Now that I’ve explained why I sometimes carry a .380, the next question is, what’s the best way to carry it?
One extremely low-profile way to carry a small pistol is in a pocket holster. When I have to dress up and tuck in my shirt, pocket carry is great. But for EDC, it has a significant drawback: it’s not ambidextrous. If the first indication I’m in a gunfight is a disabling wound to my right hand, and I’m pocket carrying, I’ve got problems. The same concern applies to strong-side IWB carry. I don’t carry a gun in case nothing goes wrong, I carry in case everything goes wrong. And one way everything could go wrong is having to engage in a gunfight with only my weak hand. My weapon generally has to be accessible with either hand.
For that reason, among many others, I’ve switched to Appendix In Waist Band (AIWB) carry. And Big Stick Defense (http://www.bigstickholsters.com), run by fellow Texan Levi Ralston, makes a pretty good AIWB holster.
This is MY holster, before Big Stick shipped it over.
Tons of Kydex benders are making holsters. But Big Stick’s “Fat Boy” stands out among others for two reasons. Big Stick only advertises one major feature for the Fat Boy, but the second and third really grabbed my attention. (Note: the Fat Boy isn’t only for appendix carry, I just use it solely for that purpose.)
The Fat Boy’s “signature feature” is a raised sweat guard that cover the entire body side of the weapon; none of the weapon touches your abdomen. This prevents rust, and helps avoid “holster bite” when you holster your pistol. Holster bite doesn’t sound like a big deal, but for middle-aged guys fighting a beer belly (like me), getting the crap pinched out of your stomach every time you holster becomes kind of a pain. The Fat Boy eliminates the bite problem.
The second feature is the Fat Boy’s “control channel”. The channel keeps Kydex off the slide release, which prevents the possibility the slide release will catch or drag during the draw. An associated feature is a pronounced shroud that prevents accidental mag release. One time, with one holster, I drew my weapon and discovered my mag was popped. That was during a very intense training exercise, I was moving around a lot and hitting the deck repeatedly, and don’t know if the mag released because I leaned on it or if I failed to seat it before holstering. It only happened once, so I’m more inclined to think it was my fault rather than the holster’s. But that incident made me very aware of the possibility that a holster could cause me to lose my magazine. In a gunfight, that would just be embarrassing. I don’t have to worry about that happening if I’m using a Fat Boy.
The Fat Boy’s third and most-important-yet-unlisted feature is retention. I’ve used a lot of AIWB holsters, but this is the only one the pistol actually snaps into, the only one I can hold upside down and shake without having the weapon fall out, and the only one I could wear in a fistfight or wrestling match without worrying about losing my weapon. I can think of any number of holsters, including some very popular minimalist holsters, that I would be terrified to have in my waistband during a physical confrontation or even during significant physical exertion (i.e., running through a panicked crowd toward a potential threat). Having a loaded pistol floating around loose in your pants during a life-and-death crisis would kinda suck, but I wouldn’t worry about it if I was wearing a Fat Boy. With the G42 Fat Boy the weapon does “pop” as it’s drawn, which could be a problem if you’re trying to draw quietly, but training and awareness keep that under control. The G43 version is just as secure but has a much quieter draw.
A one-off holster, made for a Jericho.
Based on my experience with the Fat Boy, Big Stick Defense seems to make good stuff. They offer a lifetime warranty on their gear, and if you buy a Big Stick holster and really wear it out they’ll pretty it up for you free of charge. If you’re in the market for a Glock 42 AIWB holster (or for any of the weapons listed below), Big Stick is a good place to start.
G42
G43
G26/27
G19/g17
G21
G34
Fullsize or commander 1911 W/ rail
Beretta PX4 storm
Plus many other commonly carried pistols
And if you’re near Brownwood, Texas, have a one-off weapon that’s not on the list and want a Big Stick holster, feel free to visit Big Stick Defense and let Levi use your weapon to custom make a holster for your pistol. Check out their Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/bigstickdefense/?fref=ts, for more information.
