ConcealedOnline Reviews | Gun Safes: What You Need to Know About Storing Firearms

Properly storing your weapons should be high on your priority list of responsible gun ownership. Gun safes keep you, your family, your home, and your possessions on lockdown and can be customized to fit your changing needs.

Even if you live alone, don’t leave firearms unsecured. No matter how well you think you’ve hidden your guns, you can’t be home all the time to keep an eye on them. A gun safe keeps your firearms and other possessions secure in the event of a burglary, house fire, or natural disaster.

Here’s our top 4 reasons to buy a gun safe:

GUN SAFE CRITERIA

1 – Keep firearms out of the reach of children

2 – Reduce the risk of someone stealing your guns in the event of a break-in

3 – Keep guns in prime condition by minimizing moisture and exposure to substances that cause damage

4 – Protect firearms as well as other valuables like jewelry, family heirlooms, essential documents and personal records

Bottom line, a gun safe is a great investment in both security and peace of mind. Whatever your reasons for buying one, there are many manufacturers that produce varying levels of quality, and it’s best to consider your current arsenal as well as future purchases before deciding on size and configuration.

SIZE & CONFIGURATION

Yes, size matters. Big, bulky, heavy safes will be impossible for thieves to move. On the other hand, some gun owners prefer smaller safes for their handguns that can easily be hidden.  And then there are those gun owners who like massive locker safes for lofty shotguns, long guns and the like.

Multifunctional safes that can hold firearms as well as other valuables are worth the extra money. Many first time gun owners make the mistake of purchasing a safe just big enough to hold what they currently own. Once you buy a gun safe, you’ll want to add other important items for security that can take up more space than expected. You may also want to buy more firearms in the future, and the smaller safes will run out of room fast. Hint – GO BIG OR GO HOME.

Keep the future in mind. While you may only own a couple guns now, you may decide to purchase a rifle or shotgun later.

Try to find a safe big enough to hold all of your guns and other items you plan to store in the safe, and then throw caution to the wind and buy one that’s even larger!  This ensures you that you’ll have enough room to store what you already own with some wiggle room for future add-ons.

Oh, and some safes have really cool locking shelves, drawers and firearm racks –  ideal for storing ammo plus small personal valuables.

SECURITY FEATURES

Once you know the size and configuration, you can start narrowing down your options based on security features. Some homes and businesses are more vulnerable to fires than others (i.e. homes in California vs. Florida). Check the safe’s fire resistance rating. Good safe manufacturers pay for third parties to perform lab-controlled tests on their products to assign fire resistance ratings. As a general rule of thumb, a safe that can survive for an hour or more at 1300 degrees Fahrenheit has respectable fire resistance.

You should also consider what type of locking mechanisms you want. Some safes feature fingerprint scanners and other biometric security features. Some gun owners prefer old-school mechanical locks. Safes with digital security features are generally more expensive than traditional mechanical locking safes.

DELIVERY AND INSTALLATION

It’s also important to consider where you plan to keep the safe. You may think your walk-in closet would be perfect, but how will you get it inside if the door is too narrow? What if you need to bolt it to the floor? There are many things to consider when it comes to installing a gun safe.

Last but not least — safes are heavy and difficult to move, so paying a little extra to have the seller handle delivery and installation is worth it. Of course, the downside is that you’re giving away where you plan to situate your safe.  All good things to keep in mind, but worth the time to figure out when buying a gun safe!

Active Shooter Training Tips For CCW Holders | ConcealedOnline Reviews

To Engage OR Not To Engage

That is THE question, isn’t it?

You and you alone are the only one who can answer. You and you alone know your skill level and potential for “courage under fire.”

Act (or don’t) accordingly! REMEMBER — you only have one life. Don’t play hero. There are other options.

Here’s a couple that immediately come to mind…

RUN!

HIDE!

Both are totally acceptable when your life or the life of a loved one is on the line.

If, on the other hand, you elect to engage, here’s a few things to keep in mind.

Know Thy Enemy

There’s a world of difference between drawing down on a knife-wielding thug robbing your local 7-Eleven versus going toe-to-toe with a mass-shooter armed with an AK wreaking havoc at your school, office or favorite place to belly up to the bar.

Consider said difference before you act — but remember, bullets are bullets. They don’t discriminate based on target, locale, or intent.

Cops Can’t Tell a Good Guy From a Bad Guy with a Gun

How do you minimize the risk of being mistaken for a bad guy? DON’T ACT LIKE ONE! Cops are trained to engage those who appear to be an imminent threat.

But in the heat of the moment, law enforcement will find it extremely difficult to distinguish one from the other.

Don’t give them an excuse to shoot the wrong person! If you see or hear cops coming, drop your CCW without a moment’s hesitation!

Raise your hands HIGH over your head in a non-threatening fashion.

