Carrying a 51 Hudson on your hip...

Finally in Illinois the process has begun for legal concealed carry.  

Here in the Great State of Confusion, we are required to complete a curriculum which includes a shooting test and of 16 hours of classwork - more classwork than any State in the Union.  I'm scheduled, along with my Son to complete the course work on October 27th, then fingerprinting and finally the wait for the Illinois State Police to put applications online - though this won't start until January of 2014.  Although they're telling us the permits should be approved in 90 days, I'll believe it when I see it.  Now, approximately 16 months from the time the Supreme Court ruled in December 2012 that Illinois carry laws were in violation of the Second Amendment, those that choose to carry concealed may do so outside the confines of our homes.

In anticipation of this, I've been breaking in my IWB (Inside the Waist Band) Crossbreed holster when I'm at home.  I've never carried before and after a very short while I'm already seeing a small problem.  The gun I've chosen, the one pictured up above, weighs in at 44 oz loaded with 45 acp ammo (8+1) - or roughly 2.75 lbs.  I'm telling you, it feels like a 51 Hudson is perched on your hip!

Being - as my Brother-In-Law would say - one of the bigger kids on the block - 6'3" and 300 lbs - means I don't have much in the way of hips.  I am of the pear shaped variety of chubby and wearing my gun on my hip is like tying a string around the fat end of a light bulb... it just keeps slipping off.  I walk around the house hoisting my pants every five steps or they and the gun will be dragging on the ground... and lets face it, no one needs to see that!

So I've decided to make the ATI my home defense pistol, kept in my safe, loaded, cocked and locked, always at the ready.  What will take its place?  Right now I believe I'm going to buy a Colt Pocketlite .380 for my pocket pistol - 12.5 oz empty and 16.5 loaded - while I debate between a Colt Defender (left) or a Glock 36, both in .45. The Glock tips the scales loaded at 26.98 oz, the Colt loaded at 30 oz. - either one a considerable drop from the 44 oz ATI - while both have an ammo capacity of 6 + 1.

Right now I'm leaning towards the Colt for the simple reason that its of the 1911 variety.  Although the Pocketlite 380 is not a 1911, you can see by the picture (right) it is a scaled down version, meaning every gun I grip in a lethal force situation - ATI, Colt Defender, Colt Pocketlite - would basically be the same - an added plus when training and then using that training in the face of a dire altercation.

The Colt Defender would fit right into the Crossbreed holster I now own, so there wouldn't be a need to spend more money on more equipment.  If I choose to acquire a shoulder holster, it would fit both the Colt and the ATI, again, meaning less money spent on equipment.

Of course, all it really means is that I have an excuse to buy more guns... you gotta' love it!