Got spotted in a gun store


A.Quigley
I live in the Tampa area and almost every gun store I've been in has a "no loaded gun" sign on the front door..
Is it different down south??

Although I shouldn't have to, I usually just drop the chambered round and re-holster my weapon and go in.. Technically it's NOT a loaded gun..

As a good talking point:
I asked a guy behind the counter about that policy and he said, if a bad guy comes in and starts shooting and you pull your weapon, the store employees may think you are with the bad guy and shoot you as well..

I'm not going in unarmed, but I'll semi-comply with their policy..
Since Florida is a Conceal carry only state, they shouldn't know I'm carrying anyways...
 

No sir, it's the same here as well. I usually pocket carry but that night my family was going to the mall, dinner and a concert, so I had something a little bigger on. Really didn't think about it until the gent asked me about it.
I'm sure it would be a bad idea to pull one on a bad guy in any of our gun shops as most of the boys like 45's and I've seen several of the shoot! Wounding won't be a problem, just call the hearse.
 
A.Quigley said:
I was carrying my LC9 when I stopped by a local gun store looking for a sizing die. I had on a cover shirt that covers the entire gun but it seems when I bent over at the waist to look on a low shelf it printed very well.
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What holster are you using, an LC9 has no excuse to print. I usually carry a G26 IWB @3-4 o'clock (Kholster) and never have a printing issue. That being said, a lot of times people that know me will sometimes ask "Why aren't you carrying today?" I always am, so I'm doing something right.
 
I've only been seen once that I know of, and didn't find out about it until a few days later. A club that I'm on the board of had our meeting at a park during the nice summer weather. A guy in my club that happens to work with my daughter sat behind me. She told me a few days later that he said it was nice to know that at least someone was carrying at the meeting, and asked what I normally carried. He's never mentioned it to me, but I thought it was funny. It must have shown when I bent over to retreave a paper that had blown off the table.
 
I have a tight fitting OWB kydex holster but the shirt I had one wasn't as large as I normally wear. Plus my jacket was in the car. Don't like the way a IWB holster feels.
 
I don't know if you could call it being 'outed' but there have been a couple of times that my wife will step up behind me and adjust my outer shirt with the admonishment "you're printing again!". And I have gotten some weird looks from store clerks and customers. But, to date, no wide eyed encounters with anyone pointing a finger at me, yelling "Oh my God! He has a gun!!"

I carry in a good quality IWB at the 5 O-Clock position and I am a bit round at the center and my knees are gone so if I bend over (rather than squatting with my knees) there is the reality of printing. And down here is the south I don't have the need to wear a jacket very often.

But being "discovered" in a gun shop is nothing. If anything it's an ice breaker and a way to start a conversation on common topics. Good move on the counter person's part to enter into a conversation about your next pistol purchase!
 
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HootmonSccy said:
A.Quigley
I live in the Tampa area and almost every gun store I've been in has a "no loaded gun" sign on the front door..
Is it different down south??

Although I shouldn't have to, I usually just drop the chambered round and re-holster my weapon and go in.. Technically it's NOT a loaded gun..
Click to expand...

Technically, the way the Florida statute reads, it IS a loaded gun. I could be wrong.

Tampa? How much farther south can you go? ;->

The range in Lakeland I go to is very specific about it. "No loaded guns OR loaded magazines".

I got pretty much the same answer posted earlier to the reason for no loaded guns or magazines in the store are. "If a BG comes in here and starts shooting up the place, if you know you have an unloaded weapon you're going to hit the floor, right? If you're on the floor you won't get caught in the cross fire from all the employees going for the BG. And we WILL get the BG."

Make sense to me. I do the same thing except I stick the magazine in my left pocket. And that's okay as far as my range is concerned.
 
since I went to front pants pocket carry in 1982? never. the belt rig is a bad risk for this, the shoulder rig even worse, off body carry and ankle rigs are so slow that you might as well not have the gun.
 
hotti said:
since I went to front pants pocket carry in 1982? never. the belt rig is a bad risk for this, the shoulder rig even worse, off body carry and ankle rigs are so slow that you might as well not have the gun.
Click to expand...

So, where were you that allowed legal concealed carry in 1982?
 
walt629 said:
Technically, the way the Florida statute reads, it IS a loaded gun. I could be wrong.

Tampa? How much farther south can you go? ;->

The range in Lakeland I go to is very specific about it. "No loaded guns OR loaded magazines".

I got pretty much the same answer posted earlier to the reason for no loaded guns or magazines in the store are. "If a BG comes in here and starts shooting up the place, if you know you have an unloaded weapon you're going to hit the floor, right? If you're on the floor you won't get caught in the cross fire from all the employees going for the BG. And we WILL get the BG."

Make sense to me. I do the same thing except I stick the magazine in my left pocket. And that's okay as far as my range is concerned.
Click to expand...
If you consider Tampa south, what do you call 30 miles South of Miami? ;) The range another 30 miles south of here has the same policy. Gun shops here, not posted but one does have a metal detector.
 
Deserteagle said:
Did you mean that Pustic guy? I think he got banned.
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I get confused easily. They all start sounding the same very quickly....

internet_trolls_by_vanisher72-d3a5cd9.jpg
 
hotti said:
since I went to front pants pocket carry in 1982? never. the belt rig is a bad risk for this, the shoulder rig even worse, off body carry and ankle rigs are so slow that you might as well not have the gun.
Click to expand...
First rule of gunfighting: Have a gun. What's better in a shooting situation? The IPSC/IDPA grand champ with his race gun locked in the car, or some 5 foot nothing 90 pound woman with her .380 in a purse?

Tell me how it's easier for your gun to be spotted in something like Link Removed or Link Removed as opposed to your pocket carry. Remember, this thread is about people seeing your carry gun, not how fast you can bring it into action.

Besides, with all of the thousands of draws and Airsoft practice and .22 practice you advocate, it should be relatively quick to bring into action.
 
I do pocket carry 90% of the time and my LC9 the other 10%. A good friend of mine that was a former policeman and firearms instructor always stressed to me it's more about shot placement that the size of the hole. Plus if you don't have it on you because it's to big, what good is it to you? So my lil 380 goes everywhere in my pocket and doesn't get spotted but that dang LC9 got me busted just once. LOL!
 
My Lc9 rides everywhere in my front pocket and if it dont fit there I throw it in my back pocket just like a wallet.
 
Ran across a sign in a gun store a while back. Their policy was that no unholstered guns were allowed unless you brought them to the front desk first. This included long guns. Bring in all the guns you wanted just leave them in the holster.
 
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