Essential Concealed Carry Tips for Gun Owners

If you’re planning on carrying a custom weapon for self-defense, our concealed carry tips can improve your comfort, safety, and preparedness. Concealed carry is the practice of carrying a firearm on your person or in your vehicle that’s loaded and ready for use in defense of yourself or others. While some states allow for this kind of carry only with a license or permit, others offer legal constitutional carry protections that let any legal gun owner defend themselves. The right to “Keep and Bear Arms” is enshrined in our Bill of Rights, and we want to help you make sure you’re ready to use those rights safely and responsibly.

A Patchwork of Laws with Hope on the Horizon

Currently, United States gun laws, including concealed carry provisions, are a patchwork quilt of state, local, and federal laws. That’s why all our tips start with knowing the laws in the jurisdiction you’re planning to carry in. That may be about to change. Introduced in Congress this year, H.R. 38 seeks to implement nationwide reciprocity on the federal level for concealed carry permit holders and citizens of constitutional carry states. This will eliminate the guesswork and risk of traveling with your sidearm and ensure your right to defend yourself doesn’t end when you cross a state border.

That’s good news for gun owners. If passed as written, you would need to comply with your state’s licensing or constitutional provisions, and those same provisions would follow you when you travel unless your destination has laws that show even greater respect to your Second Amendment freedoms. Start getting ready now by brushing up on your skill set with our top concealed carry tips.

Concealed Carry Tips

As always, brush up on your gun laws and the basics of gun safety. Remember that it’s your responsibility to know how to use your gun safely.

Find Your Ideal Weapon Position

Your weapon needs to be comfortable, secure, and deployable. That means it should be positioned for easy access. Consider your body’s dimensions, your usual positioning, and your daily activities. You’ll need to buy a holster that fits your lifestyle to ensure your gun doesn’t end up left in the safe as “more trouble than it’s worth”. 

For example, sitting with a pistol wedged in your hip or the small of your back in a car for eight hours is an efficient way to develop back or joint pain, but it would perfectly suit those who are on their feet most of the day. For those stuck in chairs or car seats, a cross-body appendix carry will let you clear seat belts and chair arms effectively. Larger people or those with shorter arms may not have the positioning options as those with an extended reach from one side of the body to the other. 

Self-Defense Customization

One of our best concealed carry tips is to find the right customizations and upgrades for your self-defense gun early and get them installed. The longer you have to make new parts and accessories part of your EDC kit and range practice, the more natural it will be to wear and use. Constant shifting and adjusting is a great way to tip people off to your discreet carry, and unfamiliarity leads to potentially deadly hesitation in tactical situations.

Some of the most popular concealed carry upgrades are practical optic for improved speed and accuracy, extended baseplates or magazines to give you a few more rounds, and custom slides or grip plates for easier handling. The Gideon Optics Valor and Valor Mini are carry-friendly enclosed-emitter red dot sights that protect your sight picture and make aiming more intuitive. Patmos Arms slides, like the Revelation series, come with deeper serrations for reliable handling. Finally, mag extensions modify your existing magazines to accept more cartridges with minimal effort.

Keep Your Fit Loose

Consider how your clothes fit you now and how to maintain a comfortable fit while you concealed carry while also allowing ready access to your sidearm. Tight clothes make it difficult to carry discreetly, as your pistol’s shape “prints” underneath your clothes for those who know what to look for. Extremely loose clothing tends to bunch and snag, making a clean, discreet draw more difficult. The truth is you don’t need to change your whole style to protect yourself. Instead, keep these concealed carry clothes tips in mind.

Extra room across the back in your blazer or when buying a jacket will give you more space for shoulder rigs and let the coat hang better over mid-section holsters, too. Undershirts are your friend, helping keep your outer clothing in place to better hide holsters that ride inside the waistband of your trousers. LIght vests and jackets can pull a lot of the weight of hiding a firearm without looking out of place in almost any weather or setting. Finally, ankle holsters just about require boot-cut jeans, but leave the 80s skater-style wide-legs at home unless you want to stand out.

Always Carry ID

This is good advice under any circumstances, but it’s mandatory if you’re armed. This means ensuring you have your permit to carry on your person, or if you’re in a constitutional carry state, your driver’s license or ID card. Provide it when requested by law enforcement or another authority, and watch for signs that prohibit guns in certain areas. If you do interact with law enforcement, volunteer clearly and calmly that you are legally armed, and then follow their directions to maintain your safety.

Get Insured

It’s a reality that in these litigious times, even defending yourself can put you at risk. Concealed carry insurance helps cover liability suits and legal fees that may result from legally using your weapon to protect yourself or others. This concealed carry tip may not help you defend your life, but it could save your livelihood.

Practice Your Carry, Your Draw, and Your Shooting

If you plan to concealed carry, you need to be committed to putting in the work that makes sure you’re not a liability to yourself or others in a tactical situation. That means getting used to wearing your weapon as a natural part of your day-to-day life. Ensuring that you can draw your gun safely, smoothly, and efficiently. Most importantly, however, you need to be certain that on that draw, you are able to find your target, aim, and fire effectively under a wide range of tactical situations. 

Put in the time to master these skills. If your range (like many do) will not allow fire from draw or movement from a static line position, check for nearby tactical ranges that will let you work on your full skill set. Your “home” range can still be a great place to get in shooting practice, but visiting your “away” range every month or two to keep dynamic skills sharp will help you be better prepared if you need to draw your weapon in real life.

Make Sure Your Gun is Ready for Concealed Carry

With the right parts and practice, you can be ready to use your gun to protect yourself and others. Build the gun, build your skills, and you’re building your own self-sufficiency. Order your concealed carry parts and accessories from JSD Supply today.