P.S. I don’t have any business association or interest with Big Stick Holsters. I just like their products and enjoy helping a Texas businessman who believes in the 2nd Amendment.
Chris Hernandez is a 20 year police officer, former Marine and currently serving National Guard soldier with over 25 years of military service. He is a combat veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan and also served 18 months as a United Nations police officer in Kosovo. He writes for BreachBangClear.com and has published two military fiction novels, Proof of Our Resolve and Line in the Valley, through Tactical16 Publishing. He can be reached at [email protected] or on his Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/ProofofOurResolve).
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I’m well aware of how horrible and tragic school shootings are. I’ve studied school shootings, trained as a cop on how to respond to school shootings, and trained other cops on how to respond to school shootings. As a father of two elementary-age children, one high schooler and one college student, and as the husband of a former teacher, son of a retired teacher and brother to a current teacher, I’m extremely concerned about the safety of school students and staff. I’m well aware that easy availability of guns is a significant factor in the seemingly endless stream of school and mass shootings. I’m aware that a lunatic pounding on a computer keyboard in his mother’s basement is a simple nuisance, but a lunatic with a grudge against the world and a gun is a guaranteed tragedy.
But I oppose new gun control laws.
The anti-gun side needs to understand something. Pro-2nd Amendment people like me aren’t pro-mass murder. I have a hard time imagining a bigger piece of human excrement than a man who would intentionally murder even one innocent, terrified, defenseless child. One of the hardest things I’ve ever read was a survivor’s account of a little boy’s last words at Sandy Hook: “Help me! I don’t want to be here!”, to which the shooter responded, “Well, you’re here,” before killing him. I can’t even imagine how I’d feel if my child had been in that school.
Unlike many fellow 2A supporters, I don’t blame parents of murdered children for demanding stricter gun laws. They’ve just lost a child, in one of the most horrible ways possible. They’re going to lash out. They’re going to pick the easiest and most obvious target for their rage, frustration and grief. I understand why those parents feel the way they do, and why they say the things they say.
But I still oppose new gun control laws.
Here’s a sad, crappy fact: laws don’t do anything by themselves. Actual humans are required to take actual actions to make people follow laws. For example, any legally-declared “gun free zone” (GFZ) can only be made gun-free if access is controlled by people, usually people with guns, who ensure anyone entering doesn’t have a gun (an airport, for example). But if we declare a school a GFZ, then don’t establish airport-like security, we’re not keeping guns out. We’re simply wishing them away. And no child will be protected by a Gun Free Wish.
Likewise, any suggestion for regulating gun sales, possessions or transfers from this point forward won’t magically eliminate the hundreds of millions of guns already in existence. If a lunatic has a gun today, and a law banning lunatics from having guns is passed tomorrow, the lunatic will still have the gun the day after tomorrow. Legislation doesn’t change the laws of physics. It doesn’t alter reality.
This isn’t just my opinion. Even Vice President Joe Biden, gun control champion, admitted it during the push for new gun laws after the Sandy Hook shooting.
If we’re going to make a real effort to stop mass shootings, let’s at least acknowledge reality. A man intent on mass murder and suicide isn’t going to be deterred by jail time, or signs on walls, or even locked doors (the Sandy Hook murderer easily shot his way through a plate glass window). The only thing that can prevent a mass murderer from entering a school is heavy security and people with guns; if we’re not going to make every school half prison and half airport (and we’re not), then any aspiring murderer who wants to bring in a gun can bring in a gun. If that murderer gets in, and starts shooting, the ONLY sure way to make them stop is the immediate application of overwhelming force.
At Sandy Hook, the shooter shot through this window to bypass the locked door
Police who arrive five minutes after shots are fired can’t apply that force quickly enough. SWAT teams who arrive thirty minutes later can’t do it. Only the intended victims, the people who are eye to eye with the murderer, can react in seconds and put the murderer down.
