Who notices people carrying guns? Other people carrying guns. I’d mentioned this in last week’s post, and feel it bears repeating. The challenge is that most of us have difficulty coming to terms with thought processes that don’t mirror our own. Case and point: it’s unfathomable to those of us that carry guns that there are people out there that genuinely believe bad things won’t happen to them. It’s also hard for some to come to terms with the idea that true human ambush predators will use as much visual information as is available to profile their victims.

Dr. William Aprill of Aprill Risk Consulting does an amazing job in his Unthinkable seminar of articulating the thought process and motivators of Violent Criminal Actors (VCAs). One example he uses is that some criminals are so in tune with their predatory side that they are able to not only select a victim, but merely identify whether someone has been previously victimized, purely by their gait (how they walk)!

If they’re able to pick up significant info off of something that subtle, you can’t really believe that they won’t notice the hip-tumor under your shirt, the flashlight clipped to your pocket, or your operator-chic polo & 5.11 pant combo?

There was a fantastic podcast from Primary & Secondary where Varg Freeborn went into detail discussing degrees of concealment, and how they relate to the individual’s context and expectations. (It’s cued up to that snippit of the conversation, but I would strongly encourage you watch/listen to the whole thing.) The major point he made was that the kinds of people that we carry guns to protect against got much more familiar with a much higher degree of concealment at a much younger age, because failing to conceal whatever it was carried much graver consequences (loss of food, loss of resource, loss of freedom, etc. Survival level priorities). It’s comforting to dismiss the criminal element as stupid, uneducated, and unskilled. Sadly, it’s categorically false.

If a criminal predator is sizing you up and planning to ambush you, cues that you are armed in some form or fashion are not going to dissuade them. Chances are this is the type of person that has had more than one gun pointed at them at some point in their life. Basically all they’re going to do is read the defense, call an audible, and re-adjust their strategy to accommodate the new information they now have.

The preferred strategy is to keep your tools and abilities hidden. That way if you do still fail and end up getting selected, you’ve been underestimated.

When it comes to profiling off of visual information, who is more likely to be carrying a gun with which they’re proficient?  

This guy or That Guy?

And which one do you think your significant other would rather be seen with at a nice restaurant?

If you want to fly your “gang colors” as a gun carrier (and if we’re being honest, that’s exactly what they are: a way for members of a tribe to signal to each other that the general public doesn’t immediately catch) go for it. But don’t think that advertising yourself as such is going to help de-select you.

On top of all of that, in the event you do have to employ your firearm in public, how you dress may have an impact on the public’s perception of you and your actions (which may translate into a more (un)favorable 911 call or witness statement.

The next segment is going to touch more on the social impacts of dressing well.

I mentioned Dr. William Aprill’s work at the onset of the post, and I really cannot recommend his Unthinkable class enough. I call it a “Red Pill” class (a la “The Matrix”). Once you take that course, your eyes are opened to an entire other set of cultures and behaviors that you cannot un-know. It will absolutely make you uncomfortable, and you’ll never look at the world in quite the same way, but you’ll be much better off with the information than you would without. He also put out great regular content on his Instagram and Facebook pages, which you should also be following.

“The road to Hell is paved with good intentions”. We’ve all heard the expression. Well in this instance, Hell isn’t the biblical eternity of fire and brimstone, but clunky, poorly thought out suggestions that may sound good on paper, but don’t necessarily work in practice.

We talked about gear in the Part IV. There are plenty of people out there that offer and seek gear-related solutions. Why? Because they’re easy. You mean that shiny piece of plastic in my wallet can fix everything? Here you go! The challenge is that not everyone that’s selling a solution a) truly understands the problem or b) actually has your interests at heart (mind you, the good ones do)

Here’s a few things the “tactical” industry gets wrong in terms of products/solutions:

• Unrealistic context: “Just put a jacket over it”. Seems easy enough. Until you try that at an outdoor summer wedding in Louisiana. Other than the preacher, you’ll be the only one in a coat. And some folks may wonder why. Drawing attention to yourself is bad and unnecessary. Plus you’ll be miserable. The idea here is that the right amount of knowledge will allow you to tailor any outfit to more suitably accommodating a firearm, not just slapping a cover garment over whatever you’re wearing like you’re headed to a shooting match.