Communicate

Tell everyone in close proximity that you “have a concealed carry permit and are not a threat!”

Tell first responders the same thing, and give them your physical/clothing description.

If you can call 911, give them the same descriptive info. This will prevent a misunderstanding with officers or other concealed carriers that might already be on scene.

Play Defense, Not Offense

Don’t go on the hunt for an active shooter. That’s the job of law enforcement. Your job in these situations is simple: 1 ) Get your friends and family to safety; 2) Save your ass! Of course, if you find yourself in the unfortunate position of being in direct line of fire…

DEFEND YOURSELF… TAKE COVER…THREAT SCAN…LOOK…LISTEN!!!

Use your eyes and ears to see/hear if there are any secondary shooters, cops on scene, and so forth.

Maxims

Anyone not wearing a law enforcement uniform and carrying a weapon is a potential threat.

If you decide to act — ACT FAST! Try to resolve the situation before officers arrive. That will lessen the likelihood of you being mistaken for the bad guy!

This is Real Life, Not the Movies!

Every event is unique. There are no perfect training scenarios for real life situations.

You’ve taken the time and training to get your CCW permit. Continue to train, advance your skills, and refine your knowledge!

Concealed Online Reviews | 6 Places To Conceal a Weapon in Your Car

1 – Center Console: 

Remove the screws holding it to the floor, lift-up, and check out the area underneath that can house a handgun.  Pretty nifty, huh?

2 – Seat Backs: 

The back of the seats has a cover that snaps onto the seat.  This compartment will conceal a firearm and ammo and no one will be the wiser.  Easy access, tools not required!

3 – Beneath Seats:

Two words: duct tape!

4 – Glove Compartment: 

Captain Obvious uses his glove box, but what the heck.  It’s perfectly acceptable in a pinch.

5 – Behind Radio:

For the really adventurous, this is a cool one.  The radio has four holes in the corners.  Insert a wire coat hanger in these holes and the entire stereo slides out, leaving a huge hole to hide your goodies.

6 – Everywhere Else:

Bumpers have cavities that will comfortably hold a long gun.

Fender wells, ditto.

Air cleaner box, double ditto.

Trunk?  Nah, too obvious.  But hey, if you’re stuck, pull the carpet lining/cardboard backing away from the trunk sides. Ta-da!

Concealed Carry Holder Saves Police Officer After His Gun Jams

Jerry Pendergrass was awarded top honors from law enforcement – the President’s Citizen Award. Jerry is a conceal carry owner who turned citizen cop in a life or death situation. His quick action helped save an officer potentially from getting shot.

 “That probably actually happened in ten seconds,” explained Pendergrass. Those ten seconds play over and over again for Pendergrass. His bullet met a man in his backyard, a man who had already fired shots at Officer Sean Kelly, then took off on foot.

“He rounded the corner, drew his weapon at me, I drew my weapon at him,” said Officer Kelly. It was a volatile situation. Then another officer, Andy Zinke found himself face to face – and seemingly alone – with a man who had already tried to kill a cop.

“After I shot this guy I went to re-load and my gun jammed, and I looked down at my gun and I turned and there’s Jerry standing there with his gun. It bought me that second,” said Officer Zinke. That second was all it took for the armed suspect to draw his weapon again and point it right at Zinke.

But Jerry Pendergrass’ gun was not jammed.

 “That guy looked directly at me and I was telling him hey stop — you can live. It doesn’t have to end here,” Pendergrass yelled. “He looked at me, looked at his gun and I said, no – don’t look at the gun. With me saying that, Zinke was able to bring his attention back and it was at the same time that he brought his attention back that the man reached for the gun and we both shot him.”

Said Officer Zinke: “Not a lot of people would do something like that, but what Jerry did on his own, the bravery that he showed, it was something pretty remarkable that day and I was blessed to have him over there.”

ConcealedOnline Reviews: Does Immersion Training Create Better Shooters?

There are only two primary types of firearms training: Episodic or Immersion training.

Deciding which training style will work best for you and your goals is the first step you should take before applying for a concealed carry permit. During the many state application processes, you’ll need to discuss your training, philosophy, and the approach you’ll take to hone your shooting skills.

You can choose either type, but we wanted to ask: Does one style of training produce better shooters?

Can You Learn On Your Own? Episodic Concealed Carry Training Explained  

Episodic training is often self-directed.

You’ll learn from training videos, text, online shooting courses, or even online concealed carry classes. Then, once you’re on the range, you’ll apply what you’ve learned while shooting.

If you can subjectively monitor your form and critically judge your performance, episodic training may be for you.

Unfortunately, it’s often difficult to analyze your own performance.

One of the traps you fall into if you decide on episodic training without instructor supervision is failing to learn new information or forgetting to reinforce basic fundamentals.

