I'm not a big advocate of pocket carry...especially pants pocket. That said, over the last two years have been pocket carrying a Kahr P380 when I would normally have been unarmed, like mowing the lawn, working in the yard and when I was doing construction work for a friend when wearing gun on the beltline just wasn't practical. Otherwise I have a Commander on me all the time.
For those of you who pocket carry all the time, have you actually practiced drawing from the pocket while seatbelted in a car from both the drivers and passenger positions? Have you sat at your dining room table and practiced surreptitiously getting your gun into play while an imaginary robbery is going on. I've run courses and practice sessions using those scenarios and can tell you that getting a gun out of a pocket is not as easy as standing around. If you look over over on YouTube and Liveleak at actual carjackings they all too often go down in seconds and would be hard enough to get a gun out of a holster let alone a pocket fast enough to dissuade someone from continuing the attack.
And being bad enough while stopped, try getting your gun out of your pocket while the car is moving, especially if trying to evade someone...
Like Mackay, when I was in LE I carried a backup gun on the leg, but in a leg holster not one on the ankle. Eagle Industries used to make a model called the UAH which held the gun upside down on the support side leg. And no I never worried about shooting myself with a snubbie while carrying it like that. I ran many foot chases with that rig and never had the gun come loose. In addition I also carried a High Standard Derringer clipped to the body armor under the right arm.
One of my female students carried her snubbie in an ankle holster. I was concerned but didn't say anything about as it worked for her and she always had the gun with her when wearing pants. One night as she was entering her apartment she was grabbed from behind and forced face down onto the floor inside the door. The attacker duct taped her eyes and mouth and then turned her over duct taping her hands in front of her and then pulled her pants down to her knees. The attacker then realized the door was still open and got off her to close it...at which time my student drew her gun and fired five shots at the doorway... She never hit him but he never returned either... They never caught the attacker.
Have three friends who pocket carry all the time. One is retired and carries a Model 42 in a soft pocket holster. The other two carry a Kahr P380 and a Diamondback 9mm only because they don't want to be unarmed and are not supposed to be carrying where they work.
I can remember two posts over on one of the other Boards from members who had gone from a full size gun to pocket carry. One guy was a retired LEO who always carried SIG of some kind. He bought I believe a KelTec .32 and soon announced that it had become his primary. A few months later he posted a message on how he had been "in the city" early one morning with his wife with little traffic around when two guys in a pickup tried to force him off the road in an industrial area of town. He was able to evade them but after it was over he pulled over to just breath again and looking at his wife he suddenly realized that if things had gone bad the only thing between the badguys and his wife was a .32... He said he always still carries the .32 but had gone back to always carrying his SIG also.
The other was a guy who had a storage unit down the street from his house in a "nice part of town". Since it was in a "nice part of town" he ran down there to get something one day carrying only his KelTec .32 in his pocket instead of his 1911 that he had been carrying less and less because it "wasn't convenient". He was in the storage unit when a badguy entered with a gun and held him up. The badguy searched his pockets and found the KelTec and then kept asking him "..are you a cop...are you a cop?" The guy was forced into his storage unit and thought he was going to be killed (and probably would have been if the badguy had found a badge) but the robber then left. The poster said if he had been carrying his 1911 in the IWB holster he always used the BG would have never found it...he said he was going back to the 1911... The amazing thing is within a few months the guy is posting looking for suggestions of smaller guns as the 1911 just "wasn't convenient"...
All I can say about pocket carry is don't fool yourself...know the limitations and PRACTICE under realistic rather than ideal conditions...
Bob