• Bad advice: “Just get the [pants/jacket] a little bigger than normal, and that way it’ll cover the gun”. I mean, sure, from a purely functional standpoint less fitted clothing will reduce your risk of printing. But one of the advantages of a suit is that it accentuates the male physique, even if you’re like me and occasionally skip your workouts on Taco Tuesday (cuz I mean, c’mon…tacos!). Because the jacket has fallen out of common usage, men don’t generally understand how to properly use it (kinda like a standard transmission). Due to this lack of familiarity, when the occasion to dress up IS called for, our hero is now wearing ill-fitting clothing that makes them look sloppy, and like his clothing a costume. We’ve all seen that guy “dressed up”, and the only place he could possibly be going is a wedding, a funeral, or a court hearing because he looks so unnatural in it.

• Too inaccessible: Other than the jacket, the next most popular suggestion for going heeled while fancy is the ankle holster. Sounds like a good idea on paper, until you factor in that properly tailored trousers:
  • Are short enough that the ankle is exposed when seated and
  • Should generally taper, at least slightly, leaving less room to accommodate a gun.

Not to mention the fact that, while it’s better than not carrying a gun at all, ankle carry is arguably the hardest to access. You’ve stored the gun at literally the furthest possible point from where it will be needed. Access and deployment will be challenging even under controlled circumstances, let alone in the middle of an assault. It’s generally inadvisable to occupy both your hands when someone’s trying to cave your face in or stab you. I’m personally of the opinion that the ankle gun should be reserved to backup status only, generally when the primary gun is worn on the belt-line. YMMV

• “Solutions” that “solve” the problem, but create others: In recent years, holster makers have tried to accommodate the more fashion conscious of us, and have come out with a myriad of “tuckable” holster options for us. The idea being that the shirt would go over the body of the holstered gun, hiding it from view. Well, while the firearm itself is in fact covered, you still have 1 or 2 of these big honking belt loops/clips in plain sight, that have no apparent purpose. Sure, you may go unnoticed from a casual glance, but not necessarily if someone is sizing you up for an assault.

In an upcoming post, I’ll be going in to a more comprehensive breakdown of a variety of popular carry methods, and what my experiences have been with each of them.

There’s a lot of debates that exist in the gun/tactical/defensive world: 9 vs. 45, red dot vs. irons, aiwb vs. strongside hip, tourniquet vs. spare mag, night sights vs. fiber optic, whether New Shimmer is a floor wax or a dessert topping (most of you are going to have to Google that one), etc.

There is, however, one unifying topic that everybody can get behind and discuss into the wee hours of the morning: Gear! That shiny new piece of equipment that promises to make you shoot faster, group tighter, draw cleaner, and make all your dreams come true. All you have to do is lay out some cash, take it home, and be fulfilled…until the next thing comes out.

It is with this topic that I will win over the masses, and convince people of the benefit to understanding style! Best case scenario: you’ll have the ability and understanding of how to incorporate the stuff that you’ve spent your hard earned money on into your wardrobe. Worst case scenario: you need to buy more gear! Either way everybody wins!

Ok, so seriously, here’s why this makes life so much easier. There’s lot of advice out there about how concealing a gun in dress attire is as simple as just throwing a jacket over top of your normal carry rig. There are 3 major challenges to this idea:

1. A properly tailored jacket would either result in horrible printing of the gun, or may not even be able to be buttoned due to the extra material on the waistline (depending on how fitted it is)
   • An improperly tailored jacket has the potential of you looking sloppy and/or out of place, possibly defeating the entire point of the jacket all together
2. For those of us that carry appendix, the jacket does virtually nothing as an open-front cover garment. It works ok as a closed front garment, but there are times where the jacket should be unbuttoned (like when you’re seated)
3. This presupposes the ability to wear a jacket. If you live below the 35th North Parallel, that’s not a realistic proposition for 6-8 months out of the year, especially if you spend any time outdoors.

