Do you ever "make" someone carrying? Lets do an experiment.

J

jon_in_wv

New member
When I first started carrying I was always paranoid someone would see I was carrying and would start trouble. I decided I would start intentionally looking out for people carrying to see how many I actually noticed. After several weeks I hadn't seen even ONE. I concluded either people do a pretty good job of concealment or just not that many people carry.

I'm proposing this experiment on a larger scale. For 30 days, starting today, lets all keep and eye out and see if we can notice other people carrying. Don't use your friends who you know carry, I'm talking about strangers. When you go in public and you see one, post it on the thread. NOT who or where they are, just the circumstances of how and why you made them. It might be interesting to see just how well, or poorly, people are doing concealing their weapon. It might also help us all learn a little about out own carry habits.

Ready, go.
 
I was at a training over the last two days where I met a gentleman with a bow-legged walk and the kind of voice you would expect to hear on a commercial where a grandfather doles out advice to his grandson. Neat old guy.
I didn't say anything to him about it, but he had the grip of a derringer sticking out of a case on his belt. I assume its an open carry rig, but it didn't seem too out of place.

As far as people printing, I look from time to time. I've never made anyone. I carry OWB, and unless the wind blows my overshirt open, you can't see the .38 on my belt.
 
There was one time I happened to be buying gas at a station about a mile from home. It was a hot day. One man, older than myself I'd say, was wearing a vest. He had a certain look about him, a sort of "I'd like someone to try something" kind of look. While I didn't see a handgun, the coil of plastic cable strapping on his rear view mirror was sort of a giveaway. But I might have been wrong.
 
For 30 days, starting today, lets all keep and eye out and see if we can notice other people carrying
Click to expand...

Been doing just that for years. Some would be surprised at who is carrying a weapon.
 
Just once so far,outside a store in the parking lot.
A guy on a Harley pulled up next to my truck when he got of the bike his
jacket road up over his 1911,he said hi and smiled and told him he might want to adjust his rig before he went in.
 
Based on experience I'd say many more "concealed " firearms show, print through, or give themselves away then those carrying them think.

As for "Starting Trouble" Why? Either just file the information away quietly, or advise the person flashing that you noticed politely so they can make any changes/adjustments they feel needed.:rolleyes:
 
"Starting trouble" wasn't referring to the reasonable response someone like you might have to seeing it but the UN-reasonable response some bleeding heart liberals might have to seeing the weapon. Actually I find it really strange you twisted that statement around that way. I think it was pretty obvious I was talking about people's response to seeing I was armed, not my response to seeing someone else. :rolleyes::rolleyes:

"Printing" is really tough to read. Is that a weapon? or a cellphone? A folding knife? etc.........
 
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Most people don't pay attention to other people and how they wear clothes, much less notice if people carry.

I've tried this experiment when I go out to the mall or to Walmart and its very hard to tell if someone is carrying. That could be a celphone on their pocket or on their belt. Who knows?

On the flipside, other people cannot tell if I'm carrying either. I even go to my local gun range (with signs saying No loaded Firearms allowed) with my firearm loaded and concealed and I doubt the employees there can tell, and prolly don't pay attention anyway.
 
Justice06RR

I even go to my local gun range (with signs saying No loaded Firearms allowed) with my firearm loaded and concealed and I doubt the employees there can tell, and prolly don't pay attention anyway.

”No Firearm” signs in Florida have no force of law unless they are posted on property that is specifically mentioned in State Law as being off limits to those with a Permit/License to Carry. If you are in a place not specifically mentioned in the law that is posted and they ask you to leave, you must leave. If you refuse to leave then you are breaking the law and can be charged.

http://www.handgunlaw.us/states/florida.pdf

Its also a great way of being banned for life, if one of them "prolly" see's you carrying
 
"Printing" is really tough to read.
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Not really. Let me expand.
Shiny strips on the jacket over the right & left shoulder, the right being heavier/wider.
Either:
Dirty harry needs to change the jacket more frequently or change carry rigs more often.
Or:
Don't carry under a jacket that isn't cut to hide the bulk.
Really come on.
Most have the same body bulk on both sides whatever that amount is. A right handed person with a fat left waist? I'd guess carry.

Why so sensitive? afraid you;re printing through to the point I can tell you the serial number?:D No twisting, just a few facts you don't feel comfortable with.

You don't use the same body posture for a cellphone or knife it's the combination that is a dead give away.
 
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Unless you have X-Ray vision, it is hard to see a carry in a woman's purse.

It would not be surprised me if there were more women carrying than men.
 