Antoinette Tuff talked Michael Brandon Hill out of committing mass murder at an Atlanta school in 2013. She was a hero, and Michael Hill was a pathetic loser who wasn’t committed to murder. He had a murder fantasy, found out the reality of facing terrified teachers and being shot at by police wasn’t as much fun as he expected, and gave up. Plenty of wishful idealists rightfully praised Tuff, but wrongfully concluded “you don’t need a gun to stop a mass murderer with an AK-47.” Anyone who thinks we should make a policy of “let’s talk the killer out of killing us”, to put it mildly, is an amazingly dedicated idiot.
Sometimes unarmed people have stopped mass killers, like at the Gabby Giffords shooting in Arizona. Amazingly dedicated idiots at Slate, Mother Jones, Addicting Info and other sites have repeatedly pointed out incidents where unarmed people took down mass shooters, and concluded victims are better off unarmed against a mass shooter. But untrained and unequipped people sometimes put out fires too. Untrained and unequipped people save lives in medical emergencies. That’s not because it’s better to be untrained and unequipped. It’s because sometimes trained and equipped people aren’t there, so people with no training or equipment have to do something. None of those situations are made better by the lack of firefighters or doctors, and no mass shooter incident was made better by the lack of armed good guys willing and able to immediately fight back.
Hero Chris Mintz, who was unarmed and tried to block the Oregon college shooter from entering a room. Mintz was shot seven times. Bravery is not enough.
The bottom line is that the only sure way to quickly stop a mass shooter is for the intended victims to draw, take careful aim, and engage until the shooter is no longer capable of committing murder. That’s it. Laws can’t do it. Signs on walls pronouncing “Gun Free Zone” are about as effective as signs that say “Mass Murder Followed by Suicide is Not Allowed on These Premises”. Policemen like me who arrive long after the murders commence can eventually stop a mass shooting, but not before many innocent lives are lost. The only sure way to quickly stop lunatics with guns from committing mass murder – the ONLY sure way – is to allow and expect the innocent to defend themselves.
I have an honest, reasonable message for the anti-gun side: I get your point. I understand what you’re trying to do. I want to prevent murders just as much as you. It sucks that innocent people, especially our children, might be targeted by an armed lunatic. It sucks to think average, decent people in schools, malls, churches and elsewhere need to carry guns to defend themselves and others from the unthinkable. It sucks, and life shouldn’t be that way.
You know what sucks worse? What sucks worse is to look back at a long history of mass shootings, realize that laws and passive measures failed to prevent them, and then demand more laws and passive measures that we already know won’t prevent the next one.
If we’re serious about stopping the next mass shooter, let’s make sure he knows he won’t face a room full of defenseless victims. Let’s not give him total control during the long police response time. Let’s make him fear his intended victims, instead of allowing him to feel godlike power over them. Let’s make sure any pathetic, cowardly loser who thinks he’ll “be somebody” by committing mass murder has to factor in the likelihood of being shot down like a rabid dog within seconds of drawing his gun.
Let’s allow and expect the innocent to carry a gun and protect themselves from a murderer. That’s the only way we can prevent another massacre.
Chris Hernandez is a 20 year police officer, former Marine and currently serving National Guard soldier with over 25 years of military service. He is a combat veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan and also served 18 months as a United Nations police officer in Kosovo. He writes for BreachBangClear.com and Iron Mike magazine and has published two military fiction novels, Proof of Our Resolve and Line in the Valley, through Tactical16 Publishing. He can be reached at [email protected] or on his Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/ProofofOurResolve).
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So let’s discuss a purely fictional situation…
Let’s say there was this guy once. He was a soldier, combat vet, and like many National Guardsmen was a cop in civilian life. He was temporarily on active duty, working on a totally fictional military base.
We’ll call our fictional soldier/cop… “Cris”.
