So you’ve decided to get yourself a concealed carry gun, have you? Congratulations, you’re about to become one of the well-armed Second Amendment supporters who know the importance of personal protection.
You can count yourself as ready, but you’re probably not taking full advantage of the resources available now that you’re determined to join the growing community of concealed carriers.
The right procedures you should take might not be 100-percent obvious, so RE Factor Tactical has taken it upon themselves to offer up some meaningful suggestions.
Here, in five simple steps, is your RE Factor Tactical CCW Guide.
1. Get a good concealed carry gun
A concealed carry gun should have the specs and features you’ve come to expect, but like any other purchase, you should do your homework. RE Factor Tactical has a lot of good ideas in this department, and can give you a leg up when you’re ready to get one of your own.
2. Back it up with insurance
You should know your rights and be confident in your self-defense skills, but you should also know about the need to cover your back. That’s what concealed carry insurance is for, and if you don’t have it, you might as well not even carry your gun. It’s that important.
3. Find a good holster (or two)
Because you aren’t really carrying concealed if you just stick it in your pocket. If you need a few holster suggestions for concealed carry, make sure you check RE Factor Tactical’s selection first, then scope out the rest of your options. The fit and finish of a quality-made Kydex holster will really open your eyes if you’ve never used one before.
4. Train like you’ve never trained before
Do you really need an explanation as to why practical training with a concealed firearm is a big deal? Just like with insurance, you should probably just leave your gun at home if you haven’t put in significant training time at the range.
You can’t really consider yourself a smart gun owner if you aren’t working towards becoming safer, more efficient, and increasingly reliable with your firearm.
5. Up your knowledge on local laws
Ignorance is always a good argument against punishment, right? Wrong, especially if you wind up on the bad side of the law when it comes to concealed carry. Whether it’s for your home area or a location you plan to visit, not knowing isn’t going to cut it.
It’s your responsibility as a gun owner to know what’s legal and what’s not. It’s perhaps the most important part of owning a gun, and shouldn’t be ignored.
These five things will give you the foundation of a smart concealed carrier’s mentality, and RE Factor Tactical can help you move through each step.
Are you ready to up your game?
Sponsored content…comes across as more than a bit condescending.
I guess “articles” like this help pay the bills…?
Yep.
all the knowledge in the world of local laws doesn’t mean squat anymore.
The recent WalMart story has shown us that, a man open carries into WalMart, breaking no law is arrested and charged with terrorist in threats because of people’s feelings.
Meanwhile the Manager who caused most of the panic, and the CCW holder/wannabe cop who held him at gun point were left to go free despite breaking multiple laws.
This. Totally agree.
Disagree with JMR. I support actions of the CC fireman in Walmart situation. I have no problem with him holding the young man until police arrive. Then the police can determine if there is criminal behavior or intent. If the young man, with the AR pistol, did nothing illegal, he should not be charged. Even if completely legal, open carrying an AR in Walmart, within one week of El Paso shooting, did nothing to help out supporters of 2nd Amendment. There is a group of US voters that believe in constitution, freedom & 2nd amendment, but are not heavily invested in gun culture. We need these voters to side with us, in order to fight off the leftist gun thieves. At a minimum, walking around Walmart, open carrying an AR PISTOL was inflammatory & made gun owners look less intelligent & less rational in the eyes of the unbiased public.
@David:
I agree with most of what you say; open carrying an AR pistol is stupid, if not illegal. However, I think the guy who held the AR guy at gunpoint (if I understand what happened correctly) is on very shaky ground both legally and otherwise. THAT could have precipitated an escalation of trouble up to and including a real gunfight. If there is a pinch to be made, let the cops do it.
“make sure you check RE Factor Tactical’s selection first,”
Their website is horrible.
Select the “leather wing holster” at https://www.refactortactical.com/products/leather-wing-holster?variant=36947640522
Select make – great they list Styer; Let’s see if they can fit my M9A1;
Select Model. I can choose from all available models from all Manufacturers. (and it doesn’t seem they can fit a Styer at all – listing no models.
I wonder what they’d do If I actually ordered a “Baretta Shield 45” though.
