Considerations for Concealed Carry

Considerations for Concealed Carry and taking classes with the bare minimum of equipment to learn.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/64684e_f1d4a64544fc41c5a6da7ba8c0bb2888/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

[Music]

all right hey what's up guys and i know

it's been a while since i've made a

video and it's because my schedule has

been absolutely nuts

with

the open enrollment classes to include

any military law enforcement stuff

that's been happening it's been

literally

uh class travel date class travel date

trap so it's been it's been wild and

i've had very little time to do videos

um but i'm gonna try and start uh

pushing them out again so just uh be

aware

all right so today i wanted to talk

about just

how to get started in

um what you should be acquiring as a new

shooter

so as a new person getting into this

game and starting to be a little bit

more responsible for your own care in

this world and protecting yourself and

your family or whatever

there's kind of like basics that i would

go about in the process of getting the

equipment or at least gear wise before

the training stuff what what i need to

acquire before going into training and

starting to learn the things that i i

will specifically need based off of my

environment and my situation

now um being a dude that lives in a more

urban environment and i carry every day

starting out it's usually like what do i

need to kind of be on me

now when i think about the things that

are in my pockets i'm always thinking

about it like okay if i need it right

now

at this moment do i want it to be on my

body or do i want it to go grab it and

out of bag right so if i need it right

now i want it to be available to me

right now not oh let me go to the car

and go grab it or let me go you know

inside and go grab it i want it

available at this moment so with that

said

going through this let's let's talk

about a few different things um

specifically about carrying equipment

and and how to go about which ones do

you buy first and all that jazz so first

off if you're going to get into any kind

of like concealed carry shooting and

stuff you may need a firearm now you

don't have to go out and get a decked

out gun like this agency arms gavel

edition right this this gun i've had it

for i think almost five years

it is almost pristine because it's my

carry gun so i shoot it on on its own

relative basis i'll take it to classes

and shoot it for an entire class and

stuff but majority of the time i keep it

relatively clean right give or take some

lint and uh and i carry it every single

day and this is the gun that travels

with me every single trip to go and

carry a gun in other places it is uh an

important part of you being able to

start your carrying process

now carrying a gun doesn't mean you know

how to use a gun so if you go to carry a

gun you better be practicing you better

be dry practicing and you better go out

and train and learn from instructors or

actual reparable teachers

what to do so that you can be prepared

with this bad boy a little bit better so

other than that right other than the

firearm portion you know if you're very

adamant i would also go about getting a

different light or weapon mounted light

it is much easier to shoot with a weapon

mounted light than it is with a handheld

light now this does not negate the need

for a handheld light and we're going to

get to what handheld lights and why and

all that jazz but a weapon mounted light

is important because i can keep two

hands on a gun which is a luxury in our

world uh as erin cowan likes to say it's

a luxury one-handed work you know using

one hand is definitely a a standard

right it's called a handgun

but

a weapon amount of light allows me to

use two hands which is a luxury so

highly recommend it you have to pid what

you're going to shoot which means you

know positively identify what you're

going to shoot at or not shoot at

because it's kind of important to digest

those things as for sighting systems red

dots and irons are just different ways

of doing so uh whatever you choose to

use is up to you uh

it's up to you right it's your gun it's

your life it's the lives that are around

you that are gonna

kind of pay for what your choices are so

choose wisely

now

other than the firearm right there has

to be ways of feeding your firearm

i use

for my glock 19s i use 15 rounders for

glock 17's i use 17 rounders that are

flush and then for my spare for both

guns i use an extended mag because it

doesn't it doesn't hurt to have a little

bit more extension as long as you have a

mag pouch that'll deeply hold it okay

but up to you right it's one of those

things that to you it's you know is it a

good idea it's a bad idea

it is up to your environment once again

where you keep this thing is going to be

different too for some people some

may be able to carry it right next to

their gun like i do uh some may not

right some may have to put it in their

pocket that's totally fine as long as

once again you practice with it

um now carrying the gun

an important part of that is not only

carrying it

but carrying it with a actual belt that

you can actually carry a gun with

you cannot carry a gun with a walmart

belt comfortably not to say you can't do

it period you can but it's not as

comfortable notice the rigidity in this