Cris worked on a state-owned base, not a federal base. As a cop, Cris was allowed by law to carry a gun on this base. Of course, Cris always carried his gun. Cris had a lot of training, including training on how to respond to active shooters. When the base decided to make an active shooter response plan, Cris advised the soldiers who wrote it and even addressed a large group of soldiers on the realities of active shooter incidents. Cris was also a senior NCO with two combat deployments. It seemed to make nothing but sense to allow Cris to carry a concealed weapon on base.
Cris had checked the base’s policies and saw that they specifically allowed police officers to carry on base. But Cris kept his weapon hidden and secret from anyone he didn’t know, just as he always did when wearing civilian clothes. In many months working on the base, Cris never had any issues carrying his weapon.
Then one day Cris screwed up. He was in the parking lot loading something into his trunk, inadvertently lifted his uniform top and exposed his weapon to someone. No words were exchanged, and Cris didn’t even know his weapon had been seen. But the other person reported Cris by name and rank to the base command post. And that’s where this totally fictional situation got really stupid.
Soldiers at the command post knew who Cris was. Rather than say, “He’s a cop and he’s within the law and base policy,” they reported Cris to the base’s threat assessment center. Soldiers at the threat assessment center knew Cris too; they interacted with him on a regular basis. Instead of saying, “He’s a cop and he’s within the law and base policy,” they contacted Cris’ major command. Word filtered down, and Cris was called into a Sergeant Major’s office.
The Sergeant Major was new and didn’t know Cris. He informed Cris about the report. Cris responded, “Sergeant Major, I’m a cop.” The Sergeant Major had a brain and immediately responded, “Oh hell, what’s the big deal then?” But he explained he was still required to address the situation with higher. Cris said, “No worries, Sergeant Major,” and waited for the official “carry on” order to come down the chain.
A short time later, Cris was officially advised that even though the law permitted him to carry a weapon, and base policy permitted him to carry, and he had extensive and necessary skills that would be critical in an active shooter incident, the base’s commander didn’t want him to carry. Because allowing soldiers to carry weapons on base isn’t safe. The senior leadership’s plan for defending the base from attack was “disarm anyone willing and able to resist.”
Some might say that barring Cris from carrying on post was stupid. Some might say it was irrational. Some might say, in the event of an active shooter event, it made tragedy more rather than less likely. But none of that mattered. All that mattered was, it made the base leadership feel safer.
This situation – totally fictional, bearing zero resemblance or connection to anyone within writing distance of this computer – taught Cris a very important lesson. Despite the fact that Cris was a longtime cop, was known as a skilled and experienced pistol shooter, had never done anything to suggest he would be a threat to other soldiers, had provided badly-needed perspective and experience to the base’s active shooter plan, had a decades-long history of honorable service and had even been recognized for his actions in combat, he was viewed as a threat simply because he was armed.
That’s not leadership. That’s a sign proclaiming, “It doesn’t matter whether our troops are 18-year old E-1 cooks or 40-year old combat arms officers. We don’t trust them.”
Days ago our military experienced a horrific attack in Tennessee. American troops who braved overseas combat were shot down like defenseless cattle in a slaughterhouse, on our own soil. They died without weapons in their hands. I’m sure they didn’t die unarmed because they chose to be unarmed.
They died because their leaders abandoned them.
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Read the rest at http://www.breachbangclear.com/chattanooga-weve-been-abandoned-again/
Chris Hernandez is a 20 year police officer, former Marine and currently serving National Guard soldier with over 25 years of military service. He is a combat veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan and also served 18 months as a United Nations police officer in Kosovo. He writes for BreachBangClear.com and Iron Mike magazine and has published two military fiction novels, Proof of Our Resolve and Line in the Valley, through Tactical16 Publishing. He can be reached at [email protected] or on his Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/ProofofOurResolve).