I’m a huge proponent of adding some form of hand to hand combat training and overall general physical fitness training, as well. Given you’re physicallly capable, of course.
Not every situation calls for shooting someone. And if you’re an able bodied male vs another unarmed bodied male, disparity of force doesn’t hold water. It’s not a bad idea to be physically fit enough to break contact with an aggressor and get away (i.e., not be fat and out of shape) and/or be able to defend strikes, achieve a clinch, or put someone on the deck, etc.
To each his own, but I think hand to hand training is more important than training with the gun. And more useful in general, given it supports overal health and fitness.
I would rather be skilled with my hands, in shape, and untrained with a gun. Then skilled with gun, out of shape, and untrained with my hands.
Of course, I practice what I preach, and do all of the above. I train to out run, out fight, and out shoot the BG. YMMV.
RockOnHellChild,
Acquiring and maintaining physical fitness and hand-to-hand combat skills is incredibly important for confrontations with attackers who have no visible objects in hand because, as you stated, most courts will condemn using a firearm to defend against an attacker with no visible objects in their hands. Like it or not, if your attacker is the same sex as you and remotely similar in age and size, our courts expect you to duke it out.
I believe it is even more important to have a handgun on your person at all times. You can compensate for poor physical fitness and hand-to-hand combat skills with a handgun.* You cannot compensate for failing to have a handgun if your attacker has a bludgeon, knife, or firearm.
* Poor physical fitness and hand-to-hand combat skills do not legally justify immediately using a handgun against an attacker who has no visible objects in hand. What we are legally justified to do, in that scenario, is resort to our handgun after it is apparent that we are losing the fight, retreating, and the attacker keeps coming.
Disclaimer: the above is my personal opinion and is not legal advice. Consult a competent attorney in your jurisdiction for legal advice on legally sanctioned use of firearms in self-defense.
Uncommon, all fair points. Like I said, to each his own.I find myself lending more of my time and money towards hand to hand training and general fitness these days.
As I’m getting older, I’m finding I would rather get out of dodge than think I’m going to “shoot it out” or “duke it out” when bad things happen. Being fit and knowing I can hold my own helps with that decision. I have had a few situations come up in the last few years, which I don’t care to get into, where I strapped and had to make a call. I choose correctly and no one got hurt. But I had to be honest with myself and put my ego aside.
This led me to change my behavior a bit and make decisions based on how I view things to be. I still carry and practice. But I spend more time at the gym and less at the range, being my time and money are not endless. The trade off in a slight decrease in shooting ablity was the worth the huge increase in conditioning and fighting ability. Based on my abilities (again, YMMV) and body, I have to work much harder to stay in shape and skilled with my hands than I do to remain competent with firearm.
Can I steal your disclaimer? It’s pretty good language.
I don’t really care what the court says after. A clenched fist to the temple will kill you. I saw it first hand when I was younger. I won’t let that happen to me and I’ll be damned if fear of some hypothetical judge is gonna change that.
This goes beyond simply advertising your product and into fear-mongering.
If you are going to carry, read the book…. “The Law of Self Defense” by Andrew Branca.
My favorite quote from the book…to help prevent issues with CCW…
“Don’t do stupid things in stupid places at stupid times with stupid people”
Anyhow the book is great. It should be a must read for any CCW permit. If you live by its advice you probably do not need insurance.
Caveat:
While quality training is always a good thing and we can always benefit from more, it is not necessary for a reasonably fit and coordinated person to be able to successfully defend themselves with a handgun at contact distances.
Operating a handgun for the overwhelming majority of righteous self-defense events at contact distances is exceedingly simple: point your handgun at your attacker, squeeze the trigger, and repeat until your attacker is no longer a credible, imminent threat of death or grievous bodily harm.
Let me emphasize that previous paragraph: if you can accurately point your finger at someone who is six feet away from you, you can accurately point a handgun at an attacker who is six feet away from you even without any prior practice or training.
Having said all that, if you want to effectively engage attackers beyond contact distance in complex scenarios, that definitely requires training and practice.
The end result: how much training (if any) you need depends on which threat scenarios you want to be able to handle. Defending against an opportunistic attacker at contact distance does not require any training/practice. Defending against determined attackers at any distance does require training and practice.
