Exposure Equals Big Trouble

Since 06-11-08

Accidentally exposing your concealed handgun can leave you wishing for less excitement in your life.

 
By Don Myers
From Concealed Carry Magazine, July 2006

Accidentally exposing your concealed handgun can leave you wishing for less excitement in your life.

Suppose you had just come from Amarillo, Texas and were thirsty from the six hour drive to Fort Worth. So you stop at a convenience store in one of the many little, suburban towns. As you exit your car, you notice that your coat has ridden up, exposing the handle of your handgun that is in an inside-the-waistband holster. You quickly cover it and go in and purchase a soft drink and a pack of gum.

Shortly after resuming your trip, you notice a police car behind you with flashing lights. You pull over, but the police officer just sits in his squad car until another police car arrives. Then both police officers exit and yell for you to get out of your car. As you exit, you see that both of them have their pistols drawn and pointed at you as they scream for you to put your hands behind your head and get down on your knees.

You comply, as they continue screaming to lie face down on the pavement. You tell them that you need to use your hands to brace yourself as you lie down, but they scream even louder to lie face down. Afraid that you are going to hurt yourself by smashing your face on the pavement, you tell them twice more that you need to use your hands to break your fall. Each plea to use your hands puts the cops in a greater rage, screaming to lie face down.

Finally, you manage to get your face on the pavement, where you are immediately handcuffed and asked, "Do you have a concealed handgun license?"

You answer, "Yes."

At this point, under Texas penal code section 42.01, the incident should have been over if the officers had asked if you had intentionally displayed your weapon. Of course, you would have said that it was accidentally displayed for only a few seconds, but instead of your being released, you are hauled off to jail and charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

Even though the district attorney refuses to prosecute and the Texas Department of Public Safety refuses to honor the city's request to have your CHL revoked, your nightmare is not over. The police drop the original charges, but give you a new charge of a moving violation, even though you were outside your car when this mythical violation occurred. A year later, at the court house just before you are to go before the judge, you take a settlement by signing a release of liability, saying you will not sue the city if they drop the charge of the moving violation.

Even though the district attorney refuses to prosecute and the Texas Department of Public Safety refuses to honor the city's request to have your CHL revoked, your nightmare is not over. The police drop the original charges, but give you a new charge of a moving violation, even though you were outside your car when this mythical violation occurred. A year later, at the court house just before you are to go before the judge, you take a settlement by signing a release of liability, saying you will not sue the city if they drop the charge of the moving violation.

You say that this nightmare is too preposterous to be true. You are wrong. It actually happened to Mark [last name withheld at his request]. This injustice was written about by Mark's attorney in the Texas State Rifle Association's Sportsman magazine. I called Mark to confirm this unbelievable miscarriage of justice. I found him to be a gentle and unassuming young man, which added to my anger at how he was treated. Mark was very nervous talking about this traumatizing event for fear of angering the authorities. It goes without saying that we, who carry concealed handguns, open ourselves to trouble by accidentally displaying our weapons.

I am an aviation instructor by profession. The aviation business spends considerable time learning from the misfortunes of others, with the purpose of increasing our judgment to prevent making the same disastrous mistakes. We as citizens who carry concealed handguns are vulnerable to making costly errors too. I am going to relate a few actual stories of how handguns were innocently made visible, with the hope that we can learn, and as a minimum, avoid contributing to some attorney's yacht payments or worse, going to jail.

Some methods of carry are more susceptible to being seen accidentally than others. A holster worn on the hip provides the fastest presentation of the weapon when drawing for a deadly force encounter. However, it is the most easily exposed when your coat or vest is blown open or dragged open as you brush up against something.

I was attending a funeral on a cold and very windy day. I carried a .40 caliber Glock on my hip, covered by my suit. I had gained weight and could not button the coat with the added bulk of the pistol. However, I would not buy a new suit because I was determined to lose the weight. Departing from my car, I began putting on my overcoat as I walked toward the grave site, while being buffeted by the strong and gusty north wind. After getting my arms into the sleeves of the overcoat, I stretched out my arms to pull the coat over my shoulders. While I was in the crucifix position, the wind suddenly burst open both sides of my suit coat, completely revealing my entire torso with its attached weapon. My heart had a runaway, as if I had revealed my private parts to Sarah Brady. Fortunately, everyone was walking in the same direction, so, those in front of me had their backs to me, while those mourners behind me could not see the exposed pistol because of my billowing overcoat. I was lucky to receive a free lesson in concealment management without the unpleasant consequences.

