How many is too many for cc?

sgt127 said:

You carry more guns than I did. Working late nights. On patrol. In a rough part of town with bars and crack dealers.

You can't realistically keep control of that many weapons scattered about your body. The fact that you missed one undressing underscores that.

Physical confrontation. Going to the bathroom etc. too much to keep track of.

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I'm in agreement with sgt127 on this one - but I'll defend your right to do as you please.

Now that I'm a civilian, I rarely carry more than one gun. I've never carried more than two concealed, and if I carry two, I usually won't carry any extra mags. When I'm on my motorcycle, I only carry one. My chances of engaging the pavement with my body far exceed my chances of needing multiple guns, and they can beat the snot out of you in a tumble.

2ndunamended said:

People who have tattoos can relate. The answer? No such thing as too many.

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Yeah but you can hide tattoos much easier than chunks of steel.

I guess my concern would be that if you ever had to use one of your guns and was arrested afterward, as is likely, a lawyer will try to paint you as a nut walking around with an arsenal who just wants to kill someone.

Of course you aren't, but never underestimate the ignorant acceptance of dramatically phrased lies.

I have no problem with you carrying 4 guns, but I'm in the camp that thinks you'd be better prepared by swapping at least 2 of the guns for other EDC items.

I usually have two on my person, one in my briefcase, & another chained up in my car. Probably too many for some and not enough for others.

Um, no knife??? Gibb's rule #9

That's quite the assortment. How proficient are you with all of those different guns? How similar are the manual of arms?

I've come to the thinking that simplicity is easier to train with. You can train to be much more proficient with one type of gun than you can with many different types.

The number of guns is irrelevant, but similarity is more important. It's all about consistency and efficiency.

Back Up Gun Consistency :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRGsO1_PL2Q

corton93 said:

... After all that, I sat back and thought to myself, "Why in the !#%@ am I carrying so many guns?". I attribute it to that bloat phenomenon where I notice an empty spot on my person and think "Man, I wonder if I have another gun I could carry there?"

Overkill? Probably. Being prepared? Priceless.

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<chuckle> That ... is a lot of concealed iron to be totin' 'round.

... but if doing so makes you feel safer while moving thru the areas you frequent ...

When I am wandering around in civilization, I feel comfortable carrying just one handgun ... well, except for those few times that I will have a Bulldog .44 in each sidepocket of my heavy winter coat.

guyfromohio said:

In your case, the means became the ends. Carrying is the focus, not just living a normal life with a tool on the belt.

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That's my sense of it too.

To me, if you're going out of your way to carry a gun you're obsessing over it. That's why it always irks me when people start talking about buying pants larger or "dressing around" the gun. To me, if strapping my gun on is literally dictating what I'm going to wear then its got too much influence and I'd rather leave it home.

When I carry, I get dressed first for however I'm going to go out, and then as I'm walking out the door I'll pick a gun/rig that will work with that. Often times that's an LCP in a pocket holster. If I'm wearing a jacket it might be my Taurus G2 in an IWB. If I'm going hunting and can get away with open carry I will put on something a little bigger.

I refuse to let my routine revolve around the gun though. To anyone that does that I don't think it should be illegal or anything, I just think it's an odd mindset. "Carry to live, don't live to carry.".

If you have so many that you forget one when you're undressing, that's at least one too many IMO.

I'm not sure where the line is, but 4 is over it for me. Like sgt127 said, I would be concerned about controlling that many weapons on my person at once. I've never carried more than one firearm, but I don't disparage people who carry a backup. But 4 is a little silly IMO.

Man, I just couldn't handle toting around that much. I'm a fairly physically fit male in my 30s, but more than one light and comfortable firearm on my person is too much for me. I might carry a NY reload if I carry a snubbie in my jacket pocket just to balance out the other side.

That said, we all do what we do. If I were to empty my pockets right now you would find at least 5 knives on me. I've got a ZT flipper, a Case my wife gave me, a little beater folder for yuck jobs, a multitool sporting two blades, and a tiny backup with a 1.5" blade that rides under my belt buckle.

Why that many? I dunno. All I ever actually use is the MT and maybe the Case

If you're going through security like Max entering Bartertown................
that might be too many
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDvMPaspKds

Two is my limit for CC.

The real question to answer is purely practical: How do you train to USE those guns? What is your practice regimen for how you identify and engage threats using those guns, and how does that stack up to the everyday type violent encounters that are prevalent in your area and your lifestyle?

In other words, you carry FOUR handguns. Does that have any -- possible -- relevance to which and how you would draw and use to defend yourself against a realistic, "common" violent threat in your life?