This drives most people to explore tuckable holsters, which makes sense. You can still carry your pistol in roughly the same place, so your drawstroke can remain consistent, and all you’re doing is putting a shirt overtop of it. This can work, but again, you need to know what the outfit is supposed to look like before the gun is introduced, so that you can maintain that look after the gun is in place. Otherwise it may be covered, but it’s not necessarily concealed. So odds are, you’re going to need a different holster.

Once you’ve gotten past how to cover the gun, we want to make sure that it blends in with your chosen attire, so that it doesn’t look like you’re hiding something under your shirt. This is best achieved with the artful use of fabric weight, patterns, and textures.

• Fabric weight: This one’s pretty self-explanatory. Heavier fabrics are

1. More likely to retain their own form and not hang up on/cling to whatever you have underneath it
2. Generally less sheer, so you reduce the chances of being able to flat out see the gun through the material

• Patterns are your friend. Look at military field uniforms. The mixing of different colors and shapes help to obscure the shape of things. Now keep in mind, what is available to you will vary dramatically based on your required dress code. Loosely from most effective to least, we’re looking at:
  • Hawaiian/Aloha/Floral: Just don’t. Unless You’re a freeloading private eye with an epic mustache (or Caleb Giddings). Then all bets are off. Seriously though, this is a very bold shirt and can easily look foolish. If you intend to wear one seriously, I’d save it for when the wearer is more proficient in fashion and style.
  • Plaid & Madras: This offers multiple colors and stripes of varying thicknesses going in different directions. These are extremely bold and, unless you work in an artistic field, or one that doesn’t have a dress code, these are unlikely to be a viable choice for professional attire.
  • (Multi)Check & Gingham: Gingham is a bit more informal, but it can be pulled off in an office environment if things are suitably casual. The check & multi-check are a little more subdued. Depending on the size of the pattern, and the colors selected, you can probably use these in slightly more buttoned up environments like banking/finance.
  • Stripes: There’s a pretty wide variety of striped patterns, which is nice. It’s generally understood that vertical stripes are considered to be slimming, and we can play this to our advantage. Just as they can help conceal the contours of all those tacos, they can also help hide the angles and edges of your sidearm.
  • Solids: I’ve worked in environments where we could only wear the most conservative of shirts: The solid white dress shirt. It is arguably one of the most versatile staples in a man’s closet. It can be worn with literally everything. The catch is that, especially in solids, lighter colors tend to be less forgiving than darker ones when it comes to concealment. That’s where our next section comes in handy.
• Fabric textures like herringbone, twill, and various oxfords will offer some “topography” to the shirt, some visual action so it’s just not a big flat panel of one color. Think about what a sheet of copy paper looks like fresh out of the package vs. after you crumple it up and smooth it back out. That texture can help reduce the shadowing

The other reason that a working knowledge of materials is useful is because you know what you can expect out of your clothes in terms of performance. It’s pretty easy to hang a 1911 or Beretta 92 off a big thick gun belt in a pair of Wranglers. Believe me when I tell you the can change when those jeans change to an Italian suit, and that double stitched bullhide is replaced with 1″ calf skin. Not saying it can’t be done, just that that it poses more of a challenge. Just like you wouldn’t ask your gear to do something it wasn’t intended for, like a 200m headshot with an Uzi, the same should apply to your wardrobe.

