Back in the day, I carried a secondary gun at work because, well, I guess I hadn’t really thought about why—I just did. Maybe I’d get separated from my primary, or at least be in a fight over it, and having another one would be helpful. Or something. Two is better than one, right? Well, in true TacTangents style, I finally started to look at the People-Ideas-Hardware angle (in that order!). This was one of my first lessons in Philosophy of Use as a police officer. 

The old-school way, which I can honestly say I never bothered with, was ankle carry. The thing about ankle carry is that it’s so dang hard to get to in a hurry. Every time I’ve talked to someone who’s big on ankle carry, they tell me something like, “Well I’d rather have a gun on my ankle than not at all.” Well, I’m not so sure that’s any better. Frankly, running with an ankle gun is probably a little cumbersome and that is exactly what you should be doing if you can’t get to your gun faster in most cases. I mean, sure, if you insist on ankle carry—go for it. But in my mind, carrying a smaller gun somewhere more accessible would be ideal. I imagine my need for a second weapon to be in the midst of a knock-down, dragged-out fight—and if I’m tangled up with someone, I want to be able to access that thing easily. Reaching down to touch my toes probably isn’t going to be the best way. In a CCW situation, where surreptitious draws might be appropriate, I’ll buy it in a pinch, but it limits me. I don’t recommend it for law enforcement. 

So then I looked at some holsters that basically velcroed to my vest, under my uniform shirt. That worked okay, but it was still a couple steps to get my gun out—I’d have to pop a couple buttons to get in there and frankly, it looked a little funny. I finally landed at taking a nice small .380 and putting in a pocket holster, support side cargo pocket. I figured if I was defending my primary pistol with the closest hand, this gave me another option that I could get to from mount, or in someone’s mount, and while .380 isn’t an ideal caliber—this was going to be an in-your-face (literally) sort of thing. 

But then I got to thinking. Maybe if I was worried about the hands-on/tangled up part of this gun battle, I should work on that first. I’m not saying a secondary firearm is a bad idea—I’m suggesting that if you are relying on that to fix a lack of proficiency in hand-to-hand skills, you might have it backwards. Carry a secondary gun—or a fixed-blade knife (accessible with your support hand!)—if you want to, but then go step up your hands-free fighting skills. No single tool or skill is an end-all, but every tool should be driven by an idea (technique, tactic) first—if your skill is lacking in a major area of  proficiency, start there. People, Ideas, Hardware—In that order!