Small changes

The discussion today is all about making big changes in response to the recent active shooter events. Most of those big changes will not occur, and particularly with regard to gun control measures, even if they do occur they are incredibly unlikely to prevent future events.

I have to wonder how many guns were in parked vehicles during the El Paso Walmart incident, left behind for all the usual reasons: it’ll never happen to me, I’m just going inside for a few minutes, it’s uncomfortable, everybody will notice and I’ll feel weird, the gun might fall out/go off, and so on.

If you know people that carry “in the car” but never go armed outside their vehicle, encourage them to take the step of putting some kind of holster, belly band, fanny pack or some other carry option in the car with their gun. Make that one change in response to recent events. Then on that day they finally decide to put the gun on when they leave the car, “I don’t have a holster with me” isn’t another excuse.

It’s not a huge effort. Open a search window, buy online. Open the box, put it in the car. Even the worst product they choose will be better than no product.

Yes, they should go get training in how to use the holster, and they should carry med gear on their person and in the car, and pepper spray, and a flashlight, and buy into the whole well prepared/well trained mindset.

But don’t let perfect be the enemy of good. The next logical step from carrying in the car to all those other things is actually having a holster or some other way to carry outside the car with them. Encourage those standing on the curb to take that first step down the road.