Poll: Do you carry concealed in urban areas? Has your gun ever been snatched?

[frankie_the_yankee]

I am looking to determine how many people regularly carry concealed in urban areas. For the purposes of this poll, an urban area is defined as a metro area with a population greater than 100,000. Note that this metro area can be made up of several individual cities and towns.

I am also looking to see how many people that regularly carry concealed have had their guns snatched or have experienced gun snatch attempts, and how many WOULD carry concealed in urban areas but do not carry because they are concerned about snatches or attempted snatches.

So the options are:

1) I regularly carry concealed in urban areas. I have never experienced a gun snatch or a snatch attempt.

2) I regularly carry concealed in urban areas and I have experienced a gun snatch or snatch attempt.

3) I avoid carrying concealed in urban areas because I am concerned about the possibilities of a gun snatch or snatch attempt.

Note: If you report a snatch or snatch attempt, please post a message giving a description of the circumstances during which the incident took place.

Thanks in advance for your help and cooperation.

 

[Nitrogen]

I've had a snatch attempt, and it ended up being an interesting story.
This is a slightly edited version of what happened, from a local forum where I told the story originally.

About a year ago, I took some basic krav-maga classes while visiting my folks back in Phoenix from a friend of mine. One of the things he taught me was basic weapon retention. BAsically, slam your hand down on the grabbers hand and your weapon, and then push the grabber or their arm away.

Well, I'm at home depot and I feel a tug at my weapon. Instinctively, I slam my hand down on my weapon, and spin around to push the grabber out of my way.

Well, I executed a perfect retention drill.

..on a 5 year old boy. Since he was so short, I managed to slam him in the face instead of slamming his arm.

I was lucky, because his dad didn't instantly beat the tar out of me. he saw what happened. I was extremely lucky because the kid's dad was also a CHLer.
"I TOLD YOU *NEVER* TO GRAB A GUN, SON! YOU KNOW BETTER! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING??"

Honestly, I don't know what I could have done differently in this situation, but again, something to think about: curious small children that might be able to see things underneith your cover garments. There has to be a better way of handling a situation like that than exerting force against a small child. (Of course, I didn't realise it was a child until it was "too late")

It's something that really disturbed me, but i'm at a loss at what could have been done to prevent it.

The only thing I can think of, is I should have been more aware of my surroundings; the kid shouldn't have snuck up on me. It was in a very crowded store, but I think I should have still done better.

 

[shadowalker]

I open carry and conceal carry in an urban area every day and have never had a gun snatch attempt.

It is something you should train for but if you are concealing properly this shouldn't be an issue, they should never know you have a firearm to attempt to snatch.

If you are open carrying retention holsters are an option to hopefully give you the extra second to respond to a grab attempt but being aware of who is around you and what they are doing is more important.

 

[Mtnvalley]

Yet another good reason to include retention drills in one's training (and practice, if you have a partner to work with).

I couldn't answer the poll because I don't "often" visit urban areas (meaning more often than 1-2x a week)...and some of the times when I do, the trip is to go to a concert or the like, wherein I can't legally carry in the venue.

I do carry (concealed) anywhere else that it is legal, urban area or not, and concern about a potential grab attempt would rarely be a significant part of my decision to do so. If the risk of a grab attempt on my concealed weapon is that high, I probably either shouldn't be there, or should work harder on my situational awareness.

 

[ID_shooting]

I like smak dab in the middle of a 1 mil metro area and carry evry day, never, not once, not ever have I had a snag attempt.

 

[sacp81170a]

I live in what's rapidly becoming an urban area and is a metro area by your definition. I've never had a snatch attempt, but then I do carry in a retention holster. I'm very aware of my surroundings because I carry openly when I'm on duty. One of the things you will notice cops doing even while off duty is stepping back for other people to get by so they won't be passing behind your back.

Simple situational awareness and proper placement of your concealed carry weapon according to the circumstances are key. I was at the ZZ Top concert last night in plain clothes, so I had my weapon in a high ride retention holster just under my left elbow under a loose shirt. It was placed such that I could maintain constant contact with the butt of the weapon with my elbow, ensuring that no one else had ready access to it. Had I been in an area where wearing a loose shirt wasn't an option, I would have chosen a different carry method.

 

[Zaraster]

I am concieled no one know's

 

[hceptj]

i work in multiple buildings in and around downtown dallas, carry daily and have never had anyone attempt to snatch my ccw

 

[Geno]

ID_shooting says:

I li(v)e smak dab in the middle of a 1 mil metro area and carry ev(e)ry day, never, not once, not ever have I had a snag attempt.

1 Mil....that's a whole lotta taters 'round you. But what about the other 200 people in Idaho?! Any of them ever bother you?



Doc2005

 

[orionengnr]

I consider this poll fundamentally flawed.

Most people would say that carrying "concealed" does not include open carry.

If your weapon is not openly carried, and is truly concealed, then it is not a target for snatching. The object of concealed carry is that nobody knows. That is relatively easy to accomplish.

A more meaningful poll might be "Have you ever had a snatching attempt while open carrying?"

 

[frankie_the_yankee]

Orionengnr writes: I consider this poll fundamentally flawed.

Most people would say that carrying "concealed" does not include open carry.

If your weapon is not openly carried, and is truly concealed, then it is not a target for snatching. The object of concealed carry is that nobody knows. That is relatively easy to accomplish.

A more meaningful poll might be "Have you ever had a snatching attempt while open carrying?"

We already did a poll on this. Check out the General Discussion section is you want to vote in it.