blue alpha belt right this is just their

inner belt that i use for my outer belt

this is literally hard enough and strong

enough to and flexible enough actually

for me to carry a gun and a mag on my

belt every single day

so just something to think about when

you're when you're looking for belts and

stuff make sure they're rigid they're

they don't have to be super cool

tactical belts or anything but i use an

inner belt because i usually put an

outer belt on to teach so it's just it's

natural for me just keep using the same

belt

for some they have to look more fancy

and do the normal things

there are some companies like saguera

gear that make belts that look like

normal human being belts

that aren't leather uh not not that

there's anything wrong with leather i

just i'm not a leather fan personally um

some people may disagree but that's fine

man that's that's your choice you wear

what you want to wear uh but i prefer

wearing an inner belt like this it's

with

sorry it has plastic hardware so i don't

have to take it off at the airport it's

super duper convenient and blue alpha

gear does a really good job i think this

belt is probably like

i'd say like almost six years old at

this point seven years old

probably as long as they've been around

so it's it's a really good belt i

literally wear it every single day i had

to take it off for the

video like this is this is what i use uh

and it makes sense for me

now

um the reason that's important reason

why it's important to have a belt that

can hold your gun is because of the way

the guns tilt and they're heft on the

belt and they pull on you

uh if you're using a really flimsy belt

it's going to start cutting or pulling

into your little love handle sides over

here and or your lower back and stuff

i'm not a big fan of having negative i

guess pressures against my body if i

don't need to so i like having a belt

that's gonna hold my gun really well and

i don't have to tighten it super super

tight i could just tighten it you know

let's say medium and medium maybe well

and and at that point it holds my gun it

holds my mag really well and it keeps

them where i want them to be in a more

consistent manner so that when i do draw

it's exactly like i've practiced

to an extent

now

with that comes holster selection right

holster selection comes with what gun or

firearm accessories that you choose

it is important to understand

the differences in some of these

holsters where some people uh don't know

how deep or how high to to carry the

holster

so when when i put on my holster on my

belt

and i have a firearm

in that holster note how much space i

leave in between the belt and my grip i

need to get to it now depending on your

situation depending on the context you

may have to actually hide your gun more

right than i do so you may actually go

ahead and bring the belt up or bring the

clip up so that you can

deeper carry the the handgun uh just be

aware that your holster selection is

gonna be something that you're gonna

have to personally do

i have an entire container like

container of holsters that i have tried

over the years and i've gotten or

somebody sent me or i've been curious

about or whatever and

it's overflowing to this point where i

have to give away holsters every once

while

um so

when it comes down to it i i want

something that's going to hold my gun

have good retention

hold it with all my accessories and keep

it where i need it to be at all times

this holster here is a tentacle holster

that i actually requested um from uh the

the guys at 10 accord jeff

and uh and he made me a custom holster

custom ish i guess you could say

uh because he made it long enough for my

glock 34 right or glock 17 with a thread

barrel that's what i wanted so that it

was flush at the bottom and it wasn't

that cut that they usually do

not because i don't like the cut but

because i like it fully covered

because i use hot guns and put them into

my holster and sometimes that muzzle

device gets a little toasty so i prefer

to cover the entire thing and i don't

like a huge sweat guard so personally i

found that sweat guards are

they're nice to keep your gun from not

getting sweaty but i'm not fat enough to

have too much biological insulation

peeling over on my gun if that's your

problem cool there's a bunch of

solutions there's a sweat guard or the

gym so

um different things like that now the

other thing that that can go about this

and that can help you in your holster

selection is also this portion here

making sure that this undercut area so

you can get an actual purchase on your

your firearm when you're pulling it out

of your holster is important all right

but that's a quick down and dirty on

holster selection when it comes down to

it it's going to be specific to your gun

your accessories and the way that you

want to carry it but

highly recommend looking up some stuff

at least seeing the different people

that are making holsters out there

there's a billion of them um and right

now tentacore is my jam when it comes to

my inside the waistband holster

all right um those of you that are gonna

ask about the mag pouch by the way this

mag pouches was made by guncraft uh they

no longer exist um jeremy was a good

friend of mine awesome dude and uh and

had made me a nice little pouch and that

is still going so going all these years