Jerry Worley had a similar experience. However, his accidentally revealed pistol was seen by several people. While filling his gas tank, Jerry was wearing a denim jacket covering the Makarov on his hip. A strong, gusty wind hit him, unexpectedly sending his jacket fluttering like a flag over a nudist camp where nobody looks at the flag, but everyone looks at what is totally exposed beneath it. His weapon drew the attention of at least three other people. As Jerry wildly grabbed his jacket, like Marilyn Monroe's famous picture of her unsuccessfully holding down her wind blown skirt, his viewers made no reaction other than to quickly turn their eyes away, even though they clearly saw Jerry's means of protection. Apparently, they assumed that he was a member of law enforcement or a person whom they had better leave alone.

Wearing a hip holster requires great care when reaching for something, especially while reaching up to take something off of a top shelf. I attend a church where we often raise our hands while singing worship songs. I usually only raise my left hand for fear of revealing what is on my right hip. Speaking of church, sometimes folks give me a hug. The one time that I know that someone must have felt my pistol, I suspect that they thought it was a cell phone. I usually avoid their having a chance to feel it by keeping my elbow pressed against the pistol.

One friend related what some might think is a really dumb way to expose one's concealed handgun. Actually, for those who carry all the time, it is easy to forget that you have a pistol strapped to your side. My friend was wearing a leather jacket covering his 9mm as he entered a bar. That was his first no-no because in Texas, you cannot legally carry in a bar as a customer. However, as I said, he forgot that he was armed. Sitting down on a bar stool, he took off his leather jacket, neatly folded it, and laid it on a nearby chair. The man sitting next to him asked one of the stupidest questions ever, "Is that a gun?"

Embarrassed, Jerry quickly put his jacket back on and said, "I'll be right back!" He went out to his car, put the handgun in the trunk, and returned without further problems. During my concealed handgun licensing classes, I recommend that in a case such as Jerry's or any time you see that your handgun has been discovered, you should calmly leave the establishment to reduce your chance of having to explain why you are armed.

One of the ways that your hip carried pistol can result in exposure is having to go to the restroom to sit on the commode. When you take your coat off, you are exposed to the ubiquitous spaces between the door and the wall. Leaving your pistol in the holster while your pants are on the floor further exposes you to detection from the stall next to you. In this case, I hang the coat on the hook and put my pistol in the coat. It is best to use the stall that has a wall on one side to reduce your chances of being discovered by curious eyes. (Yes, I know the image that is conjured up in some people's minds. Remember, this is a family magazine.)

Last year, an air marshal left her pistol on a shelf in the restroom of Cleveland's Hopkins airport. I know that the Monday morning quarterbacks don't understand how that could happen. As I said about the bar situation above, your carry weapon becomes such a part of you, that after you have carried for a few years, you often don't think about it, even though you may unconsciously hold your elbow close on windy days to hold your jacket in place. Even if you happen to be unarmed, you still habitually do the little things that keep a gun concealed. I can see how she left it there if her mind were on something else. Being sympathetic with her plight is one thing, but sympathy does not prevent consequences. Unlike my friend's goof in the bar, this lady got in serious trouble after a passenger reported finding the pistol to authorities.

The inside-the-waistband holster is probably a better choice for concealment if you are wearing it on your hip, since a glimpse of it only reveals a handle, which could easily be thought to be a cell phone. The IWB carry may be better for concealment, but it's no guarantee of not being detected. Mark, who I talked about above, was carrying his gun IWB when he was subsequently thrown in jail.

I shoot I.D.P.A. matches with Dusty, who asked that I not use his last name. Dusty related a similar experience with his IWB carry. Dusty had been in Kohl's Department store for at least thirty minutes when he noticed that his Hawaiian shirt was stuck between his pistol and his body, completely exposing the handle. He must have had his coat get in that position while he was in the car, yet no one had given any indication that they saw it in the crowded store.

Dusty related another time where the "print" of his gun was noticed. He had his Para Ordinance .45 under a T-shirt with an open, button-down shirt giving further concealment. The wind blew his shirt open, exposing the bulge of the thick, twelve-shot .45. A man asked what he had under his shirt. Dusty replied, "It's an adrenalin pump." That answer satisfied the onlooker and made me jealous that I can't think that fast.