I agree that a CC'd gun should not be visible and should not be a snatch target. The reason I started this poll is to see if anyone had ever experienced a snatch attempt while CC'ing and to compare the results with those that were obtained from the poll on OC snatches or attempts.

In the OC poll, 4 people out of 70+ said that they had experienced a snatch or attempt. I think that the % should be quite a bit lower for people who CC.

Others are trying to convince me that there is no added risk of a snatch when OC'ing in urban areas. I believe this to be utter nonsense.

 

[Nix]

ive never had someone try and snatch mine, but there was a guy and a cop getting into it a few years back and the guy had his hand on the cops side (they were on the ground wrestling) he got his hand onto the cops holster... got it unsnapped and two of my friends and myself got on the guy to help out the cop. The cop was furious with us until he realized that his gun had been unsnapped.

 

[frankie_the_yankee]

I wish that the people who report snatch attempts would post a message describing the circumstancs of the snatch or attempt.

Otherwise, I might be tempted to think the votes are from dedicated OC'ers who could be trying to skew the poll.

3 out of 46 have experienced snatches or snatch attempts while carrying concealed? Smells like B***s*** to me.

 

[ndolson]

How would anyone know there was a gun to "snatch" if nobody knows that it's even there?

 

[frankie_the_yankee]

ndolson writes: How would anyone know there was a gun to "snatch" if nobody knows that it's even there?

You just put your finger on the quite obvious reason why I think that in real life people who are carrying concealed almost never experience a snatch or snatch attempt. About the only plausible circumstances that come to mind are:

1) Poor concealment technique causes the CC'er to get "made" by a BG who then proceeds to get the drop on him and snatches the gun.

2) An altercation escalates to the grappling stage where the assailant "finds" the gun and tries to take it.

One poster had an instance where a 5 year old kid "made" him and reached out to touch the gun. He explained his vote in this thread and I fully believe that it is true.

I am skeptical of the anonymous "snatch" votes though.

 

[Sistema1927]

Is this poll a joke?

 

[elkhuntingfool]

how about not allowing anyone to get close enough to attempt a snatch and grab? Situational awareness plays into this. I know that's not always possible - but I DO NOT allow anyone to casually walk by me. Not sure why it bothers me - but it really does. Even more so when I'm carrying.

 

[fixyurgun]

I do my best to avoid urban areas completely, but if I have to go there ,my gun comes along. Haven't had a problem so far. jim

 

[frankie_the_yankee]

Sistema1927 writes: Is this poll a joke?

No joke. But I can't blame you for thinking that.

Various advocates of OC have been trying to convince me that my concerns about gun snatch attempts involving people who open carry in urban areas are not realistic. They seem to be saying that OC'ing does not involve any additional risk of gun snatchings compared to CC'ing.

Obviously, this is utter nonsense.

Yet, OC'ers have been polled recently in an attempt to determine if any have experienced snatches or snatch attempts. Something like 4 out of 70+ people responding to the poll indicated that they had experienced such attempts. This poll is in the General Discussion section.

So now people are telling me that 4 out of 70 isn't that many, and that it shows that snatches and snatch attempts are quite rare.

This made me wonder how many people who carry concealed would report snatchings or snatch attempts. Hence, this poll.

I know that if it is concealed that BG's won't know it is there, so it would be strange to find that there were any such attempts. But "strange" seems to be prevelant among the OC proselytizers so I figured that doing a poll like this would fit right in.

Still, I see that 3 out of 55 respondents to date report snatchings or attempts. One involved a 5 year old who "made" the CC'er and reached out to touch the gun. The other two were anonymous votes. I suspect that they are bogus for the obvious reasons. But I can't tell for sure.

In another post I described circumstances where I could see a CC'er experiencing a snatch or attempt.

I have also requested all who vote who have experienced snatches or attempts to post a message describing the circumstances.

 

[Regolith]

Quite frankly, I don't see why it matters.

The risk is extremely low for either one. Yes, its probably more likely if your OC'ing, but situational awareness can lower this chance.

It seems to me like you have a bug up your ass about OC in general, and seem to be more eager to prove that *your* method is OBVIOUSLY superior to those "OC proselytizers." This absolutely reeks of elitism.

Its almost as bad as the "auto vs revolver" debates. Or perhaps 9mm vs .45 ACP.

 

[Big45]

It seems to me like you have a bug up your ass about OC in general, and seem to be more eager to prove that *your* method is OBVIOUSLY superior to those "OC proselytizers." This absolutely reeks of elitism.

+1

 

[Sistema1927]

frankie_the_yankee,

Thanks for your explanation, but do you think that ANY anonymous internet poll has ANY validity?

 

[kw5kw]

How many people who have a license to carry visit these sites?

In Texas we have nearly 300,000 CHL'ers but only a small fraction visit forums.

These kinds of polls mean nothing unless you can get an answer from each and every person who carries, both openly and concealed.

Then and only then will the numbers mean anything.

Russ

 

[frankie_the_yankee]

kw5kw writes: How many people who have a license to carry visit these sites?

In Texas we have nearly 300,000 CHL'ers but only a small fraction visit forums.

These kinds of polls mean nothing unless you can get an answer from each and every person who carries, both openly and concealed.

Then and only then will the numbers mean anything.

Unfortunately, you're probably right.

I notice another "snatch/attempt" voted by an anonymous respondent.

I'd sure like to know the circumstances. I would not have dreamed that so many people CARRYING CONCEALED have had others attempt to snatch their CONCEALED guns. There must be a lot of psychic BG's out there.

 

[possum]

I regularly CC in urban areas. No gun snatches or snatch attempts.

thats me, i have had no issues