later even though he closed his business

a while back

all right so with that

other things that you should be kind of

looking at as a

a newer

concealed carrier or a gear dude or

whatever you want to call it dude that's

going to protect himself

is

medical so when it comes to medical um i

highly recommend getting training right

just like with the firearm it's just as

important to understand the training and

the things that you need with medical um

dark angel medical puts out a ton of

good information but i highly recommend

getting into a class getting some

hands-on training now to tell you how

important medical is to me

um think about it this way

i had the opportunity to go to anybody's

class out of all the instructors that

were at shooter symposium last year

because i was an instructor but i was

teaching at night

and

all my peers that were teaching i could

have gone to any of the cool guy classes

that were out there

for free because i was an instructor

and i chose to go to carrie's class and

sit inside of a medical class and do

medical

not just because i like carrie he's a

good dude i love hanging out with him

and he's funny as [ __ ] but because i

find medical to be one of the most

important things that people lack in and

it is so simple to understand how to do

this and use these tools but then to

apply them onto other human beings and

different size human beings i highly

recommend playing with it

now medical

get these out of the way a little bit

medical is important to me um carrying

just a tourniquet is a solution it's one

of them um but it doesn't cover

everything you may need and it doesn't

cover everything you may need at that

moment at that time i found long ago

that just carrying a tourniquet wasn't

the best idea

because we do have spots on our buddy

body that we can't kind of do anything

with a tourniquet so for example

tourniquets are great for extremities

right and using them for arms legs but i

cannot use them for junctional problems

right up here in these spaces that i

can't get to the subclavial artery or

the top of the brachial artery down

towards my my

main brachial artery um i can't get

anywhere in the neck area right with

with something like this

and i also can't get to my iliacs

that lead to my brachial i'm sorry to my

femoral arteries down in my legs so if i

can't get to those with a tourniquet i

need some kind of tool that can help me

with that and that's why when i carry my

little pouch from dark angel medical

right i carry a set of gloves right

because i don't like other people's

blood it's just not i'm not a fan of

that and i carry

quick clot which is a hemostatic

dressing right or hemostatic gauze and i

carry a tourniquet in there now i

wrapped them with a rubber band that

also has like a really bright colored

tab

right i love this little trick i've been

doing it for a couple years now

i got it from brian veliz from

centrifuge uh he's a good dude i love

brian but that was such a good idea that

in low light no light environments i

could feel a tab i could also bite a tab

i could also see the tab that's the base

and most important part so i use really

bright tape

to make these and

i mean i've got a huge roll so

um but but i'll make these tabs so that

i can pull on these and unravel these

tourniquets or these little bundles that

i make of tourniquets and

quickclot or some kind of hemostatic

dressing

um

recommend something like that at a bare

minimum guys um the other thing you

could add to this is a good chest seal

or just packing gauze in general just

normal packing gauze without a

hemostatic um but i would i would

recommend having at least these two and

i'm a personal fan of gloves i i don't

like touching other people without

gloves so if if you get hurt i'm putting

on gloves first sorry

um so just something to think about

there when you guys start deciding on

what you're carrying medical wise but

like i said don't just carry it and

assume other people are going to be able

to do it right carry it know how to use

it right you know how and when to use it

you know the signs and symptoms of

somebody that needs that

highly recommended all right

um

next thing we'll talk about is

handheld lights now some people find

this to be an unnecessary right john why

do i need a handheld light i got a light

on my gun your light on your gun isn't

for looking for [ __ ] it's for like

really going for and identifying what

you've already shot at or going to shoot

at and need to see

more of or you've you've started out

with one of these looking at what you

needed drawing your gun and working

white light into it on your handgun

whatever the circumstances are but i

rather have one on my gun and on my my

handheld or in a handheld fashion

so to take a couple of little tactics

from uh from

uh sage dynamics right from aaron cowan

i really like his his ideas on this

is when i'm just walking to my car or

doing a thing right and just walking

around

i could literally hold this [ __ ] in my

hand the entire time it's dark so nobody

could see it down by my side and if

somebody comes to approach me or talk to

me or ask me for a dollar or whatever i

can be like pow [ __ ] you dude get away

from me you know and i can i can already

start causing an effect to them now can

this escalate a problem absolutely does

that matter because i've got light in