If not (and the answer here is clearly "no," in case you found yourself struggling to work it out), you're engaging in a rather silly bit of what the Japanese call "cosplay," but with Walter Mitty-esque overtones. While carrying a firearm (and even a backup firearm) is a reasonable preparation to a few of the real threats that exist in our society, anything one does with a loaded firearm increases risks of accident, loss, loss of control, damage, inadvertent legal mis-steps, etc., to some very small degree. Carrying more guns that you could possibly draw and use in any even remotely common violent encounter of the types prevalent in our society today simply increases those risks without making the slightest improvement in your preparedness.

"How many of you carry a spare tire in your vehicle? raise your hand."
--Louis Awerbuck

"How many of you drive around all the time with your trunk and back seat stuffed full of spare tires, and one strapped to the roof of your car, too?"
--Things Louis didn't say

The real question to answer is purely practical: How do you train to USE those guns? What is your practice regimen for how you identify and engage threats using those guns, and how does that stack up to the everyday type violent encounters that are prevalent in your area and your lifestyle?

In other words, you carry FOUR handguns. Does that have any -- possible -- relevance to which and how you would draw and use to defend yourself against a realistic, "common" violent threat in your life?

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This is what I was trying to get at.

If all the guns had the same manual of arms and even shared the same magazines, it might simplify training. However, you'd still need to regularly train to intuitively draw from all those locations.

Too many options can be bad. It makes you hesitate when you have very little time to act decisively.

"How many of you drive around all the time with your trunk and back seat stuffed full of spare tires, and one strapped to the roof of your car, too?"
--Things Louis didn't say

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Now that was funny...

If all the guns had the same manual of arms and even shared the same magazines, it might simplify training. However, you'd still need to regularly train to intuitively draw from all those locations.

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And to defend against grabs or simple displacement losses from all those locations, simultaneously.

But even simpler than that: There is some very very small, but non-zero, chance that you might be attacked.

There is some very very small (slightly smaller) chance that you might be attacked and can/need to access a concealed firearm to defend yourself against that attack.

There is a MUCH smaller chance, multiplied against those already very small chances, that your primary firearm might be shot empty, or might malfunction, and you need to access a second mag.
And a pretty danged tiny chance that you'd have time and opportunity to successfully do so before the attacker flees or disables you.

You could, maybe, say that you view your (1st) back-up gun as the preferred alternate instead of going to that second mag for your primary gun. Ok. Long odds, but almost everyone at least carries a spare mag, so let's call that an equivalent choice.

But now you're looking at the odds of a)being attacked, b) being able and the situation right for trying to stop that attack with a concealed firearm, c) shooting empty or having a serious malfunction with your primary gun, d) having time and ability to access a backup gun -- all of which are multiplying against each other in levels of decreasing probability -- AND then e) shooting empty or experiencing a malfunction of your SECOND gun, ANNNNND THEN f) having time and ability to access a THIRD gun, and still needing to and being able to defend yourself after shooting empty or disabling TWO firearms.

AND THEN??? A forth gun, of course. It's rather absurd, when you contemplate the chronology and physics of how any scenario where that might all fall together could possibly happen, for an average citizen living in Normalsville, Your State, USA.

Too many options can be bad. It makes you hesitate when you have very little time to act decisively.

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And that's certainly true.

& if you have too many you have to watch out for deep water

Four guns just sounds like it's way too many choices to contemplate when you need to be acting quickly and decisively. Besides it's also too much extra weight to be carrying around all the time (I always like to travel light anyways). Most guns I would carry would be two.

"..."Why in the !#%@ am I carrying so many guns?"..." Too much TV. And what greenlion says.

Carry as many as you want.. Look at it this way. If you are involved in a mass shooting event.
You can barricade and arm your fellows and cover 360.

Personally I just carry one. I rely on being able to avoid a fight and use the weapon as a last resort. But I certainly am not apposed to more.
Hurts nothing if not needed and if needed. Boy wern't you the smart one??

Do you live in the neighborhood Charles Bronson was in during "Death Wish 3"? If not 4 guns concealed on 1 person is a bit of paranoia. Sounds like you're living to carry instead of carrying to live. The most I carry is 2 and that is very seldom, maybe 5 times a year. Heck I think the punisher only carries 3 guns at a time. I'm guessing one day you'll realize you don't need that many guns on your person everyday and maybe just go to 2. Of course if s*** hits the fan and you're somewhere when an active shooter is on a rampage then you would definitely be prepared as you could maybe arm others as well. The problem is which is the primary, backup, third, or fourth option? Training would definitely benefit you here. I'm sorry man but you're borderline mall ninja with all those weapons lol jk

Unless the OP is spoofing us (and I rather hope that he is), I'm hard-pressed to think of any locale in the U.S. where a single man needs to pack four handguns.

If there is any area like that, perhaps one would be better served by swapping out two or three of the handguns for an M-4 and a combat load-out. And some air support.

No disrespect intended to our thread-starter, but if I felt I needed to carry four handguns whenever I left the house in my city, (1) I need to move, far away, or (2) I'm quite possibly living in a fantasy world and need to seek some counseling perhaps for my paranoia ...