Are you someone else’s holster?
I want to ask you a couple questions. How seriously do you take your right to carry? Do you train in a way to your gun out of the hands of other people? Are you just someone else’s holster?
I ask these questions because I observed something concerning to me the other day. I was walking into a retailer and saw a person walk in with his firearm being open carried in his holster at the 3:00 o’clock position. It was in what appeared to me as a Galco leather holster with only one snap at the top for retention.
I continued to observe him as I walked in and he seemed to be in an unobservant state. He didn’t keep his head on a swivel. He certainly didn’t notice me observing him. When he got his shopping cart, he allowed others into his bubble with ease and within arm’s reach of his sidearm. I truly have no idea of his conditioning or other physical defense skills, but he displayed to me that he was more likely than not, someone else’s holster.
We have a right to open carry in my state. My state also is a “shall” issue state for concealed handgun licenses. This means that if you qualify within the statute, your county must issue your concealed license. I feel strongly that people should be allowed to open carry. Just because you can do something though, doesn’t mean that you should.
I have stated in my classes before that gun control should mean two things. First, you can hit what you are aiming at and second, your guns remain in your control at all times. That second part means to me that if you choose to carry a firearm, you have invested into training to ensure that you can retain your firearm if the need arises.
Teaching recruits at the police academy, we went over weapon retention. These recruits are issued level 2 or level 3 retention holsters. In simple speak, the higher the number, the more safeguards that need to be deactivated before drawing the pistol from the holster. During our time training these retention concepts, we found that if someone wasn’t skilled in combatives, they would lose their weapon in under two seconds. (It was often quicker than that.) If they had a strong understanding of combatives, they could retain their weapon for a much longer period of time, and often break contact to find other solutions.
The point I am getting to is if you choose to carry, you should ensure that you can “control” your firearm by keeping it in your control. If you choose to carry concealed, you offer less of a chance to have someone attempt to take if from you since they won’t know it’s there. If you choose to carry in an open fashion, you should ensure you are ready to maintain possession of that firearm and that comes down to being skilled in combatives training.
There are plenty of combatives training styles that will help you add to your skill level in retaining a firearm. I have trained Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for over twenty years. This training has been very beneficial to me to be able to improve my own skill set and convey simple concepts to others to improve their retention skills.
I hope you take the time think about this question. A lot of people say they would never let others get that close. I know plenty of recruits that have told me the same thing. I remind them it is hard to have a conversation from 10+ feet away. If you aren’t already doing it, add weapon retention skills to your current combatives training.
Now go out and get some training in.

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