CONCEALED CARRY VS. COVERT CARRY: Changing The Language Surrounding Defensive Handguns

When most people think “Concealed Carry,” they think about just putting a shirt, jacket, or vest over their carry handgun. The truth is that concealment is so much more than that, and it’s not a binary on or off. It’s a sliding scale based on a variety of circumstances. When I took the Green Ops Covert Carry Skills class in February, there was a discussion about the differences between Concealed and Covert.

Concealed Carry vs. Covert Carry

Mike talked about the difference being the severity of consequences suffered if you’re discovered to be armed.

I feel like the gun-carrying public could benefit from overhauling their ideas and moving more towards covert vs. concealed carry.

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This can be done in several ways:

  • The obvious one is to make sure you’re not dressing like “a gun guy.” Or even dressing like someone who is unlikely to be carrying a firearm.
  • Possibly carrying a smaller gun, based on the situation
  • Being more thoughtful and attentive about the efficacy of our concealment

Along these same lines, Claude Werner commented in a podcast appearance on the difference between a “Denied Area” and a true “Non-Permissive Environment.”

What delineates one from the other is that while guns may be forbidden in a denied area, there tend to be more active measures taken to ensure that in an NPE.

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