Your firearm is the most exciting thing to carry, and can be the most important. I view mine as a life-saving device. It is a tool. It’s meant to get beat up, and should function just fine if it is taken care of a little bit. In today’s market, there are so many good options. By good I mean reliable. That is what is important. You need a gun that will go bang every time you pull the trigger. This is why testing your carry ammo is important. That is the food to your gun.

Today’s ammo is miles ahead of where it use to be. Malfunctions can happen, but you want those to happen at the range while practicing. I buy cheap ammo so that I can practice malfunctions at the range. Carry ammo is made of different materials, and are mostly nickel-plated. Brass ammo expands when it gets hot, and this can induce malfunctions. Staying on the subject of ammo. You don’t know how much you’ll need, so for me, a gun with high capacity is what I want to carry. My carry gun at the moment is a Smith and Wesson M&P9 Pro Series. It fits 17 rounds in the magazine & one in the chamber, plus I carry a 21 round spare mag. This gives me 39 rounds, which I don’t intend to use, but rather top off my gun if I use it. More importantly, the gun gives me a full grip due to it being a full size. It’s designed for competition, so it has a 5 inch barrel, which is about as long as they make pistol barrels with the intended purpose of being a duty-gun. The longer the barrel, the more velocity the bullets will get. The trigger is upgraded from the factory for a lighter pull, which gives me greater accuracy.The only thing I’ve done with the gun is shoot it a ton, and changed out the sights to my preferred sights. While shooting with iron sights, you want to focus on the front sight, so I prefer a bright front sight, and blacked out rear sight.

Another important component of my gun is it has a rail for attaching accessories. For me, I utilize the rail with a weapon mounted light. The Streamlight TLR1 HL gives me 800 lumens. It along with my firearm have solid reputations for reliability, and companies that stand behind their products. It is a pain to conceal a large gun, with the addition of a WML, but a good holster makes this a little more manageable. I’m about 6’1″ 200 pounds, so it is easier for me to carry a larger gun. I also dress around the gun, which usually requires a larger shirt. One other piece of the puzzle that most people get wrong is their belt. You’ll need a rigid belt to support the additional weight of your firearm, and whatever else you’re carrying. My belt is 1.5inches thick, and my holster and spare mag both have 1.5inch clips. This is important because my holster won’t rotate while I move, and I get a solid grip on the gun every time I draw. Like I said earlier, the market today is better than it’s ever been due to technological advances. Just find a gun that is reliable, preferable striker-fired because you’ll get the same trigger press every time, and one that is easy to shoot. Caliber isn’t necessarily a huge deal. I choose 9mm because it has excellent ballistics, capacity, and recoil management isn’t bad with it. It is also not expensive, so you can practice more with it. The FBI just switched back to 9mm along with many other departments. Carrying a gun isn’t for everyone, and you’ll have to find out what works for you, but it has it’s rewards, and responsibilities that come with it.

New ideas help people improve and grow. The gun industry really isn’t any different from others. New ideas come from word of mouth, the internet, and through paper media. Newspapers are somewhat out-dated. But give really good content, and in the gun industry, they do an excellent job of trying to keep up with the rest of the community. Online social medias are the way to get the most current announcements and trends. It’s instant access to new techniques, products, and announcements. Gun shops are well known not to give credible information. They are 10/20 years behind everyone else with their products. Most of the time they’ll give bad advice. I try to avoid them anytime I can.

The topic of modifications can come up in court in the unlikely event of a self-defense shooting, specifically speaking about firearms. I will discuss some of the benefits of them, and my opinion on them. Why would someone want to modify their everyday carry handgun. The best reasoning is for increased accuracy out of that weapon platform. Handguns are generally hard to shoot due to a number of factors. By making modifications, it can make the gun easier to manipulate. The most common mod to a handgun is the trigger. Usually making the pull-weight lighter than it comes from the manufacturer. This will decrease the amount of pressure that needs to be applied in order to pull the trigger. The benefits are that there is less movement in the sights during the trigger pull, therefore allowing for a more accurate shot. This can come up in court due to the weight of the trigger being too light. They will try to say that you weren’t ready to shoot, and pre-maturely pulled the trigger because of the lightened weight. My defense to this is simple, and I’ve already explained the benefits to it. It allows for a more accurate shot. How light is too light? In my opinion, anything under 4 pounds is generally viewed as a competition trigger, which is kind of unnecessary because you’re not even gonna feel the trigger due to stress anyways. Training and shooting frequently can overcome this negative effect.

Another modification is a adding texture to the grip. Once again, this makes shooting the gun easier, which will give you more accurate shots. You can do this by adding some sort of tape, or by permanently melting the plastic, creating ridges in the gun. It will give you better traction on the gun. The same principle goes for adding extended controls. It is easier to manipulate the firearm. One example this would be a huge benefit is in adverse weather conditions. In the rain, you will have more control of the weapon. It would be similar to adding tape to steps to prevent people from falling. I will discuss sights in another post due to how many variations there are. Same goes for weapon-mounted lights, but for different reasons.

My opinion on modifications to an everyday carry handgun is simple. If you have justification to use lethal force, it shouldn’t matter if you use a strawberry or a gun. At work, my department does not let me make modifications, which is a common practice. I just train with what I have. I think the philosophy behind this is that if another officer has to use my gun, it will feel the same as theres. Outside of work, and in all shootings, I am not required to give a fair fight, and I want every advantage I can get. If I can make a modification to my gun to make me shoot it more accurately and quicker, then I want that modification. That being said, a spoiler alert is my everyday handgun is a competition gun. The only thing I changed are the sights. It comes with a lighter trigger from the factory because it was designed for competition purposes. I simply have the body style to carry a large gun, and it doesn’t have any disadvantages other than discomfort due to size.

The time of year has a huge influence on how we dress. It can means adding layers or taking some away. This can have positive and negative impacts on your EDC.

First off, I try to be consistent with what I carry which means I dress for my items. If I can’t carry everything comfortably, then I’ll likely change what I’m wearing.

Adding layers of clothing whether it be for winter applications or rain, you can get away with with bigger gear. The one dilemma to be knowledgeable about is the gear needs to still be quickly accessible, mainly firearm focused. Wearing more clothing means you have to clear more clothing in order to reach your firearm. The best way I found of keeping that speed and consistency is just practicing a few draws before I leave the house, and making sure nothing impedes my drawstroke. I will provide two examples of this. I carry the same knife everyday in my right pocket, and the clip is exposed. One time as I was taking a few reps drawing my firearm, I noticed my rain jacket was getting caught on the knife’s clip. Therefore, I had to put the knife fully in my pocket. Another example is from work. All of the gear on my duty belt needs to be accessible. During summer this isn’t an issue, but for winter we are issued a heavy jacket. I have to lift my jacket, and tuck it between my shirt and belt so I can access my work EDC. Even if it is snowing, the items we are issued will work while wet, which is the beauty of having quality gear and I’m thankful my department takes care of us. Gloves are also recommended during winter although I rarely wear them because I do not train enough with thick gloves. The plastic hospital gloves are on my hands sometimes for half of my shift, therefore I’ve trained with them on, and know how they effect my grip. Just a few things to consider.

Dressing down, many people have the mindset that they will carry smaller or less gear because their clothes won’t cover it. That’s a personal decision, but something I do not practice. I’m in the process of acquiring a smaller gun, and will give it a try. Until then, I will wear larger shirts and cargo shorts, which cargo shorts are the greatest invention ever for me due to the large side pockets. This is one of my hardest challenges with jeans lacking pockets. I don’t think I can personally change the fashion industry unfortunately. Thanks