When you learn and shoot on your own, it’s easy to “fall into a rut,” plateau, and develop difficult to overcome bad habits. This is the reason why many shooters and instructors believe immersion training is much more effective.

Does Immersion Training Really Build Better Shooters?

Immersion training has multiple benefits over self-directed or even instructor-based episodic shooting.

Normally, immersion training takes place over an entire day or multiple days and you’ll work aggressively on your skills under the supervision of an instructor who closely watches your technique and form.

Immersion training keeps you from falling into bad habits, forces you to constantly focus on proper form, and pushes you to progress faster.

Fast progress under the watchful eye of a certified instructor is one of the reasons many states require concealed carry courses before you can even file an application.

In Just 12 Hours You Can Rapidly Progress as a Shooter…

But here’s the big problem with immersion training…

When you pile all of your training into a single day or a short 2-3 day span, you’re much more likely to forget everything you’ve learned.

Immersion training is great for learning new drills, techniques, and honing in on fundamentals, but one of the most important principles of practice for any skill is that short, more frequent sessions are much more effective than long sessions spread father apart.

So, What Type of Training is Better for Concealed Carry?

In my experience, you should always start with professional instruction before moving on to shooting on your own.

Usually this means beginning with an instructor at a one day or multi-day session before moving on to practice on your own several times a week. After a period of self-directed episodic practice to reinforce what you’ve learned, you go back to an immersive session.

But Immersion Training is Expensive and Time Consuming, Is There a Better Way?

To avoid the cost of immersive in-person training, you can find NRA-certified online concealed carry courses recognized by multiple states to meet the requirements to apply for a CCW.

Several online concealed carry classrooms allow you to receive direct feedback from instructors. You can actually upload shooting sessions and get guidance on what you’re doing right and wrong.

This modern take on traditional training can be just as effective as in-person concealed carry training.

If you don’t have time for 12 hour per day immersion shooting sessions, you may want to consider working with certified shooting coaches and instructors online.

Concealed Online provides quality online safety training courses for the purpose of applying for your Concealed Carry permit. Our mission is to help citizens gain the education to safely handle firearms and successfully defend themselves and their families. All of our instructors are Nationally Certified.

Concealed Online Reviews | Mind the Gap – Closing In On Your Target

“Keep Your Friends Close… and Your Enemies Closer”

This well-worn phrase is something we remind ourselves of daily. Here’s why…

A firearm is only as effective as the situation allows it to be. If you are too far from the target, then your shots, no matter how well-placed, will never land. That’s why moving in on your target is one of the best ways to ensure your shots aren’t in vain.

This tactic, however, also makes you more vulnerable to fire coming AT YOU — shots directed at you from your target.

Deciding if and when to draw your weapon is of crucial importance in live-round situations.

Up Close and (Im)personal

Here’s a simple maxim you will most definitely want to heed: sometimes it’s totally in your best interest to build distance and escape any sort of confrontation altogether. Yes, I’ll just come out and say it… RUN FOREST, RUN!

Another good tip is to train yourself to shoot effectively while on the move.

That way, you can increase the odds of subduing your target and decrease the odds of being hit at the same time.

FBI STATS

The average man can cover 21 feet of ground in 1.5 seconds.

The average man cannot draw a gun from concealment in under 2 seconds.

The average gunfight is over in 3-5 seconds.

3 to 4 shots are usually fired in the average gunfight.

On average, 1 shot in 4 actually strikes the intended target.

55% of gunfights take place at a distance of 0-5 feet.

20% of gunfights take place at a distance of 5-10 feet.

20% of gunfights take place at a distance of 10-21 feet.

95% of gunfights take place at a distance of 0-21 feet.

CONCLUSION

So what did we learn?

1 – If at all possible… RUN AWAY, RUN AWAY!

2 – If that won’t work, get as close to your intended target as possible without compromising your safety.

Concealed Online Reviews – How To Carry With Confidence, Control and Comfort

For effective carry, you need the following:

CONFIDENCE

Here’s what it looks like…

Attitude baby.  It’s all about attitude, isn’t it?

If you look like you don’t know what you’re doing with that thing strapped to your waist, then you’re already at a disadvantage.

REMEMBER… confidence saves lives.  For one… YOURS!

So how do you GET confidence? That’s an easy one — SKILLS.

Developing the skills to radiate confidence to use your concealed carry when it matters most actually makes you less likely to be put in a position where you have to use deadly force than if you DIDN’T have said skills.

And learning how to carry with confidence AND become a confident shooter requires:

TRAINING & PRACTICE

Here’s what that looks like…

And this…

Okay, I think we’ve made out point about confidence.

Next, let’s talk about…

CONTROL

Knowing exactly how to control your weapon and draw it effectively from concealment depends on the size of the firearm.