Been doing this for years...

occasionally, I do "make" someone carrying, but since I live in an open-carry state, it's not that big a deal. Nonetheless, so far I've seen one guy - mid to late 20's, wearing blue jeans and a tight, Under Armour-type shirt pulled snug over the Springfield XD (yes, it was that tight that I could tell the model gun he was "concealing." Then there was the guy in line in front of me in the post office... the one with two "wallets"... except one looked a bit more like a Kel Tec P32 than a billfold. Then there was the old fella in the gun store wearing an open cardigan sweater over his belt-holstered S&W N-frame (which I noticed as his sweater pulled back while he was bending over to have a closer look at the guns in the lower case). And the time I noticed a co-worker of mine with a bulge in his sweatshirt behind his right hip that looked suspiciously reminiscent of the Sig P232 which he mentioned owning some months before. And, of course, being an open-carry state, I've seen a few guys doing the Wal-Mart walk... one with an HK in a strong-side holster (and an HK shirt, in case you didn't notice the gun already).. and another guy talking to his buddies by the housewares aisle with an MP9, also worn strong-side. That's all within the last year or so... my memory gets kinda fuzzy when I try to go back much farther than that... :rolleyes:
 
I have seen two people in the last year that I felt for certain were carrying.

I have seen several people who I thought could be carrying but not as certain as the other two.

I was terribly suprised how suprised how unobservant people are overall. We can and do openly carry at times but we carry recording devices when we do so that we dont get accused of anything.

One day my wife was in a hurry to go to the store, she left her jacket and walked around target for 20 minutes or so with her springfield XD 40 (3 in) in her small of the back holster sticking out for all the world to see before she noticed she wasnt wearing her jacket.

Well she was legal so she finished her shopping and no one said a word and no one acted strangely according to her.

It shouldnt be and wasnt a big deal as open carry is legal here but some people do get upset. The thing of it was no one seemed to notice at all and we live in a area where people are generally fairly touchy about such things.

People in general miss the big and little details...
 
I'm a huge people watcher and I always look for people carrying (the fiance and I make a game out of it :o). There's always people around who I think are carrying just by their mode of dress, sharp bulges that could be grips, etc. Some are kinda obvious as you can tell they don't care if they're printing or not...one big one comes to mind.

I was walking into Academy a while back and there was a guy coming out of the store that I knew was carrying. I could even tell he was carrying a fullsized SIG in a OWB holster and had on a tight t-shirt over it. I think that's where I draw the line at printing too much, when you can tell the gun. I just had a t-shirt on myself with the HK P2000SK/VMII but I know I wasn't printing like that.
 
Some years ago, I had a WV state trooper tell me that it is common knowledge among the Law Enforcement community in WV that 7 out of 10 people driving down the average road in WV will have a gun in the car. Most of the time the LEO doesn't ask and doesn't search unless there is a reason during a traffic stop.
 
most of the guys i've met that carry i've never known about till we got talking guns an they found out i had a ccw an they lifted shirt to show me their piece....in a trusted atmosphere of course an usually cuz they carried an oddball piece or caliber...hasnt happened much
 
I very often try to see if I can spot someone that's carrying, and have only done it once and I don't think it fully counts. A fellow customer at a gun store reached for something and exposed a revolver of some sort in an OWB holster. It doesn't really count because I figure someone seen in a gun store is just more likely to be carrying than someone who shops at the Pottery Barn.
 
I think adults are conditioned not to look at other people too closely most of the time. There are so many people out there you'd rather not look at in the first place. Likewise, some are even conditioned, in a way, not to notice certain other people, as if they didn't exist. Some street person wrapped up in a blanket sitting on a sidewalk grate downtown, for instance, or anyone unworthy of a glance, so to say.

Children do not have this inhibition and will stare and may see things adults do not catch. And besides, adults usually have other things on their mind. Naturally, all bets are off when it is a young woman with men around.
 
I have been doing it for years too. I spot people all the time as lots of people make very little effort to actually conceal their weapon.

Over here you may own only one gun for self defence. This means that everyone and his uncle buys the biggest gun that holds the most rounds. No offence but Glock owners are the ones i see most because it seems like they want people to see them carry one.

There was once a gentleman that i did business with for more than 3 years. Very nice man and he was always in shorts and used to cart around large amounts of cash in his business. We started talking guns and i told him to get one, he said he bought one years ago. I asked him why he does not carry and he whips out his H&K P7. I had no idea he carried.

Other legends of concealed carry would be my brother and his 75. He conceals that gun so well that i have to ask him from time to time.
 
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