your face probably not all that much but

it depends depends on the circumstances

if it's three [ __ ] dudes walking up

all shady and stuff i'm 100 gonna shine

them in the face with light sorry dude i

don't like you um if if it's something

that's like oh man my bad you know like

cool i can i can apologize i could try

and de-escalate at that point but for me

carrying a light gives me identification

on people and control to people so i

prefer doing that and being able to do

that

also when i'm just looking for [ __ ] i

don't i don't need to use my weapon

mounted light i need to use a handheld

so if i drop something all right cool

where'd it go you know and people say

all the time they're like this is too

much light to find like your keys and

[ __ ] that's cool so if you grab the

light

and you put your fingers over the back

end of of your light right over the

muzzle of the bezel you could use it

like a little light

and do the same [ __ ] thing and look

for things with a little light um i

prefer having as strong of a light as

possible i want to push as far as i can

and i want to cause the effects i need

to on a human being so when it comes to

choosing a light just choose what what

you'd want right so whether it's a

larger style mod light or cloud like i

have here or it's the smaller style

cloud or mod lights like i have here it

don't matter as long as you decide on

which one you're going to need and which

one you're willing to carry every day

i carry larger lights i prefer larger

lights i used to carry smaller lights

but i found that when i needed them and

i clicked them on and i left them on for

a long period of time

they die a little quicker for me than

i'd want so i wanted something that's

going to be

mo brighter and last a little longer so

i started using longer

bodied lights that use the 18650s versus

the 18 350s

but once again you choose what works for

you man nothing's saying you have to use

one of these you could even use one of

the smaller smaller teeny tiny lights

but

i think i have one right here

yeah this is my

my tool light for my tool case all right

the little tiny stream lights you could

carry something like this and there's

nothing wrong with that but just realize

that you're not going to be doing a lot

when it comes to affecting somebody's

vision or searching it a little bit more

distance so just things to think about

when it comes to the way that you guys

set up your lights or what you choose

for lights and stuff like that but i

highly recommend some kind of handheld

light as you're acquiring gear uh when

it comes to doing certain things

all right

now last thing we'll talk about is

connives right and that's that's the

proper way you say it okay it has a k

um but

knives in general guys uh there's a lot

of good knives out there

a lot of good things that people make um

there are really nice pointy knives

right really really nice pointy knives

like this one from mill mac i really

like this one a lot

um i will say

right the shiv work knives they work

really well they're meant for a specific

task and that's poking people not really

cutting boxes

um but you can right these are the two

shiv work knives um i like knives a lot

i have a whole ginormous tub of them and

i i try to buy as many as i can to like

play with and stuff but every time i

start carrying a fixed blade knife um i

find that it just becomes a

thing i'll use for boxes and i don't

want to use it that way

so

if you're going to use a fixed blade

knife just like a weapon mounted light

that's the way i look at the fixed blade

knife it's for my weapons right it's for

weapon stuff it's for poking people um i

carry a tool style knife as well like a

leatherman or a gerber or something

where it has a knife that i can use to

cut boxes and stuff but it also has

tools that i'm going to use all the

freaking time like almost every single

day i use this leatherman so if you

carry a fixed blade i highly recommend

some kind of tool of some sort whether

it's a teeny tiny one or it's something

useful like this leatherman skeletool

um but just understand that the once

again training comes into it how how i'm

going to use the the knife is going to

be similar to how i use a gun

when it comes to carrying a blade of

some sort it's not just there to be like

all right and i saw this in a movie you

know like you have to know how to use

this thing you also have to know how to

defend against one because if you're

using a knife

um for one it must be really bad and you

guys are already really close um i don't

use a knife to an adversary that's like

25 feet away from me right i don't care

about that guy i can run um i can shoot

him right

um but if if it's somebody that's up and

on me and i'm grappling with them

already if you don't know how to do arm

drags you don't know how to like work

somebody on the ground and stuff this is

gonna be an issue for you and

you may actually get it turned on you

like a lot of guys realize in

some of the classes from shiv works

which i highly recommend they're

fantastic not only a good workout but

you're also getting a lot of good reps

when it comes to

utilizing a knife and fighting another

human being that's actually trying to

fight for their weapon as well so a

very very very useful tool but also very

very dangerous tool if you don't know

