Summary: A concealed carry permit holder walking into a Walmart was tackled and stripped of his pistol by someone who saw him putting it on in the parking lot. This video brings up a lot of things that both concealed and open carriers need to be aware of: No matter how you carry, you should have a means to retain your weapon in a fight. In the video the victim is attacked, and instead of trying to retain his pistol, he attempts to ward off the attack. Thankfully the person that attacked him wasn't trying to kill him, because once the attacker took his weapon, he could have easily done so. If you open carry, you should really do so in a holster that has active retention. I really like the Safariland ALS series of holsters, and I abhor the Blackhawk SERPA. For more on why the SERPA isn't recommended and weapon retention, check out Episode 85 of the podcast with Chris Clifton from Defense Concepts NC. Sometimes folks categorize open carry as the "easier" way to carry, since they don't have to put on an extra layer to cover the pistol, or shop for a comfortable holster, etc. You can open carry just about any pistol in just about any holster, although as I mentioned above, getting some type of quality retention holster is a good idea. Open carry shouldn't be the easier way to carry, because when your pistol is hanging on your hip, you need to be extra aware of who is around you, who is getting close to your pistol, and be ready to retain it should an attack happen. Local Shooting Sports News: Sir Walter USPSA is starting to use Practiscore for their match registration and squadding for the February match. If you haven't registered yet, you can do so here. Housekeeping I'm soliciting some feedback from those of you who purchased shirts from the last run of green/blue/white shirts. How are they holding up? How was your experience with the vendor that printed and shipped the shirts? Would you buy them again? Anything else I need to know? Basically, I've been a little disappointed with the latest run of shirts, and I've caught wind that some others were as well, so I want to get as much feedback on them from those of you who purchased them as I can so I can decide whether or not to use this vendor again in the future. Shoot an email to luke@triangletactical.net, or leave a comment below this post. The News IDPA has announced that the Compact Carry Pistol division is official. It's going to be for pistols with a 4.1" or shorter barrel length, and pistols will be limited to 8+1 capacity. Ben wrote a more in-depth post about it here, and the discussion in the comments is worth a read as well. "Just the Plug of the Week" This week we combined the "Just the Tip" and "Plug of the Week" segments into one. The tip part is in regards to this video of a girl being put into the trunk of her car and driven away by a gun wielding assailant. The plug portion goes to friend of the show Andrew Branca (Law of Self Defense) for his comment on the above post. He makes a really good point that I wanted to share: And don’t ever, ever, ever let the bad guy take you to another location. That new location will NOT be more favorable to your long term survival than wherever you are currently at. I will absolutely let myself be shot before I will let myself be abducted. If they want to drag my 200lb+ carcass around with them, fine. But I will be 100% non-compliant. And perhaps have an opportunity to change the course of events while being non-compliant. This all applies more particularly to women, of course. You’re almost certainly better off taking a bullet on the sidewalk than stepping into that van. –Andrew, @LawSelfDefense Contact luke@triangletactical.net ben@triangletactical.net (919) 295-6128
