Choosing the right CCW Holster - For safety's sake

Choosing the correct holster for carrying your concealed handgun is not something you should take lightly. You are going to have to try different holsters until you find something you like, and you are likely going to need a couple different holsters for different occasions.

The $10 holsters at the local gun store are not a good option if you are going to carry a gun day in and day out. If you are just going to throw the gun in the glovebox of your vehicle, then the nylon $10 uncle mikes holster will be fine.

There are many great holster manufacturers out there, and they are not cheap. But these holsters are usually worth it.

www.sidearmor.com
www.blade-tech.com
www.comp-tac.com
www.desantisholster.com

Get a holster that COMPLETELY COVERS THE TRIGGER!!! Then make sure it is COMFORTABLE, because if it is not comfortable you will not wear it. Make sure that the holster you choose is EASY TO ACCESS. Make sure it fits in to how you are dressing for the day. A fanny pack holster on a jogger is pretty hard to detect, but a guy with a buzz cut at his kids ball game wearing a fanny pack might as well hang a sign around his neck that says, "Hello I'm an off duty Law Enforcement Officer, and yes that is a full size Glock in my fanny pack".
If you want to wear a holster named "thunderwear", then go for it, whatever floats your boat. Just don't wear one of these damn things to one of my classes :-) Because it isn't polite to play with yourself in front of others in the class when you are trying to draw your gun (uh, I mean weapon).

Stay away from silly retention straps. LEO's need these because their handgun is exposed, everyone knows they have it, and they risk having it taken away from them more so than a citizen who has a hidden gun that nobody can see. These silly straps put you at more risk for getting one caught in the trigger and having an accidental discharge.

This is an example of a holster you shouldn't use, the one that the TSA requires Flight Deck Officers to use. A dumb ass safety feature required by the rocket scientists at the TSA.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqOLjEli6yY

Make sure it is Unloaded!!!

When the time comes to dry fire practice, or clean your gun, participate in training or store your gun for an extended period please check and double check to make sure the firearm is unloaded!!! You cannot possibly be too careful or check your firearm to often to make sure it is unloaded.


Here is what happened to a Police Chief teaching a CCW class with a loaded handgun.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080507/...e_chief_shot_4

This guy is a Chief of Police!!! A highly trained Law Enforcement Officer! The Leader of his Department, and his carelessness put a bullet in his foot.

Dry fire practice at home is one of the best ways to improve your shooting skills, but please make sure your gun is unloaded every time you pick it up.

Lead Poisoning

Preventing lead poisoning is something often not thought about in firearms safety, but a serious issue. There are a couple of times that this is dealt with, anytime after handling firearms or ammunition, and anytime you shoot at an indoor range.

Lets talk about shooting in the indoor range first. Make sure that any indoor range you shoot in has proper ventilation, and is cleaned often to remove lead dust. This is a challenge for any indoor range. Don't spend extended periods of time at the indoor ranges, rough it and shoot outdoors, it is better for your health.

The Bullet Hole in Omaha is a fairly clean, decent range. In Lincoln there is supposed to be a new indoor range being built, which I look forward to, however the current indoor range in North Lincoln is a health hazard in my opinion. This place is full of lead and lead dust from 20 years, and zero effort appears to be made to keep it clean. (Did I mention the yellow cigarette smoke stained walls too?) The ventilation is not adequate either, quite honestly I'm surprised that the Health Department allows this place to operate still. If shooting at an indoor range it may also be beneficial for you to wear a breathing mask (such as one would wear while painting).

After handling firearms or ammunition it is important that you wash your hands. Mom always taught you to wash your hands with hot soapy water, however in the case of having lead on your hands, you should use COLD soapy water. Using warm water will open the pores on your skin causing the lead to absorb into your skin. Cold water closes those pores. Now if you haven't yet taken your CCW class and test yet, you may want to remember this little tibit of info.

To carry with one in the chamber or not???

I come across quite a few firearms owners who are a little uneasy about carrying their handgun with a round in the chamber. Well, if you don't carry one in the chamber it is time you get over your fear of it. Not carrying a round in the chamber is a decision that could very well get you killed. With most self defense shootings happening at 10 feet or less, you may not have that extra second to draw your gun and rack the slide.

We'll go back to the simple rule of "KEEP YOUR FINGER OFF THE TRIGGER UNTIL READY TO FIRE", if you can follow this rule.... Guess What? The gun won't go off. Keep you finger off the trigger when you are holstering the gun. When reholstering your gun, be aware that you jacket or shirt or strap on your holster doesn't get caught in the trigger guard.