how to use it um all those cool dudes

walking out there with like seven eight

inch blades and stuff

rock on man that you do you but

if you don't know how to use it then it

could just be used on you just like your

firearm just like your flashlight

just like your medical technically so

keep that in mind now something else

that i actually keep around and i carry

pretty often i actually keep it in my

car um in in my little lock box that's

in there if you haven't seen that video

on all the locking storage stuff that i

have in my car something to check out um

but i keep a g10 blade

all right and this one's from uh black

triangle

um i like these little g10 blades for a

couple um mainly mainly a couple reasons

right one i cannot go through metal

detectors at like uh certain places

events and um

locations and i can't do that with a

regular

firearm or a knife

so

i can get away with it with a g10 blade

so if i go to a show or something and

they got metal detectors at least i have

something something more than just my

flashlight and my wits so

it's just another option for those of

you that are starting to get into

carrying equipment

not to say that you have to carry all

these different things but sometimes you

have to mix and match sometimes you have

to choose based off of your environment

right in your situation and what's kind

of cool about this is that

uh with all these tools here you can go

and take shooting classes you could take

fighting classes you could take low

light classes you could take medical

classes all with just the equipment

that's on this table here you don't need

anything else other than maybe ear pro

and eyebrow

and ammo right so other than that like

you're good to go so if you're trying to

start out and learn how to get into

training and carrying your equipment um

buy

the the bare minimum that you can

because in a class you learn what you

need

you don't buy the things you need just

for the class because if you do that

then you end up buying a bunch of stuff

and being like oh damn this isn't what i

needed or in the class you learn right

by experience your own experience what

you actually need based off of your

experience in the class just be aware

too in classes people will lend you [ __ ]

right if you ask and you're like hey

does anybody have a spare handheld yeah

somebody's got a spare handheld almost

guaranteed all right 99.9 of the time

there's somebody there that's like yeah

man here use my use mine you know and

they'll hand it to you and they'll let

you use it anybody have a spare weapon

madelite or anybody have a thing that i

can check out because i want to hold it

before i buy one

people probably have it um so ask ask

don't be bashful in classes people are

usually really fun easy going most

instructors bring extra [ __ ] uh because

like sometimes our [ __ ] breaks too

so we bring extra stuff or students just

need it because their [ __ ] breaks so

just don't be bashful about it ask in

classes be be a little bit more

um

forward if you want to call that because

one you'll never know unless you ask and

you'll never know it's not allowed

unless you ask so

you can you can

earn a lot from that as a student and

then also as a teacher uh it may bring

up certain things that i may not have

thought of like oh man maybe i'll talk

about the different sizes and why i

choose what i choose

or things like that where

you may not know until you actually ask

these questions

so

overall guys uh when it comes to

choosing equipment and choosing all the

things you need for

taking class it's usually all the stuff

that i would carry on my body and i look

at those things and i'm like okay my gun

and my mag all right cool and my belt

right

all right i could take a shooting class

right i could take a handgun class

pretty easy right even if it's a

performance-based class i could take it

concealed right if it's a not

performance-based class cool i could

take that concealed i can do whatever it

is concealed it doesn't matter uh and

and you can learn from that

oh okay i buy a knife that i like or

maybe i go to this class and you're

going to use dummy knives anyways learn

what kind of knife i'm going to want

right and in those classes most of them

they're going to talk about them right

okay flashlights okay i take a low light

class maybe i just grab a cheapo uh

flashlight if they require handheld or i

ask the instructor if he has a spare one

i could use for the class i bring

batteries and i go to that class and i

go experience it and figure out which

light i like and then go from there

medical classes everything's usually

provided right not in the sense of you

taking it home but you being able to

utilize it and figure out what you need

to carry and that's something that you

can go to a class you don't even need

anything for so

recommend looking at the classes that

you may need based off of the things

you're going to carry

and then going from there so

hopefully that helps guys and this is

just like an introductory like hey i'm

going to go start getting into this kind

of video but

i hope it helps understand the concepts

that i was trying to get across and the

simple little things that you want to

look for when it comes to choosing

equipment

so hope this helps guys if you have any

questions put them below and i'll answer

them when i can and uh and yeah if you