It’s a common line of thinking among pro-gun folks that you want to carry concealed pretty much all of the time, and, for the most part, I would agree with that sentiment.
However, it might make sense to not carry concealed at certain times. You know, like when you’re playing with your dog. Take this story from the Associated Press, for example (hat tip to here for the story):
An Iowa man says his dog inadvertently shot him while they were roughhousing Wednesday.
Richard Remme, 51, of Fort Dodge, told police he was playing with his dog, Balew, on the couch and tossed the dog off his lap. He says when the pit bull-Labrador mix bounded back up, he must have disabled the safety on the gun in his belly band and stepped on the trigger.
The gun fired, striking one of Remme’s legs. He was treated at a hospital and released later that day.
Remme told the Messenger newspaper that Balew is a “big wuss” and lay down beside him and cried because he thought he had done something wrong.
Now, maybe you got a chuckle out of that story (and, because the injury doesn’t sound like it was too serious, there is a humor to it), but it does raise a serious point: should he have had the gun in his belly band while sitting on the couch playing with his dog?
In retrospect, I suspect that he would say probably not, and I would agree with him about this. Sitting on the couch is not exactly an ideal situation in which you would be pulling out your weapon, and having it on his body set him up for what could have been a serious injury.
Having said that, I don’t think anyone would suggest just laying your firearm around anywhere, but the point is to be aware of the situation. It may make more sense, in this kind of situation, to have your firearm sitting beside you on a table or elsewhere easily reachable (but not accessible by children). You certainly wouldn’t want your pet to shoot you either.