Darn good question!
Should I Carry in my Purse?
By Kathy Jackson
Author's Note: I'll be honest: this was a difficult
article to write, and I've hesitated to put it up for fear of unnecessarily
discouraging other women from carrying a gun at all. Please remember,
I don't know you. I don't know what physical or financial difficulties
you might need to work around, and since I've never met you, I don't know
your body type, or what holsters and guns you have tried, or what your
life is like. As you read the information below, please remember that
I'm just one voice. As a competent, adult woman, you will need to make
up your own mind about these things, because you are the one who must
live with the consequences of whatever choices you make.
While I've tried to be as objective as possible, the fact is that I'm
not a fan of carrying a handgun off-body. While I understand that some
women literally have no other viable choices, my suspicion is that most
women who carry in a purse do so as their default option, or because they
have never given on-body carry the serious consideration it deserves.
The article below is an honest attempt to explain the benefits and drawbacks
of carrying a concealed handgun in a purse. The sections are alphabetized
because what's most important to me may not be as important to you.
If you got here through a search engine, are are looking for more general
information about whether you should carry a firearm at all, please head
back to the Table of Contents and run your eye
down the rest of the articles offered on this site, especially the ones
in the chapters titled, "Why a Gun?," "Mindset" and "Firearms
Safety." You may find what you're looking for there.
Clothing
Let's face it, clothing is the biggest reason most women prefer purse
carry to the other possibilities. And it's true enough that carrying in
a purse involves very little wardrobe adjustment. Oh, you might have to
get used to the idea of carrying a large purse rather than a tiny one,
and surrender the idea of carrying a purse with a designer label, but
that's really about it. No wardrobe angst required.
But before you decide that purse carry is the only option that
will work for you, I want to tell you a dirty little secret. It is my
opinion, as an avid people-watcher, that roughly 90% of the outfits I
see on other women would work for concealed carry with no alterations
whatsoever.1
Fond of tight, skimpy shirts and classic bell-bottom jeans? Guess
what -- that's a great ankle carry outfit. The low-rise, wide-legged polyester
pants that so many young women wear to the office work well with ankle
holsters too. Love shrug sets? If the cardigan hits the waist, it can
conceal a behind-the-hip holster; if the cardigan is short, the outfit
will probably work well with a belly band. Whether you love crafty vests,
pretty blouses, boxy blazers, or cozy cotton sweaters, the chances are
that with a little determination and creativity, you can wear
a firearm on your body without altering your wardrobe nearly as much as
you fear.
When it comes to fancy dress clothing, the pickings get a little slimmer
(but still not entirely impossible). In some dress clothes, a carry purse
might really be your only viable option. But unless you wear your party
clothes twenty-four hours a day, chances are that you've got other choices
most of the time.
Visit The Closet for more discussion
about clothing choices while carrying on-body.
Expenses
If you do decide to carry in your purse, it's really, really a good idea
to purchase a quality holster purse. Carrying in a normal purse is so
rarely a safe option, and is so slow to access, that it simply should
not be done if you can possibly avoid it. On the other hand, a holster
purse from either of the two biggest makers will set you back $150 to
$300. No lie. They often cost as much as a good leather holster, plus
the cost of a high-end leather purse.
But listen to this: I found a Chinese knockoff of a concealed carry purse
last week! It cost all of $15. It looks good enough, but the internal
structure is lousy and the zippers are rough. There's no built in holster,
just a floppy-bag compartment of rough cheap material which provides no
real structure to protect the gun's trigger from inadvertent movement.
It's bound to fall apart before long. I had to order it though, simply
from fascination. A knock-off of a concealment purse! Whooda thunkit?2
Between those two ends of the scale, there are many lesser-known holstermakers
who offer holster purses for sale. I haven't handled many of these and
so I can't make specific recommendations, but I'm interested in
hearing from you if you have one and are willing to share details.
In contrast to this, you can expect to pay $100-$150 for a custom leather
belt holster, or $75-$100 for a kydex belt holster. Nylon ones can be
found for as little as $20, but these are not recommended for serious
every day use.
Firearm Selection
When carrying on-body, you'll want to select a handgun with the smallest
overall dimensions that you are able to shoot comfortably and accurately.
Size is the limiting factor.
When carrying in a purse, the most important issue becomes the gun's weight,
rather than its size. If you decide to go with purse carry, gun weight
will very likely be your limiting factor when you are selecting a firearm.
When carrying on the belt, provided you have a sturdy belt designed for
the task, there's little appreciable difference between a heavy gun and
a lighter one which has the same overall dimensions. Not so when carrying
in a purse. For a purse, you'll want the lightest handgun you can have,
because you'll notice every ounce.
