Beretta Blog

Heriberto Aceves is dead. The store owner was robbed back in his Bakersfield, CA store in late 2016 and the armed assailants brutally assaulted Aceves and his son. Aceves, though, put up a fight. He had a pistol behind the counter. Though the gun was loaded, the chamber was empty - in other words, "Israeli Carry." As Aceves struggled to rack the slide, his assailant shot him.

Earlier this year, Arkansas became one of the first states in the country to issue what the state calls an “enhanced” concealed carry permit. The new regulations allow those with an enhanced endorsement to carry a concealed firearm many places that are off limits to those with the standard CHCL: public college campuses, churches, even bars. Are these new permits a step in the right direction for those of us who carry concealed?

Gun ownership continues to grow at record levels in the United States, and concealed carry permits are increasing right alongside gun sales, reaching record levels last year with no end in sight. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that the majority of people who go to the trouble and expense of getting a concealed carry permit don’t carry a pistol on a regular basis. When I went through my CCW class in Arizona many years ago, our instructor said that only a third of us would commit to carrying our guns on a regular basis. Based on my experience since then, I think he was optimistic.

Just after I graduated from college, I found out that a friend I’d known forever was carrying a revolver. Carrying might be too generous a term. It was in the glove compartment of his pickup truck, and he didn’t have a permit.

Every time summer rolls around, I find myself justifying the .380 as a practical concealed carry round. It is a story I tell myself, really. When the temperature hits triple digits, I tend to shed layers of clothing—layers that I rely on to conceal my preferred double-stack 9mm.

What do I have against the .380? Nothing really. In my years in the firearm industry, I’ve plugged away at numerous gel blocks. I’ve studied the terminal ballistics of the 9mm Kurz, and I like what I see.

Suppose you’re planning a road trip and intend to transport a firearm in your vehicle. You’re a law-abiding citizen, and of course, there’s this thing called the Second Amendment that should cover you, right? Well, not exactly.

In part, because the Founders of the United States believed that most laws should be made locally, states carry a lot of power when it comes to regulations of firearms ownership and transportation. As a lawful gun owner, it’s up to you to know the laws of your home state, but also each and every state you visit while in possession of a firearm. Let’s plan a hypothetical road trip to outline some of the things you need to know.

Without pictures, it didn’t happen. Unless you bring back a t-shirt, you didn’t go. And without skill and progress measurement, you can’t improve.

One way to exercise your skills and measure your progress is to practice with a structured course of fire. A good routine will “walk you through” a variety of skills like strong hand only, support hand only, two-handed shooting, draws from a holster, and magazine changes. While the shooting community has developed hundreds of such practice scenarios, you don’t have to look any farther than your local law enforcement agency to find one. While every agency differs in the details, most have a structured qualification course of fire that every officer has to complete on a regular basis.

With many things in life, I deliver better results with aggressive time limitations. There’s nothing like a tight deadline to make me focus and produce. Unfortunately, shooting isn’t one of those activities. In fact, adding a time crunch to basic shooting tasks has the opposite effect of degrading performance, sometimes to near comical levels.

If you want to become a better shooter, you must measure your both your current skill level and your progress. You can measure and track accuracy results, and depending on your personal goals, that may be enough. For recreational shooting and some types of competition, time may not matter. However, if you want to improve your defensive shooting capabilities or perhaps move up the action pistol sports ladder, being able to shoot accurately under time pressure becomes important.  

A simple shot timer is a great addition to your range kit. Here’s what you need to know about how they work. 

I don’t give a hoot about my “open carry” draw.

To clarify, drawing from an outside the waistband holster without a cover garment isn’t relevant in my chosen universe. Indeed, if I were passionate about competing in action shooting sports like USPSA or Steel Challenge, then an “open” draw would be crucial to me.

I like to compete, but I view competition as an opportunity to test and improve my skills with my everyday carry gear, sans “cheating.” That means I use my carry gun with no lightweight trigger modifications. It means I use my every day inside the waistband holster with an actual shirt or jacket that I wear when out and about. I don’t "game" my carry configuration to shave some fractions of seconds from the clock just because it’s a competition. If my setup puts me at a competitive disadvantage, so be it. My purpose, after all, is to get better with what I carry and use.