Carrying concealed when the weather is cold is easy. You’re typically wearing multiple layers of clothing and a jacket or heavy coat. You have multiple layers and tons of cover options to make sure that you have your pistol on your person without anyone being able to tell.
Frankly, the biggest challenge is being able to get to your firearm quickly with all of those layers on your body.
When it’s hot outside, though, that’s a different issue. Even if you live in Alaska, there are a few months during the year when you’re likely going without a sweater or coat, even wearing gym shorts during the daytime hours because of the warm weather.
How do you carry so that you have your firearm on your person should you need it without it being blatantly obvious that you have it (which would lose you the element of surprise)?
A writer going by Mikial was recently thinking about that exact question. Mikial writes,
As the saying goes, dress around your gun. That holds doubly true in summer. I spend most of the summer in shorts and a tank top or T-shirt, but I wear shorts that require a belt, so I can still use my IWB holster. I also wear tank tops and T-shirts that are loose and long enough to conceal my handgun. In general, since you usually will not be wearing a cover garment like a jacket or unbuttoned shirt, you will need to ensure your clothes still provide concealment and do not print. Along with being loose, shirts with patterns rather than solid colors are best.
Mikial also mentions the options of carrying a smaller gun to make it more concealable, even going with pocket carry, and says that he’s using a Phlster Enigma system as his concealed carry holster method almost exclusively now because of the options that it gives (we’ve talked about the Phlster Enigma system before here and here).
Whatever you choose to do, the basics come down to this: consider how you need to dress to stay cool in the warmer weather while also being able to carry a firearm in a concealed manner. Then, dress that way. Or go with a Phlster Enigma and dress however you want short of wearing a skin tight bikini in public while carrying concealed.
Your choice.