One thing that most of the gun-carrying community can agree upon is that the right to protect oneself and one’s family is universal. Regardless of who you are or what you do, you deserve the ability to level the playing field when it comes to keeping yourself safe…as long as you only do it by completely overhauling your lifestyle to accommodate this very specific list of tools. I mean, if you’re not carrying:

• A full sized handgun (Glock 19 or comparable)
• A spare magazine (at least 15 rounds, but if you’re serious about this you should probably have a +5 extension on that badboy)
• A backup gun (because either you’ll have to arm someone else or you’ll get shot in the hand, damaging the pistol in the process…but you still need the spare mag)
• A knife. Like a combat knife! Because you’re going to need something once you run out of that 43 rounds of ammo, or you’ll need to carve somebody off of you during a gun grab!
• A “flashlight” which in actuality is a lightsaber, because anything with less than 1500 lumens that also doubles as a kobuton is pointless
• A full trauma kit including tourniquet, chest seal, wound pack, chest decompression needle, nasopharyngeal airway, and gloves

Then why even bother? Because clearly you don’t take this seriously!

Now I’ll let you in on a little secret: I used to carry everything on that list. On my person!

Here’s a photo of my daily loadout, back when I worked in the gun shop:

Now at that point, I was living in 5.11 pants and a baggy polo. When I was at work, guns and tools were on full display. When we clocked out, we just untucked our shirts and went about our lives…still wearing the shirts that advertised we were employees of a gun store! The blasters may have been covered, but they certainly were not concealed at that point.

Fast forward to today. My daily attire can vary from jeans and a button down to a suit, depending on if I’m on a job site or meeting with prospective clients. Here’s what that same loadout looks in a suit:

For comparison, here’s what that suit looks like before I’m loaded down with everything.

A little comical isn’t it? If nothing else, the clothes look sloppy. The suit jacket is ballooning out at the bottom, and the trousers look like I’m wearing a diaper underneath when I’m loaded down with all that equipment. And that’s not even a particularly well tailored suit. Yet, to hear some people talk, if I at all value the safety of myself and my family, I’m better off sacrificing a degree of personal appearance than look more critically at my lifestyle, and do a personal threat analysis.

The other thing that doesn’t usually get mentioned (I can only assume due to a level of unfamiliarity) is that if I were to carry all that equipment like that, it would wear through that clothing in a matter of months. Dress clothes aren’t generally designed for field use, they don’t hold up well to lots of weight or abrasions.

I’ve come to a point where, as Pat Rogers said, “mission drives the gear train”. Instead of having a singular loadout that I shoehorn into every situation, I’ve developed a tiered system based on my activities that day. I’ll be addressing the what and why of my specific gear selections later in the series.

Claude Werner did a great interview with Ballistic Radio where he suggested that firearms instructors, and the gun carrying community at large “get a real job”. I highly encourage everybody listen to the whole show (it’s 45 minutes. Take the time). The abridged version is this: most people that regularly carry guns are in an environment where that is the norm, so concealment is a bit of an afterthought because the consequences of being discovered are minimal. The rules change if you’re the only person in your social circle that goes armed.

I think that topic deserves more in depth discussion, so I’ll be addressing it in a separate post.

My point here is that words mean things, and that the dogmatic repetition of “dress around the gun” is limiting. People that are new to this lifestyle will be discouraged because it is likely that just the idea of carrying a firearm is already a pretty significant life change. Suggesting that they’d have to overhaul their entire wardrobe and sense of style, which for some is part of their sense of self, may cause them to abandon the idea entirely.

Claude Werner has a wealth of knowledge that he offers completely free. You can check him out here at The Tactical Professor.

So why should some steely-eyed gunslinger, an absolute paragon of masculinity, someone whose name strikes fear in the hearts of evil men give the slightest damn about something as trivial as style? One word: Concealment.

Concealment, when done effectively, is not only hiding something from plain sight, but also making it blend in with its surrounding environment. Here’s an example of a sniper, effectively concealed by blending in with the terrain:

Here’s that same dude (not really) in the same gear(ish), in an urban setting:

Not so subtle, huh? Now yes, this is an extreme example, but not as much as you’d think. Don’t believe me?