I agree. Training is great but not necessary if you understand the concepts of CCW and the what would be required if in the very remote chance you need to use you gun in defense.
“if you want to effectively engage attackers beyond contact distance in complex scenarios, that definitely requires training and practice.”
I agree with that statement as well. That said, the longer the shot, the greater the chance of your life being ruined. With today’s political atmosphere taking a shot at 10 yards or more is going to be very hard to justify and you will quickly become the target of an investigation by some DA that wants to make a name for themselves. It will be argued that you could have probably ran or that the intent of the attacker at 30+ feet could not be clear….etc…etc…etc and then you end up in trouble.
Like I said in another post read the book…. “The Law of Self Defense” by Andrew Branca. If most states if just put your hand on your gun, not pull it, to threaten a potential attacker, that can be considered aggravated assault which carries up to 10 years in prison. The book goes into this in detail. If a potential attacker is scared off because you put your hand on your gun and they see that and back off, they can call the cops and report you. This happens more than you would think and that is why even if that went down and the indecent is over you need to call the cops and do it ASAP before they do, so you are the “victim” and not the perp.
Since we can’t edit comments. To my point about training not being necessary, practice is.
Practice putting on your holster and getting it comfortable, practice holstering, practice drawing, dry fire. Do this many, many times with the gun un-loaded. Then go to a range that allows you to draw and fire or go out on to some property where you can do this, and practice all of that again with live rounds, many times.
Larry,
I had never heard that before, although I can easily imagine how several prosecutors would go that route.
I operate under the “distance == time == options” mantra. If you decide that an adversary is such a significant threat that shaving off one tenth of a second is an important consideration (having your hand already on your handgun would reduce your time to draw and fire about one tenth of a second), backing up a few steps is a far better strategy to give yourself additional time to put rounds on target than having your hand on your handgun. Why? Because backing up gives you considerably more time than having your hand on your handgun, it is evidence that you were NOT escalating a confrontation, and it has no legal jeopardy.
If you’re that scared then why bother carrying. I mean really. If the laws are that archaic then you have no right to self defense with a firearm and take your beating.
I looked through RE Factor Tactical’s website and found a few potentially useful things (which I can get at a gun show cheaper), but overall it looks like a supply store for wannabee operators operating operationally. With regard to RE Factor Tactical’s five rules, I agree with them for the most part. As to training, however, some people are physically unable, financially unable or are located in areas with no (or few) ranges that allow that sort of training, so that would result in a seldom/never training situation. What are they to do?
Good marketing replaces common sense and is how concealed carry is a multi billion dollar industry.
Now that you are armed with the fact enjoy the comments.
“That’s what concealed carry insurance is for, and if you don’t have it, you might as well not even carry your gun.”
Bullshit.
Never pick a fight with an old man. He’ll just shoot you.
“That’s what concealed carry insurance is for, and if you don’t have it, you might as well not even carry your gun.”
A ridiculous statement. This advertisement brought to you by . . .”
Just an opinion and everyone has one, but don’t make such an absurd statement.
I get why TTAG went with this – it’s ‘sponsored content’ (means someone paid for it to be posted). But if someone actually read it and then paid for the piece of sh** ‘article’ to be run….? Somebody needs to get fired – this could be cobbled together in 5 minutes or less by just about anyone…. what crap
What a stupid article. “Don’t bother even carrying”? Really TTAG? You’re better then this. That’s pure sewage. Yeah, it’s better to be an unarmed victim and be killed rather then carry without insurance. Ok. Trash, all of you who support this clown.
The Truth About Guns is…I don’t need to physically overpower my attacker, and or have OSS training and or have marksmanship skills like a sniper to SIGNIFICANTLY improve my self defense odds by using a handgun
That’s the beauty of an ‘equalizer’.
WA state recently prevented ALL CC insurance providers from offering policies. They also passed Initiative 1639 which is one of most agregious collection anti-gun laws in the country.
https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/washington-shuts-down-nra-carry-guard-insurance-program-in-the-state/
My fundamental and recurring advice to newer shooters and friends is spend less on your handgun and more on quantity of ammunition (when deciding on budgetary issues). Then, for Pete’s sake, shoot the damn thing.
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