Keep in mind, though, that heavier guns have less noticeable recoil and
are therefore more pleasant to shoot. If you are very recoil-sensitive,
you may want to avoid purse carry just so that you can comfortably carry
a slightly heavier handgun.
If your carry gun is not a super-lightweight one, be aware that you'll
be tempted to set the purse down more often than you otherwise would,
or to leave it behind on short errands. You already know that the gun
cannot save your life if it isn't with you when you need it, and that
there are safety issues to consider whenever you set the purse down. So
if you go this route, consider in advance what you will do on occasions
when the purse becomes too heavy to tote comfortably.
Safety Issues -- Accidental Discharges
Whether you decide to go the regular-purse route or to carry in a holster
purse, be aware that literally nothing else can share a compartment
with the gun -- not your lipstick, not the car keys, not a piece of paper.
Even a double-action revolver can get caught in all the other clutter
when it's dumped into a crowded purse, with messy and perhaps disastrous
results.
In the news awhile back was the tragic-comic story of an off-duty policewoman
who dropped her purse in a crowded fast food restaurant. The gun discharged,
and while no one was hurt, great pandemonium ensued. The police officer
panicked and fled the scene, leaving her purse behind. Someone called
911 to report shots fired. When other officers arrived at the scene, they
found their co-worker's newly-ventilated purse on the floor, with her
driver's license and all other identification still in it. Oops.
Safety Issues -- Security and Gun Retention
One of my biggest concerns with purse carry is that it is very socially
awkward to treat the gun purse with the respect it must be treated. Because
it is socially awkward to give the firearm-containing purse the respect
it must be given, the human tendency is to disregard the safety rules
"just this once" and leave the purse and its gun in an unsecure
location. One problem with this is that "just this once" is
literally all the time it takes for an unexpected tragedy to strike. And
the larger problem is that "just this once" has a nasty tendency
of turning into an ongoing bad habit.
For instance, few women keep their purses literally on their laps the
entire time they are visiting friends, even friends with children. Most
women toss their purses casually over the back of their chairs in a restaurant
(with the attendant risk of walking away without it). We shove our purses
underneath our desks when we get to work, and don't think about them again
all day. We plunk our purses into the shopping cart in the grocery store,
then turn away to pick out tomatoes. But it literally only takes a split
second for a purse-snatcher to do his thing -- and even less than that
for a child or grandchild to get into your purse when mommy's not watching
as carefully as she ought. There is literally no safe place to
set a gun purse down if it is not locked up. But physically
holding onto your purse all the time will definitely earn you some odd
looks from your friends. You must be prepared for this fact, and consider
ways to cope with it.
While it is easy to think, "Oh, that won't happen to me," there
are enough horror stories out there about this that it really gives one
pause to think. For instance, in Half Moon Bay, California, there is a
woman who was being stalked by her ex-husband. Her danger was acute enough
that she managed to score a concealed-carry permit (in California!) and
routinely carried in her purse. One day, she absent-mindedly walked out
of the grocery store without her purse. The manager got into her purse
to get her phone number, spotted the gun, and called the police. Now the
woman is facing a legal nightmare: charged with a crime for leaving her
firearm behind, she cannot have firearms anywhere near her until her case
is settled, and her name and picture were plastered all over the local
papers. Her previously-private address has become a matter of public record.
This is no way to avoid a stalker.
Speed of Draw / Ease of Access
Drawing from a purse can be difficult. If the purse isn't designed for
concealed carry, you may find yourself rummaging through your purse with
your head down at the very moment when you most need to have your head
up and be scanning the area around you for trouble.
Even if the purse is designed for concealed carry, unless the center compartment
is very sturdy, it is possible that other objects in the purse can negatively
affect your ability to draw the gun. I vividly remember watching a friend
work with her carry purse on the range one afternoon, and her acutely
frustrated expression when the contents of her overstuffed purse defeated
her every effort to draw quickly.
Remember, it isn't enough simply to have a gun with you. If you're going
to use the gun to save your life, you have to be able to get to it. The
thing to keep in mind is that if you need the gun at all, you will very
likely need it in a hurry.
The lesson here is that if you carry in your purse, you absolutely must
practice getting the gun out, so that you will be able to do it as efficiently
as possible if you ever really need it. And you must practice doing this
under realistic conditions, with all the other stuff you routinely carry
in your purse along for the ride.
The practical difficulty of this is that it is hard enough to find a range
which allows people to practice drawing from the holster. Finding one
which allows practice drawing from a purse might be an impossible mission.
But such practice is very important. If you cannot find a range which
allows it, remember that you can always practice drawing an unloaded
firearm in your home, provided you have a
safe backstop and follow the dryfire
safety rules.