Take a poll of what type of firearm people choose to carry as their concealed handgun, and your results will vary from one end of the spectrum to the other.  In my opinion there are three different types of individuals who will have a firearm with them when away from home.  These are:

• The individuals who will keep a firearm in their vehicle, but seldom if at all will actually carry a firearm on are about their person.
• The individuals who will claim to carry high capacity or high knockdown firearms, but seldom have them on their person due to the fact their firearms selection is harder to conceal under normal every day clothing.  Thus, they will only have their concealed handgun on their person occationally, but will have one located within their vehicle the majority of time.
• The individuals who will keep a firearm on their person the majority of the time when away from home, and may are may not have an additional firearm located inside the vehicle they are traveling in.  These individuals are more concerned about the concealability of a firearm, and may or may not give up caliber size for concealability.

The first group of individuals tend to lean towards the high caliber / high capacity firearms.  Whether that is a 45 ACP, 40 Cal., or even a trusty 9mm.  These individuals are not overly concerned with concealment as vehicles tend to offer more areas to locate a firearm while still keeping it concealed.  This group is easily pleased as their requirements of a firearms tend to lean towards performance or design.

The second group is what I call the Ego Group.  It’s all about the fire power and size over actually having the firearm with them.  They like to consider themselves as concealed carries, but their firearms selections hinder them from actually doing that.  A concealed handgun means just that, it has to be concealed.  Thus, if your firearm selection is a handgun that is too large to easily fit under your normal every day clothing and remain concealed, then your not as apt to have it with you that day you need it.  So does it matter if you have the nicest Kimber 45 available on the market, if it’s sitting in your vehicle or inside you gun case at home the day someone tries to attack you?  I don’t think so!

The last group are the individuals whom I consider the true concealed handgun carriers.  They will not as concerned about the caliber size of a firearm, but are more concerned with making sure they have their firearm with them at all times.  Let’s face it, a concealed handgun does an individual not good if sitting on a shelf at home.  The firearms selections for this group with tend to stay in the 380 cal. or 9mm range, but may even venture off into the larger caliber weapons such as the 40 cal. or 45 acp.  But will generally always be in a compact or sub-compact size.

There are hordes of different firearms you can select to carry concealed, but you need to choose the one that is going to be right for you.  My personal preference is to not carry anything smaller than a 380.  Anything smaller than a 380 in my opinion, though they deffinately have the potential to be lethal, will generally take longer to stop an assailant than calibers of 380 and above.  I recommend to customers to carry the largest caliber they can easily conceal and will certainly take with them when leaving home.

For me, there are three guns that I typically carry with me when I am away from home, and not because that is all the guns that I have access to.  Being a Federally License Firearms dealer, I have access to tons of firearms, and have an extensive collection myself.  But I am a firm believer in keeping your concealed handgun convient enough so that it becomes habit to take it with you when leaving home.

My typical firearm that I have with me is the Ruger LCP 380.  This firearm is small and compact, and light enough to not only be carried in a holster, but can easily be slipped behind a wallet or inside the cargo pocket of a  pair of shorts.  And weighing only 9.40 oz. it won’t pull your pants down with it.

Another firearm that I tend to carry along with me is the Bersa Thunder 380.  Though not as easily concealable as the LCP, it is still a small frame pistol and easily concealed within a waistband holster.  It’s design fits snuggly inside my hand and I’ve never had problems with the gun being overly picky regarding ammo.

The last gun that I like for concealed carry is the Colt New Agent 45 acp.  Though it is a sub-compact and I am not just a enormous fan of sub-compacts due to my hand size.  The Colt New Agent is deffinately a easily concealable large caliber pistol and is designed around concealed carry.  The most noticable being the lack of traditional sights, opting instead for a groved channel sighting system.  This sighting system takes a little getting used to, but is supposed to both increase target aquisition time as well as prevent the sights from snagging while drawing.

To sum things up, regardless of what firearm you choose to carry and regardless of what category you fall into, select your concealed handgun based on ease of carrying, performance and which firearm you will be the most apt to have with you when you need it.