Although the sample of folks who related stories of accidental exposure is too small to be scientific, I had more examples of coats or shirt's riding over an IWB holster than those who carried on the hip. That may not mean anything since I don't know what percentage of those whom I asked carried in either manner, but it is significant that the IWB carry is no guarantee of not being seen.

Of all those interviewed, I was surprised at how difficult it was to find someone who had accidentally exposed their weapon. Probably 90% of the folks never had a problem and a couple were indignant that I thought they were stupid enough to do something so incompetent. I didn't confess my sins to those Pharisees.

Another I.D.P.A. shooter, Steve Moses, related a horror story about his friend, Ed [not his real name] who was on a date at Denny's. (I guess it was a cheap date.) Ed was carrying his Les Baer .45 in a Yaqui Slide holster, which has no retention strap, and the design exposes most of the barrel. Of course, this rig was covered by a coat. As Ed sat down, the barrel of his pistol hit the arm rest of his chair, popping the gun out of its holster, sending the .45 clattering to the floor. This scene is the stuff of nightmares. The only thing that could have made it worse would have been for Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton to have been dining there and have the wayward pistol come to rest at their feet. But Ed has to be the luckiest guy in the world, because in spite of the noise of the 1911's hitting the floor, no one noticed except his date who already knew that he was packing. The ankle carry also has its problems with accidental exposure. D.E.A. agents train with my company in flight simulators.

One day during a break, several people were gathered in the break room telling stories. The facility director at the time was rabidly anti-gun. (His replacement has a CHL. What a pleasant change!) During the conversation, the D.E.A. agent crossed his legs and in doing so, exposed a Colt Diamondback in an ankle holster. The Diamondback is rather large for ankle carry, to say the least, so accidentally exposing it becomes rather obvious. The agent quickly pulled his pant leg over the pistol, but not before the facility director and virtually everyone else in the room saw it. The director turned pale, began trembling and left the room. If that agent had been a licensed civilian, trouble would have followed, since the director hated guns so much. By the way, the rest of the crowd enjoyed the director's reaction, since all of them were pro-Second Amendment pilots.

You would think that a "photographer's vest," designed explicitly for concealed carry, with an inside breast pocket to carry a small pistol, would be a secure way to keep from being detected. However, John Mannewitz unintentionally disproved that theory. John was carrying his wife's Lady Smith .38 inside his photographer's vest. John had just finished a meal with his wife after enjoying an evening on the scenic River Walk in San Antonio, then as John leaned forward to scoot his chair back, the weight of the little .38 caused his vest to hang down, clearly revealing his little revolver. John noticed that at the table next to them there was a petite, elderly, gray-haired lady with her raised coffee cup frozen in mid-air, her mouth open in wide-eyed shock, staring back at him. "We were leaving anyway; we just moved a little faster than we had planned," John told me as I pictured the wild story the little old lady was going to be telling her friends.

Another incident worthy of mentioning was related to me by my friend Andy Colglazier. On this particular occasion, he was carrying a Glock 23 on his hip, covered by a vest. Andy was standing in line at Wal-Mart, when a short woman, whom Andy estimated would weigh more than four hundred and fifty pounds, decided to exit through the aisle where Andy was about to pay for his purchases.

Andy recalled, "She may not have been wider than the aisle, but she was definitely wider than the aisle space with me in it. I didn't see her coming. She waddled up behind me, turned her back to me, and started pushing through with her rear-end right up against me. I was on the side of the aisle with my right side towards her."

While the determined woman was unsuccessfully trying to disprove the principle of physics that two pieces of matter cannot occupy the same space at the same time, Andy felt the cheeks of her derriere clamp down on the handle of his Glock and begin pulling on it. Resisting the impulse to put his hand where no man had gone before by grabbing his pistol, Andy explained, "I had no choice but to move with her. If I had stood my ground, she would have taken the weapon with her, right out of my holster. I kind of rolled along with her until she finally got to the end of the counter, where I popped free like a cork from a champagne bottle. She rippled out the door and never even looked back. "

Maybe the only lesson that we can glean from this incident is that there is no end to the ways that we armed citizens can accidentally get in trouble with the general public, but we can learn from these examples to reduce our chances of becoming victims of our own carelessness. We need to be armed all of the time, but with added vigilance, we can protect ourselves and our loved ones while remaining undetected.

Don Myers is a professional pilot, a Vietnam era army captain, an author, a certified concealed handgun license instructor for the state of Texas, and most importantly of all, a proud grandfather.