It’s here. One of the best – or, depending on your family, worst – days of the year. You’re going to be at that table again, cousin Ned grabbing your arm and bending your ear about his latest can’t-miss investment opportunity and how you’d be a fool not to get in now. Aunt Joanie will keep pressing you to try that mysterious side dish she brought because no one else seems to be brave enough to put something that looks like that in their mouth. And then later, your sister’s bratty little kids will be running around and screaming like stuck pigs when all you want to do is watch the football game while the digestion process starts and the food coma kicks in…

So the question is, given the fact that you’ll probably need a constant IV drip of beer, if not vodka, to get through the experience, will you be packing while you’re packing away the turkey, stuffing and cranberry glop? When your nephew Jimmy drafts you to play wide-out in the annual touch football game, will you be running post patterns with a Glock flopping around on your hip? Or are you willing to risk four plus hours of full-frontal familial contact without the ability to adequately defend yourself?

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42 COMMENTS

  1. I’ll be open carrying (on a day like this it is more comfortable than IWB). Not because I think I need it, but out of habit. Everybody in the family knows I carry & isn’t bothered by it. Even if I have a bit to drink, I’ll still be legal – the legal prohibition on carrying while consuming alcohol in NC specifically applies to concealed carry. Plus, when I’m on my own premesis I will do as I please, and if I want to have a drink while my little friend is on my hip, its not the state’s business.

  2. Absolutely. When I go down to the folks’ place for turkey day, I usually carry a few more guns with me. Target practice out back after lunch.

  3. I’ll be fixin’ the turkey. I find that I get more compliments on my culinary skills when open-carrying, for some reason. People seem to be more willing to help clean up the kitchen afterwards, as well. And I manage to stay out of those PITA dysfunctional family squabbles…

    Me: “How’s the turkey, Granny?”
    Granny: “Uh, um, gulp, it’s delicious!”
    Me: “Ah, I thought you’d like it – so glad to hear it. Have some more.”

    😉

  5. I’m carrying to practice my concealed carry around family. Mom hates guns, so I’m seeing if I can conceal the weapon all holiday without them noticing.

  6. I will be consuming large quantities of alcohol today so I will be totally vulnerable. The two things I don’t do when drinking is driving and packing heat.

  7. Goes without saying, 24/7/365. Right to keep and bear is one of the many things I am grateful for!!!!

    Happy Thanksgiving to all y’all.

  8. I’m with the in-laws in Chicago. The McDonald decision notwithstanding, this state of Ill noise doesn’t recognize any 2nd Amendment rights at al, and the only guns in the house are in the Call of Duty marathon being played in the basement.

    My nephew is fascinated by real-life comparisons of SCARs, ARs and TMPs, however, and is positively astonished that I can shoot them Out West where we live.

  11. Back home visiting the wife’s family in Detroit. Damn right I am carrying. Concealed with my remora holster, and extra mags loaded up with Hornady FTX. even went out to dinner last night with the wifey at McCormick&Schmicks in the ‘burbs and I was packing then (although I could only have 1 glass of wine b/c of it)

  12. I too am going to see if I can conceal carry “Carmen” around family and friends without being “outed” – I do not like to drink, so other than a food coma, I should be OK.

  13. Not going anywhere.
    I don’t carry while relaxing in my home. Plenty of loaded guns laying around. If for some reason I go outside, will be armed.

  15. Due to circumstances, I have been without steel, lead, and polymer for 4 months. Since I have been home I have been babying my firearm that I missed so much. I will be armed and damned thankful for it.

  22. I’m wearing pants, so I’m carrying. I’m partaking of the food, but I am not slugging beers (or any other alcoholic beverage). My gun doesn’t “flop” around, because I wear a proper holster with a proper belt.

    • also what I was carrying today, inside the waistband, although the waistband did get a little tight…..

  24. Yes. My deep concealment combo of Kahr P9 and SIG P290 is easily managed without more gun tutorials due to bulging shirt or ever present jacket.

  25. Since I’m crossing the international border twixt Massachusetts and Rhode Island to enjoy a Thanksgiving meal with a brilliant gun writer, no, I won’t be carrying, because that would be illegal.

    For most Americans, one’s right to self-defense ends outside one’s front door. I’m licensed to carry in 30-some states, but Rhode Island is not one of them. So my own right of self defense ends at the Rhode Island border. I can drive there in two tons of lethal steel, but I can’t carry there. Crazy, no? And you still think that HR822 is somehow mysteriously wrong?

    • Yeah, I hear you Ralph. I travelled to Mass myself and while I brought my holstered gun and spare mags, I wasn’t wearing them. Probably broke several laws anyway so maybe I should have just strapped up and been done with it!

  26. At home with the family so no. I did take my oldest son to the range yesterday with two AR’s, pistol, and a speed plate jones.

  27. Went to my sisters for turkey, had my Thunder .45 on my hip the whole time. When I leave the front door its on my hip. Period.

    Hope everyone had a great holiday.

  29. Of course I’m packing. On the other hand we went out for our dinner so it wasn’t a question of ‘do I pack in the house’.
    No, I love my wife, I am very fond of her daughter and I can live with my mother-in-law; therefore I carry. Period.

  30. Shot a few rounds off at my private range to make sure my new sights on the M&P 40 were on, put 5 rounds in 2 holes. good enough. Carried all day, had a single glass of wine, and when the power went off we used my weapon light to get a flashlight out of my BOB and candles going. Power was back on when I left. Did anyone care I: A. had a weapon, and B. used my light to keep from banging around in the dark? NO, they are all my kind of people.

    Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

  31. I carried around my M4 all day and substituted an MRE for some hot dogs and hamburgers.

    Happy belated Thanksgiving from COB Adder, Iraq!

    • Jacob, thanks to you for your service. And that reminded me of TDs back in the day, C-rats&dirt and M16A1 for a dining companion.

      • No, thank you. There is no way that I can say that I’ve had it harder than you did (judging by the M16A1 reference).

        • Actually, the Thanksgiving that came to mind was in Honduras in the early ’80s. Not sure why we were carrying A1s, possibly because DoD considered them disposable junk. Which, on the other hand, is my opinion of all M16 variants. But THAT is another discussion, entirely.

  33. Being we had to go to thanksgiving dinner at my inlaws house, and my wife’s mother literally had a panic attack from seeing a sculpture of an airplane made from empty rounds. (Are…are those..BULLETS???!! eeeeek!) to promote domestic harmony, no we didn’t carry.

  34. Heading into the Peoples Republic of New Jersey to visit family, so unfortunately, no carry for me. Can’t wait until I’m back in America.

  35. All day eveyday, exceptin when I work, cause our local gubmit don’t think anybodies worthy of Constitutional rights anymore.

  36. Day late.
    I carried all day. I wouldn’t want to disappoint my mother-in-law. She is quite happy to know her favorite son takes seriously the job of protecting her daughter and grandchildren.
    We had dinner for 20 and then went to the local theater to introduce a new generation of kiddos to the Muppets.

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