]]>I’ve been carrying a pistol on and off duty as a cop for over twenty years. During those years I’ve experimented with different pistols and ways to carry them. For concealed carry, I’ve been from the extreme of carrying a Glock 22 with two spare mags to the other extreme of a Kel-Tec .32 with one spare (because I was riding a motorcycle and my Glock printed badly through my close-fitting leather jacket). I’ve tried different guns, and like every concealed carrier I’ve got about 750 discarded holsters in my closet because none of them worked exactly as I’d hoped.
For years I carried a Glock 27 with a spare G23 mag. Then two things happened: I got older, and my G27 started feeling like a brick. Along with age came a slight change in my body, and I went from being skinny to fighting off a beer belly. My 40’s also brought a peace of sorts. After seventeen years of night shift in the hood and/or going to war, I was done with street police work and didn’t expect to ever deploy again. I was, in the parlance, a FAG (former action guy). At 41 I became a grandfather. My focus was no longer on looking for a fight to the death; instead, I was mostly interested in being prepared for the fight I knew would probably never happen.
I finally ditched the cumbersome G27 for a slim, concealable Beretta Nano. That pistol was ergonomic, accurate, comfortable, and basically perfect as long as you don’t mind dying in a gunfight with a double-fed gun in your hand. I ditched the Nano and went back to the 27, only to jump on a Glock 42 as soon as I could. The G42 is only a .380, and knowing the round’s limitations I decided not to carry one without plenty of spare mags.
So the question became, “how do I comfortably carry a G42 and three spare magazines?”
I went through the usual experimentation: I bought minimalist holsters, looked at an inside waistband that was gigantic for so small a pistol, tried a soft cloth pocket holster (and accidentally touched the trigger inside the holster during a draw, so I’m never using one of those again), tried a pocket clip holster, semi-regularly used a generic Kydex pocket holster, and eventually decided I’d just never find the right one.
Then the light of heaven, in the form of a fellow Texan named Gabe New, shone on my Glock from above.
Gabe runs a cottage gear shop called KSG Armory (Knowledge-Skills-Gear). He’s not a superhuman SF SWAT SEAL Recon operator, he’s a regular Joe who just loves to shoot and carries a gun daily. He’s also fortunate to have a creative bent and some business sense.
http://knowledgeskillgear.com/store/index.php?route=common/home
Like me, Gabe has been searching for the perfect carry method. Unlike me, Gabe has Kydex-bending skills (he likes to call himself a Plastic Surgeon). He started experimenting with Kydex holsters, made a few accessories to go along with them, and opened a small business selling them. At some point Gabe found my blog, and reached out to ask my opinion on his holsters. I wound up with the really cool opportunity to test some of his established models, plus try out a couple prototypes. Gabe was eager for feedback, and quickly made changes when I pointed out a problem. Not a preference, but a problem.
Gabe makes three types of holsters: a slimline OWB (Outside Waistband) belt slide holster, AIWB (Appendix Inside Waistband) holsters, and pocket carry holsters. I haven’t tried his OWB yet, but plan on getting my hands on one for winter when I can more easily conceal a belt holster. I did have plenty of opportunity to test his AIWB and pocket holsters though, and I’m pretty damn happy with them.
OWB 2.0, $55
Gabe makes three types of AIWB holsters: one “tuckable”, one not, and one with wings.
Tuckable holsters, $45
The “Tucker”, another tuckable with wider clip. Note the adjustable cant
While both carry your pistol snugly and securely, I’m a much bigger fan of the nontuckable version. The tuckable has a space between the holster body and belt loop to accommodate a shirt tail, which adds width. If I have to tuck in my shirt I use a pocket holster, so a tuckable IWB just isn’t for me (which isn’t to say it won’t work for someone else). But the nontuckable works great; the Glock 42 and 43 versions don’t jam into my thigh or crotch, and the grip doesn’t ride too high or lean away from my stomach.
IWB 1.1, $45
Here’s a video of me demonstrating one of Gabe’s AIWB holsters.
