2) With a lot of practice, a sub-two second draw is possible. I'm not sure, as a middle-aged, unassuming woman that I look like enough of a threat to need a sub-two second draw. Though with a purse being such good urban camouflage, it is easy enough to fake as though you're getting your money/wallet/whatever out of the purse while accessing your gun.

3) Purse snatching is a thing. Carrying cross-body makes it more difficult to snatch a purse, but it also "attaches" you to the purse snatcher if they attempt it anyway. Being willing/able to fight for control of the purse is necessary. It's not just your ID and money in there, but your gun, and you must fight as hard to keep control of your purse as you would if someone were trying to disarm you while carrying on-body.

4) Kathy Jackson of The Cornered Cat had a valid concern about the zipper "lock":

My concern with locking zippers is that they are a safety issue. Not in terms of getting to the gun in a hurry (although there certainly is that) but more in terms of human behavior: people tend to leave their purse places they should not leave the purse, because “it’s locked“.

But it might not be locked.

And there are other dangerous things inside a purse, other than the gun.

It just tends to result in people being less aware of safety than they otherwise would be.

I've been careful to put the work "lock" into quotations to imply that it's not really a lock and does not magically turn your purse into a gun safe, but Kathy's absolutely right about using the term "lock". The two zippers that hook together should probably be called a zipper clasp. (Clasp: (noun) a device with interlocking parts used for fastening things together.)

Despite the drawbacks (there is a give-and-take with any type of carry), I'm two months in to carrying my gun in a purse, and I have to tell you, I love it.

7 Seconds

I haven’t paid much attention to the mainstream media lately; but, from what I gather, the church shooting in White Settlement, TX has gone largely “under the radar”. The cynic in me would argue that it hasn’t gotten much press because it doesn’t “fit the narrative”. Whether that is the case or not, I don’t truly care. What I do care about are the lessons this incident can teach us if we pay attention.

First, if you haven’t already, go watch John Correia’s analysisof the video at Active Self Protection on YouTube. He gives a thoughtful, unbiased analysis of the incident which is worth anyone’s time regardless of whether you carry a gun or not. Here are some of my thoughts after thinking on this.

1: Evil can happen anywhere. Even in a “House of God”. This shooting took place in a suburb on the west side of Ft. Worth. According to Google Maps, West Freeway Church of Christ is 24 miles / 28 minutes from my house. This isn’t the 5TH Ward in Houston, the south side of Chicago or some other big city “bad” neighborhood. This is flyover country suburbia. It could have been anywhere. Tragedies happen every day and just about every corner of this old mud ball we call home. Sure, we expect tragedy in a war zone or even a “bad neighborhood”. A lot of us get complacent because we live in a “nice neighborhood.” If you want an eye opener, look up the police blotter for your area. You would not believe the amount of stuff that happens within walking distance of your front door. You can also plug your zip code and email address into www.spotcrime.com, and you will get a daily email of the crimes committed within 5 miles of your home.

2: Evil happens fast. Go watch the video of the shooting. Go watch videos of any violent encounters that are out there. The White Settlement shooting went from a peaceful Sunday at church to full rodeo to over and done in less than 10 seconds (the seven seconds mentioned in the title). We can quibble about the reports that the church security team had concerns about the shooter before he pulled the shotgun and what they coulda shoulda woulda done; however, the simple fact is that no “civilian” in the congregation had time to say hello to a 911 operator much less give any detail before the entire incident was over. The police, even with an officer in the parking lot, could not have responded fast enough to handle this situation without even more innocent people being killed or injured. The only incident I can recall in recent memory where police stopped a shooter cold before they had a chance to do harm was the “Draw Mohammad” Cartoon Contest in Garland, TX where a police officer working an off-duty security gig stopped the would be shooter in his tracks before he even had a chance to get inside.

3: The only human being you can rely on to protect you is you. The US Supreme Court ruled in the 2005 case “Castle Rock v. Gonzales” that the police do not have a constitutional duty to protect a person from harm. This ruling affirmed a 1981 court of appeals case with the same finding. The police cannot be everywhere, nor can they be everything to everyone. They generally do not have legal justification to act until a crime has been committed. Even then, the old saying is true: “When seconds count, the police are minutes away.” This is not intended as a harsh indictment of the police but rather a statement of fact. Look up the average response time for police in your area. An active shooter situation will get the highest priority the department can give it, but the time between when dispatch makes the call to when officers arrive on scene will be more than a minute and likely more than a couple of minutes. As this incident shows, life and death is measured in seconds.

There is a quote I usually see referenced as Rule 23 for Combat that goes: “Your number one option for personal security is a lifelong commitment to avoidance, deterrence and de-escalation.” I take this to mean that you cannot live in a bubble and expect everything to be just fine. You have to take an active role in your own protection. Walking around oblivious to the world around you is a recipe for disaster and tragedy. Look at the video again closely. How many people had guns out by the time it was all said and done? At least 5 that I counted and I’ve heard as many as seven.

