Concealed Carry Corner: How To Deal With Crowds
Welcome back to another edition of Concealed Carry Corner. Last week, we talked about the benefits of revolvers and why semi-automatic may be better in certain situations. If you happened to miss that article, be sure to click the link here to check it out. This week, I wanted to take a look at some of the problems with carrying around large crowds, especially when traveling. Carrying a gun around heavily populated areas can be overwhelming at times, and there are a few tricks to help adjust to a large number of people. Let’s take a closer look at how to deal with crowds.
Some Obstacles with Crowds
When it comes to carrying around a heavily populated part of town, having hundreds or thousands of people in a few different streets can be overwhelming and hard to look out for bad characters. If you’re new to carrying a concealed handgun, trying to look out and avoid various situations can be a real struggle when there are people everywhere. I’ve also had people in the past express how they worry about printing or unintentionally showing people you have a concealed firearm.
Some will think everyone has eyes on their waistline trying to see their concealed handgun when that simply isn’t the case. This is typically the first 3-4 months you start carrying, but I have even seen experienced carriers worry about printing in larger crowds because it’s just a lot more to deal with than normal everyday life. The biggest issue not many talk about is the idea that you have to watch every single person. The reality is you should take advantage of the busy streets to disappear rather than feeling like you have to watch every single person.
Use the Chaos to Your Advantage
Where most people carrying start to fail is feeling like they have to watch every single person and constantly look for threats. They have their head on a swivel and scan for threats. Just like in nature, when there’s heavy crowds, it’s always best to blend in rather than stick out to watch everything. I like to explain carrying like bait fish all moving as one so they can’t have an individual fish stick out. If you’re carrying a handgun, it’s best to be like a bait fish where you constantly just blend in and people can’t really pick you out of the crowd. The Grey Man concept of blending in and just being a part of the crowd really is the best method. Wearing every day clothes and looking as regular as possible really does pay off.
Avoid anything tactical or threatening and just absorb into the crowd and use the chaos as a benefit to you. Having a large group of people is not only stimulating to you, but also distracts everyone else so it’s tough to see your gun printing or showing in any way. The other big point to remember is that the vast majority of people aren’t thinking about someone carrying a gun around them. Most people are completely oblivious to any sort of threats and they are just going on with their day. I completely understand how it may be stressful to you, but truthfully, you could open carry in most situations with not many people realizing if it’s a busy area. I hate the idea of open carrying, but as an analogy, it’s a good one for the subject.
Look For What’s Out Of Place
One of the best ways of thinking when it comes to huge crowded areas is to not assess everyone but look at the crowd as a whole and see how they are reacting to people. Most crowds will avoid suspicious people and tend to stay away from intimidating or suspicious people as a whole. The crowd typically does a lot of the work for you and if you stay with the group, you are often safer than sticking on your own. The other important factor is to look for what doesn’t look right in a crowd. Oftentimes it’s much easier to look around and see what people stick out and don’t match the surrounding crowd.
Looking for people or situations that seem out of place is much easier than having to constantly search through every person to see a potential threat. As funny as it may seem. There have been a few times where the people who most stick out have been other individuals carrying a concealed firearm or police officer in plain clothing. They will usually be scanning around for threats and have atypical behavior compared to most people. Once you start looking at people this way, you will not only see potential threatening situations to avoid but also can catch other concealed carriers doing the same thing out in public. Rather than looking at everything, it’s always best to look for things that don’t belong or seem out of place. You’ll cut down on the searching process and streamline the process.
Overall Thoughts
Carrying around a bunch of people can be overwhelming, especially if you’re not comfortable carrying a concealed handgun regularly. While some actively try to avoid large crowds, it’s really about how you approach larger groups with a problem-solving attitude to keep yourself safe and fly under the radar rather than being ultra vigilant and raising suspicions to the people around you. Changing your mindset and looking for what doesn’t fit in works so much better than worrying about everyone in your immediate vicinity.
What are some things you guys do to deal with large crowds? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. If you have questions about carrying concealed or firearms in general, feel free to shoot me a message on Instagram @fridgeoperator. Stay safe out there and we will see you in the next edition of Concealed Carry Corner.
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