Let’s take 2 photos from Instagram, both related to “dressy” attire:

While the difference are minor, they’re significant enough that they’re noticable if you’re trying to blend in with a group that you’re not typically a part of. It’s obvious that you’re trying to wear their “uniform”, but if not executed correctly you risk it looking like a costume.

Without going in to a full blown tangent as to the finer points of men’s fashion and style, I want to provide a high level overview for those that may not be familiar. One of the key aspects of style and flattering clothing is a sleek, clean, streamlined silhouette. This means no excess fabric, and no unnecessary seams/breaks/lines in the clothing. The “tells” on the tactical pants is the horizontal pocket below the belt, and the zippered thigh pocket that runs along the trouser seam. Is it a huge glaring thing? No, but it’s something where there should be nothing. And that can garner additional scrutiny.

The minor consequence of this is that you may look foolish, or like you “don’t belong”. A more severe consequences would be you’re identified as an “outsider” that doesn’t belong, which then brings a higher level of scrutiny, increasing your risk of being “made”.

Do you really think that someone that lives their life on the lower image wouldn’t notice the dude on top?

All too often we project our own values and ways of thinking onto another population with which we’re interacting. This interaction can be voluntary or not: Everything from getting dragged along to your wife’s work function (where getting called out could have very negative consequences for her, socially or professionally) to attracting the unwanted attention of a violent criminal actor because you’re enough of a deviation from their normal environment to catch their eye.

That being said, wouldn’t it be beneficial to have enough of a working knowledge of men’s style to be able to blend in at a cocktail party as easily as you could at your buddy’s backyard barbecue?

I’ll be going into more depth later on regarding specific clothing & gear that I’ve had success with, and why you don’t really (in my opinion) need to buy purpose-built concealment clothing.

I’ve come to a conclusion that is likely going to get a lot of flak from various different corners of the internet:

The “Tactical”/”Defensive” “Community” needs to give a shit about men’s style. I’m not the only one that shares this opinion. Various instructors who’ve been gracious enough to share some of their time an expertise with me share this sentiment, yet it seems to go relatively unaddressed. Why is that? My best guess is that there’s enough more widely needed/consumed content out there that the dudes that are REALLY good are better served focusing on that material.

In the realm of applied violence, I’m a relative novice. I’ve been to a few classes, trained with a few well known names, and am able to not embarrass myself on some of the generally accepted diagnostic shooting drills. Fortunately, I’m very well equipped to comment on the social nuances of effectively carrying a concealed firearm in areas where it may not be the norm.

Tanner Guzy of Masculine style (who is one of the inspirations for this…..I guess I can call it an article instead of a rant) sent me an email wherein he’s quoted as saying “As I’m sure you can imagine, there are a lot of men who don’t like that I talk about style. They think it’s effeminate, gay, vain, shallow, frivolous, wimpy, stupid, materialistic, and a dozen other things I’ve heard over the years”.

In the gun-carrying world, the cringe-worthy eraser phrase is that you need to [all together now!] “dress around the gun!” This is doubly amusing, because of the cognitive dissonance with two other ultra-popular tropes:

• Nobody pays attention anyways, so it doesn’t matter if I’m printing

and

• Be the grey man.

…So which one is it? You either need to put forth some effort to blend into your surroundings, and not draw undue attention to yourself, or people are so oblivious that unless I’m wearing a clown suit and carrying an RPG, I’m good to go!

This little mini-series will serve to address the balance that should exist, but for the most part is so woefully skewed either one way or the other in terms of dressing well and living with regular carry of a firearm.

There is a HUGE difference between “Dressing Up” and “Dressing Well”. I’ll differentiate between them during the course of these articles, and if you want to delve deeper into that topic, I’d strongly encourage you to check out Tanner Guzy’s material from Masculine Style. I think he’s done the best job by far quantifying this stuff. Click the links for his website and YouTube channel.