As I was writing this article I received one of Gabe’s new inventions: an AIWB holster called the “Minuteman” with a “wing” that somehow manages to make the pistol stand straighter (so it’s less likely to print) and feel more comfortable. I don’t get why the wing works, but it does. The Minuteman can even conceal a Glock 19 with a weapon-mounted light under a thin t-shirt. I haven’t tried that myself, but Gabe has, and some armed professionals are testing this design right now.
Minuteman, $55
KSG’s pocket carry holsters are also pretty dang good. Pocket carry definitely isn’t the optimum method, but sometimes it works when other methods don’t. I’ve pocket carried quite a bit, and Gabe’s holster is the smallest and lowest profile I’ve personally seen. Later I’ll write a more extensive article specifically about pocket carry.
The T.R. Jr, $30
Gabe also makes mag pouches. Anyone who carries a weapon should carry at least one reload; magazines fail, people accidentally hit the mag release under stress (watch the Oregon State Patrol shootout video below), or shooters empty a magazine in a second and find themselves holding an unloaded pistol.
The suspect inadvertently drops his magazine at :33.
My life was probably saved one night by an officer who dumped eight rounds in about a second at a suspect who was pointing a gun at me; the officer thought he had fired no more than three rounds. I’ve had a lot of pistol training and like to think I’d uphold the “one shot one kill” standard, but I have a brain so I know that’s unrealistic. Real shootings don’t follow a script, and unless you’re the world’s best gunfighter you should know your first round will likely miss, and even if it hits it may have no effect. Even multiple rounds may have no effect. So carry spare ammo. When I carry my Glock 42 or 43, I carry multiple spare mags.
Gabe makes a single mag pouch and a double mag pouch. They can be used together. The single pouch is an IWB, while the double pouch is a belt slide.
Mag carrier 2.0, $28
The double pouch is fantastic; slim, close fitting, and doesn’t print even with a close-fitting shirt. The only problem I’ve had with the double pouch is that it makes pulling my wallet a bit difficult, but that doesn’t deter me from using the pouch at all.
Double carrier, $45
Thus far, Gabe and KSG Armory makes holsters and mag pouches for the following weapons:
Full-sized railed 1911
Glock 20/21
Glock 17/22/31
Glock 19/23/26/27
Glock 42/43
M&P 9/.40
M&Pc
Springfield XDS 3.3″
Springfield XDS 3.8″
S&W Shield
Bersa Thunder
Beretta PX4 Storm
Beretta Nano
Ruger LCP
Kel-Tec P3AT
H&K VP9
Sig P238
Hi-Point .45… just kidding.
If your pistol isn’t on the list, contact Gabe and ask if he can produce a holster for that weapon. If he has access to one, he’ll make it happen.
JUST TO BE PERFECTLY CLEAR: Gabe and I are not in business together. I don’t make any money from his holster sales. He just sent me gear to test, I was impressed, and I’m telling the world about it because I’d like to see his business succeed. I’ve also never met Gabe in person. Since I don’t know him, it’s possible he carries the severed heads of prostitutes in his trunk, or karaokes Justin Bieber’s greatest hits, or campaigns for Hillary Clinton (actually, I could give him a pass on severed heads or Justin Bieber but if I thought he was a Clinton supporter I’d have nothing to do with him). But all indications are he’s a good dude with common sense. I have no reason to believe he’s anything but a solid citizen and 2nd Amendment supporter.
If you visit my Facebook page (linked below) you might get some free KSG stuff in a gear giveaway we’re hosting. So check out Gabe’s gear, help a Texan small businessman out, keep training and keep carrying!
Chris Hernandez is a 20 year police officer, former Marine and currently serving National Guard soldier with over 25 years of military service. He is a combat veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan and also served 18 months as a United Nations police officer in Kosovo. He writes for BreachBangClear.com and Iron Mike magazine and has published two military fiction novels, Proof of Our Resolve and Line in the Valley, through Tactical16 Publishing. He can be reached at [email protected] or on his Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/ProofofOurResolve).
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