To help overcome your fear, I highly recommend dry fire practice. MAKE SURE YOUR HANDGUN IS UNLOADED FIRST!!! Then practice putting the gun in ready condition (cocked) and put in your holster. Draw, dry fire, re-cock the gun and re-holster. Practice this over and over and over. Its amazing you will find that after thousands of dry fire drawing and re-holstering drills your trigger won't pull itself. And well, if you are in the bad habit of keeping your finger on the trigger when it shouldn't be, you will learn how to break that habit when the gun goes click instead of bang.

Store Firearms and Ammunition Separately

We've heard this rule often, but what about your gun you keep for self defense? Surely you don't keep the ammo locked up separately from your defensive gun???

Yes it is highly recommended that you keep ammunition locked up separately or stored separately from your firearms. However in the case of your self defense firearms it is not practical, just plain not a good idea to keep your ammo stored separately. The proper balance here is that you need to keep access to the loaded firearm so that you can get it quick when needed, however not accessible to unauthorized persons.

I keep a couple of firearms handy for self defense in the home. A few different carry pistols are located in a quick access safe real close to me at night. Also I am a firm believer in the Remington 870 pump 12 gauge shot gun being the #1 home defense gun. Quick access to the Remington 870 is done by using a MasterLock combination trigger lock that is rolled to a specific setting so that I know exactly how many turns to roll each dial in the dark to unlock the shotgun. No round in the chamber, yet a full magazine tube of 00 buckshot 3" magnum loads.

In summary, store ammunition separately from your firearms, however in the case of self defense firearms, you likely will store them loaded, but you must make absolutely sure they are secured.

Firearms Safety and Children

This topic is extremely important to me, and I believe if we did a better job of teaching all children respect for firearms and firearms safety, we would see fewer of these incidents involving firearms accidents and misuse of firearms.

I have four children, 3 boys and a girl. My daughter has fired a gun a few times, but really has no interest in it. My oldest son Cody, now 16 has shot quite a few competitions with me, but really likes basketball more. My 10 year old Alex really enjoys shooting, and often shoots in competitions with me. Alex will be kicking my butt in competitions within 2-3 years I predict. My 5 year old son Michael absolutely loves guns and constantly talks about the time I took him out shooting the .22 pistols this past year. Michael often dry fires the guns in the living room. Michael is just mastering the keeping the muzzle pointed in a safe direction at all times rule, but is getting the hang of it.

Kids have a huge curiousity about guns, and you can either shut them out and tell them to stay away from guns, or you can teach them about guns and let them hold/shoot them as many times as possible when they ask. I chose the latter, and feel I have squashed the curiousity factor so that my kids feel comfortable with guns. Of course each individual kids maturity level comes into play as to how much you can allow them to do. You must remember that you can control how your kids handle and respect guns in your presence, but you also must figure that they will encounter guns that are not properly stored such as at a friends house.

If you spend the time with your children, or any child, you can make a huge difference in how a child acts with firearms. Kids with guns actually act safer and more responsible with the guns than some very experienced adults I've seen!!! Set the example for kids when you are handling guns. Make sure you understand and obey all of the basic firearms safety rules and that you lead the way for kids to understand firearms safety.

Keep your firearms secured so that they don't fall into a curious childs hands when you are not around. It only takes a child about a second to explore with an unsecured gun. Balance the need for quick access to a firearm in your home with the need for safe storage, especially with children in your home.

Accidental / Negligent Discharges

Not a fun topic, but one that needs extra attention. There are two classes of firearms owners:



1) Those who have had an accidental or negligent discharge.

2) Those who are going to have an accidental or negligent discharge.



What is the difference between an accidental discharge and a negligent discharge? Not much, you pretty much made a bone headed mistake. Obviously if you fire a round when you did not intend to, this is an accidental discharge. If you were negligent when you accidently fired a round, then I would call that a negligent discharge.



If you are following the 'ol rule "Always keep the gun pointed in a safe direction", you will not injure someone WHEN (note I didn't say IF) you have your accidental discharge. YOU WILL HAVE ONE, IF YOU HAVEN'T YET. Hopefully when it happens you are smart enough to have the gun pointed in a safe direction.



Examples:



Accidental Discharge- You are shooting at the range practicing your transistions from one target to another. You start to pull up the slack on your trigger after firing at the first target while moving to your next target. (The gun is pointed downrange the entire time) You pull the trigger just a little soon before you meant to, since you weren't on the next target yet.



Negligent Discharge- You are at the Bullet Hole indoor range in Omaha, and you decide that you want to take apart your cool Glock pistol to show the guy at the counter. You NEGLECT to unload the pistol and NEGLECT to visually check the chamber before proceeding to pull the trigger (as required to disasemble a Glock). Bang!!! This was absolutely negligent, no excuses.