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This may have been asked and answered a dozen times, but I will ask anyway. My instructor was pretty specific about no gun (or part thereof) showing through or having a pattern when you bend over etc. Well, the way I get around it is with a Kel-Tec PF-9 and a S&W 340PD in a pocket holster. But in the Winter I would like to carry one of my bigger guns but am spooked about my jacket flying open and someone screaming "he has a gun".

Why did they just not make it a carry license or at least a violation if the person intentionally disregards concealability. Seems like a simple breeze could cost one his or her CHL if a LEO, who is in a bad mood, spots the cannon I have on my hip hidden behind a coat. Maybe I am just paranoid, but that instructor was pretty adamant.

Your instincts are more correct than your instructor's teaching.

Intentional failure to conceal is a violation. Your jacket blowing open is NOT intentional failure to conceal. You should do the best you can to remain concealed, but you do not have to worry about a little printing, or the occasional breeze.

If the presence of the firearm is not discernable to a reasonable person, then you are concealed.

oldboyshooter wrote:Why did they just not make it ... at least a violation if the person intentionally disregards concealability.

They did.

GC §411.171. DEFINITIONS. In this subchapter:
(3) "Concealed handgun" means a handgun, the presence of which is not openly discernible to the ordinary observation of a reasonable person.

PC §46.035. UNLAWFUL CARRYING OF HANDGUN BY LICENSE HOLDER. (a) A license holder commits an offense if the license holder carries a handgun on or about the license holder's person under the authority of Subchapter H, Chapter 411, Government Code, and intentionally fails to conceal the handgun.

- Jim

Thanks, Jim! I knew what it said, but was too lazy to look it up.

oldboyshooter wrote:But in the Winter I would like to carry one of my bigger guns...

It's September; the opening NFL game is on tonight; the first "cool" front is forecast for Houston (admittedly, it only means, maybe, 89 or 90, but still). That can only mean cooler weather is on the way in several weeks! Woohoo! I really like the carry flexibility sport coats and jackets give me. Too bad it's only a few months a year...

Yeah, lets petition the legislature that Texas is just too hot a state for concealed carry. Lets get open carry like Arizona (I think it is Arizona) and spook all the liberals that have moved here from other states. Of course then the bad guys would know who has and has not, but perhaps when they come into the local convenience store to do bad things and see three guys and two gals getting cokes carrying hardware, they would just go home to momma and cry a little.

I have never been to Arizona so I do not know, but I think it would be interesting to see other law abiding citizens packing heat in the open. Of course, they can still carry concealed if they wanted to.

oldboyshooter wrote: I have never been to Arizona so I do not know, but I think it would be interesting to see other law abiding citizens packing heat in the open. Of course, they can still carry concealed if they wanted to.

I don't know how common it is in rural areas, but I have visited Phoenix and Tuscan many times and from my observations, it is a rare sight to see someone carrying openly.

frankie_the_yankee wrote:

oldboyshooter wrote: I have never been to Arizona so I do not know, but I think it would be interesting to see other law abiding citizens packing heat in the open. Of course, they can still carry concealed if they wanted to.

I don't know how common it is in rural areas, but I have visited Phoenix and Tuscan many times and from my observations, it is a rare sight to see someone carrying openly.

I go there a couple times a year. I see folks open carrying there quite a bit. Outside the bigger cities. I've even been to bars where they actually checked folks guns. I used to see a lot more open Carry in Phoenix but as the city over the years has evolved into Los Angeles East. Some folks still open carry once in a while, just not like they used to.

I have never opened carried in Phoenix per se, but I also have driven around with a a couple of handguns on the seats of my car, and have holstered up in a parking lot without getting strange looks. I have open carried out in the boonies . I have noticed some people there keep their guns on the dash and will holster or Mexican carry when they get out of their cars.