4: Your mind is the weapon. Everything else is just tools. Train your mind to use any tools you can to defend yourself. There was an Air Force fighter pilot by the name of John Boyd who came up with the concept of the OODA loop. An OODA Loop is not an aerobatic maneuver, but rather a tactical and strategic concept that can be applied broadly in a variety of endeavors. OODA stands for “Observe, Orient, Decide, Act”. Jack Wilson, knowingly or unwittingly applied the OODA Loop to great affect in less than 7 seconds. You’ve probably heard people say there is no timer in a gunfight. The truth is there is a timer, and it is the aggressor who starts the clock. You, as the defender, have to “get inside the aggressor’s OODA Loop”. You do that by implementing your own OODA Loop that will hopefully throw off the aggressor’s plans enough for you to gain the advantage. If that means taking a shot, throwing a book, tackling the aggressor, etc., you use the tools at your disposal to eliminate the threat.

5: Evil will find a way. Felons don’t get their weapons legally. Very few mass shooters in recent history obtained their weapons through legal means. When guns were not available, rocks, sticks, cars and other weapons do stand in duty as the tool of choice for those intent on committing murder. 9/11 proved that a box cutter is all that is required to take control of an airplane and turn that plane into a flying bomb.

6: Evil isn’t always easy to identify. The White Settlement shooter reportedly walked in wearing a trench coat and a fake beard. I’d call that a tad odd but not necessarily evil. As odd as that is, very few people have the ability to read the mind of another human being and know their intentions. Two innocent church goers paid the ultimate price because it was not possible to discern the shooter’s intentions before it was too late. Could they have handled the situation differently and avoided unnecessary blood shed? I don’t know, and neither does anyone else. I am sure they believe they made the best decision they could at the time with what they knew and saw, and I am equally sure the survivors will second guess those decisions for the rest of their lives.

7: Skill training is important. As Wyatt Earp said: “Fast is fine. Accuracy is final.” Do not ignore basic marksmanship skills. Shot placement is critical, and putting shots where they need to go on demand when it counts is literally life and death in a situation like this. You cannot expect to “rise to the occasion”. Here’s a simple test: go to the range, no warm up/no practice, set up a life sized silhouette target at 10-15 yards, put a 3x5 index card in the head of the target, set a shot time for random start and find out how long it takes you to put one cold bore shot in the index card. Did you even hit the index card? If you did, was it less than seven seconds? Now, add adrenaline and movement into the mix. Did you still hit the target? Now, add in some “no shoots” between you and the target, some sweaty palms and a bunch of chaos and noise. Some of this is impossible to practice, but any training is better than no training.

The people in White Settlement suffered a terrible tragedy, and it would be a shame not to learn everything we can from the incident.

Lessons from Low Light Training

This quarter's training is shooting in low light. I dug out all of my flashlights and spent last night/today charging all of my lights. Seemed like a good time to make sure everything was ready. Thanks to the Year of the Lumen (2018), I have a few to choose from. Any time Greg Ellifritz or Dustin Ellermann posted about a new light, I had to buy it.

Rayovac "The Beast"; Bolder by Anker (x2);
Streamlight ProTac HL-2; Streamlight Microstream USB;
Olight Valkyrie PL-2; SureFire Sidekick

I knew we had some cool stuff planned, so I was pretty excited about tonight's range time. At twilight, I used the Streamlight I keep on my belt to look at something downrange and decided I didn't like the throw. I thought it was too short, so I decided to swap it out for one of the Ankers that I usually just keep in my bag.

When it was my turn to run the stage, I slipped the Anker into my carrier and threw my Streamlight in my bag. I've been practicing with the Anker at the range, since that's what's in my bag, so I thought it would be fine.

I was so wrong. So, so wrong.

What I forgot about the Anker is that it has variable settings and that in order to keep it from cycling through the settings, I had to press the button to turn it on and then let go. Failure to do so, or keeping the button depressed with my thumb will start it to cycle.

I did okay for my first two targets, but when I went to light up my next two, suddenly I had a strobe light. I said bad words and took my shots anyway. But did I remember to definitely turn on and off the light? No, because why would my brain work when it needed to?

When I lit up my next set of targets, I'd cycled to medium power. That was okay, at least the light stream was steady. By this time, I'd remembered to fully depress the on/off button and let go, so my last few targets were easier to shoot.

Ugh.

It was ugly, but I learned a couple of important lessons: 1) don't make a last minute gear change (that should be obvious), and 2) commit to turning on/off the light instead of just using my thumb as a momentary on switch.

I don't have a holster that will accommodate a WML, but I have a really nice Olight that I wanted to try out. Once everyone was done shooting, I attached my Olight and just plinked off a few rounds. I've dry fired with the Olight, but while dry fire is great for practicing fundamentals, I needed some live rounds through. I found that my little Olight really lights up the target beautifully, but in order to activate the light I have to break my grip and really rock my support hand forward. My little girl thumb doesn't reach the switch well.

Again, I didn't commit to turning the light on, instead just used my thumb as a momentary on switch, which worked great for identifying the target, but as soon as the trigger broke and the recoil hit, my thumb lost contact with the switch and I lost my light. I either need to learn to keep my thumb in contact with the switch or hit the button to turn it on and let go.

I'm seeing a pattern here. I have trouble committing with my lights. Push the damn button, turn it on, and then get my damn thumb out of the way.

The one thing I do wish is that there was a way to get more low light practice. I do practice with my lights, but shooting on an already well-lit range with a flashlight is vastly different from shooting in the dark with one. Since I know my problem is not fully turning on the light, that's something I can work on even during the day.

My hope is by practicing the one thing I screwed up so badly, that next month when I shoot at night, I'll see a vast improvement.