Most fall into one of two varieties: holstered firearms or pocket firearms. Each of these basically comes down to size.

Holstered firearms will typically be on the larger side.  Like this…

These weapons are concealed in a belt holster or holsters that can be worn inside the waistband (IWB) which makes them easy to. cover with a jacket or a longer shirt/blouse.

While these types of weapons are a bit harder to conceal, they offer more range, stopping power, and versatility than smaller, more compact guns.

Pocket holster firearms, on the other hand, are built for easier concealment and quicker drawing power. This category includes guns like .380 and .25 ACPs and are so small they can often fit in the palm of your hand and can usually be tucked right inside pocket holsters.

Like this…

I guess this goes without saying but I’ll say it anyway… the tradeoff is reduced range and power.

No matter which way you go, choosing the right holster to suit your needs is one of the best ways to ensure you feel comfortable with your firearm.

Flexibility is ideal when it comes to pocket holsters and nylon holsters rank among the better materials. Kydex is the way to go if you’re looking for strong retention and solid construction.

When it comes to belt holsters, leather offers a classic feel and is the go-to for most in the CCW community.

Bottom line:  find a holster that keeps your weapon secure, but gives you enough flexibility to draw it quickly. Choosing the right one can mean the difference between life and death.

But you knew that.  And if you didn’t, it’s a good thing you took a few minutes to read this post!

Concealed Online Reviews | Taking an Online Concealed Carry Class

In order to obtain your concealed carry permit or license, you may have to prove competence with a handgun and/or take a firearms safety or training course.

Specific requirements will depend on your state, but the majority of states require that you take a class of some kind. This could be anything from 15 or more hour classroom and range training course to a couple of hours learning your state's laws.

More recently, though, you may have the option to complete your training requirements from the comfort of your own home - online.

At present, only Virginia offers such an option, but it could very well extend into other states before long, particularly those with lower legal requirements when it comes to training or showing that you know how to use your firearm.

To get online training, you must find a company who has a website offering the class. Simply sign up, usually paying by credit card or PayPal, and you will be granted access to the training modules. These usually consist of video instruction, and may come with written instruction.

After taking in all of the information, you will be required to pass a test. It is generally the case that you will need 15/20 to pass the test, but most questions will be multiple choice, and generally not too difficult, especially if you paid close attention during the lectures online.

If you don't pass (which is rare, with some schools boasting 99% passing rates on the first try and above), you are usually able to take the test again for free until you pass.

If you receive a passing grade on the test, you will be instructed to print off a page that has your details on it, stating that you have completed training that meets Virginia's state requirements. Print this form out and send it in with your application.

While you may indeed take this online course if you live in Virginia, it is seemingly used very regularly by those people who live outside of Virginia who wish to receive their non-resident Virginia Permit to Carry a Concealed Handgun. Because Virginia's permits are recognized in many states, it may be easier for a person to obtain a Virginia permit than a permit from their home state, and this may be the best way for someone to carry concealed legally, if their home state has much more stringent laws.
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Concealed Online Reviews | Stuff That Everyone Who Carries Concealed Knows

YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE

… and here at concealedonline.com, so do we! If you’ve already had the good fortune and fortitude to score your concealed carry permit, you’ll recognize some of these choice moments below:

The first time you carried concealed in public. 

You thought everyone was staring at you in a weird way. Everyone KNEW you were packing heat.

But then you realized no one was the wiser. And then something amazing happened…

Your back straightened, you walked a little taller. You never felt more confident.

You knew that the day you always dreamed of had finally arrived:  the day when you would take responsibility for your own protection.

And it felt so… damn… good.

You love your stuff, but your gun? Not even close.

You catch yourself looking at your compact handgun in a whole new way.

No, it’s not erotic. Nothing sick like that. It’s much more simple. Lasting. Real.

You slowly raise your hands up, forming something that looks like this…

You don’t feel sick when you check your news feed.

A concealed carry permit means you’re one of the good guys. You take great solace in this fact and know you’re ready to see the world with new eyes.

But your news feed reflects the insanity, random violence and horrors we face every day.

Your hand drops imperceptibly to your holster – yes, it’s there.

You feel safer than you ever have before.

You’re different now, and that’s a good thing.

No matter where you are — at work, at a social function, out with your family or friends — you’re always ready for whatever may come. It’s like you’re in a movie. Only better.

Your eyes are always scanning the room for the nearest exit. Your instincts are always drawing your attention to good cover. You’re always on guard.

Your thoughts stray for the briefest of moments to active shooter scenarios and how you’d react.

It’s not about being paranoid. It’s about being prepared.

You feel part of something bigger than yourself.

You take great pride in being part of a community ready to defend, ready to protect.

There are literally millions of people with concealed carry permits.

And you’re one of ’em. Congrats!