Another thread was drifting toward carrying in a vehicle. So to keep things straight I'm starting a thread on carrying while driving.
A little background. I arrived in Spain on December 29, 1974. At the time Francisco Franco was still alive and very much in charge. Most Spanish people were pretty well dispositioned to Americans, especially American military. But, there were several terrorist groups, chief among them the ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna), that did not like Americans and were just as happy to kill us as the Spanish police or military. Or for that matter civilians, including women and children (entire families if they could).
American military personnel's private vehicles had a separate and unique letter and number sequence until a few years earlier. Someone decided we were easier to target, so they issued plates with the same sequencing. Then a year later put a bright red strip on the plates. If you look at the photo you can see just how unobtrusive the plates were. (sarcasm here).
So that's the scene.
It's about a week maybe two later that I first began to carry concealed. The fire arm was a Llama Comanche .357 magnum with a 4" barrel. Think S&W Model 19 (hey I was a poor, married GI S&W's were out of my price range). This is also when I started to carry OWB cross draw. You can't see it in the photo because my bride is standing there blocking it. Yes that was sort of intentional, as we sent that photo home to our folks and really didn't want to have to explain why I was armed. Our mothers would have freaked, and my dad would have ask why it wasn't a 1911.
Initially I carried it Mexican style as left handed holsters just weren't to be had. I did get a local leatherworker to make me up a holster pretty quickly.
The why of cross draw was pretty simple. I knew I would travel in my car daily either to or from the base to our apartment. I wanted to be able to access the revolver with either hand. As it turned out it also put it into a position that my wife could access my handgun if necessary. My vehicle had separate lap and shoulder belts. I usually wore the lap belt under the holster. The shoulder bet didn't interfere with the firearm in the least. The only problem is that it required releasing two buckles instead of the way we do it now. So, I pretty much never wore the shoulder belt.
So, how and why do you carry while driving a vehicle?
A little background. I arrived in Spain on December 29, 1974. At the time Francisco Franco was still alive and very much in charge. Most Spanish people were pretty well dispositioned to Americans, especially American military. But, there were several terrorist groups, chief among them the ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna), that did not like Americans and were just as happy to kill us as the Spanish police or military. Or for that matter civilians, including women and children (entire families if they could).
American military personnel's private vehicles had a separate and unique letter and number sequence until a few years earlier. Someone decided we were easier to target, so they issued plates with the same sequencing. Then a year later put a bright red strip on the plates. If you look at the photo you can see just how unobtrusive the plates were. (sarcasm here).
So that's the scene.
It's about a week maybe two later that I first began to carry concealed. The fire arm was a Llama Comanche .357 magnum with a 4" barrel. Think S&W Model 19 (hey I was a poor, married GI S&W's were out of my price range). This is also when I started to carry OWB cross draw. You can't see it in the photo because my bride is standing there blocking it. Yes that was sort of intentional, as we sent that photo home to our folks and really didn't want to have to explain why I was armed. Our mothers would have freaked, and my dad would have ask why it wasn't a 1911.
Initially I carried it Mexican style as left handed holsters just weren't to be had. I did get a local leatherworker to make me up a holster pretty quickly.
The why of cross draw was pretty simple. I knew I would travel in my car daily either to or from the base to our apartment. I wanted to be able to access the revolver with either hand. As it turned out it also put it into a position that my wife could access my handgun if necessary. My vehicle had separate lap and shoulder belts. I usually wore the lap belt under the holster. The shoulder bet didn't interfere with the firearm in the least. The only problem is that it required releasing two buckles instead of the way we do it now. So, I pretty much never wore the shoulder belt.
So, how and why do you carry while driving a vehicle?
