The NYPD’s Stakeout Unit was formed during a tumultuous time in the late 1960s in New York City where the risk and danger of violent robberies was a very real concern. Small cash businesses like convenience stores, mom-and-pop grocery stores, Western Union offices, motels, etc. were often easy targets that violent criminals liked to exploit—sometimes repeatedly.

The NYPD SOU (Stakeout Unit) would screen through incident reports of these at-risk businesses and then choose to intervene in some of the riskier profiles. SOU officers would visit these businesses in person and evaluate them. If deemed necessary, a team of SOU officers would remain during business hours and conceal themselves on the premises. These teams kept watch over customers and the business ready for anything to happen. The minute any sign of a violent robbery materialized, these well armed officers were ready to jump into action and stop it by any means necessary. Due to the fact that the SOU’s direct assignment was confrontation with armed felons, total control of the situation was critical to the SOU in order to avoid situations that deteriorated and began involving innocent bystanders or hostages. It was imperative to never leave that up to chance. For this reason, the officers in the SOU teams were typically better acquainted with their personal weapons and tactics than regular beat cops of the era.

HANDGUNS

From the years spanning 1928 through 1993, the standard issue handgun for New York Police Department Officers was a six shot, fixed sight, four inch barreled, double action revolver chambered in .38 Special. According to Jim Cirillo, a well known member of the SOU, police cadets had the choice to purchase either a Smith and Wesson “Military And Police” (known as the Model 10 after the year 1957) or a Colt “Official Police” revolver upon completion of the police academy.

Cirillo himself was known to carry two Model 10s, a standard and a bull barreled model, as he preferred the smoothness of Smith and Wesson action as opposed to the Colt’s. Each SOU officer was required to carry either of these official service sidearms while on stakeout assignment. Given the time period, context, and mission requirements for these officers, they actually typically carried more than one handgun. The tongue-in-cheek term, “New York Reload” coined by Mr. Massad Ayoob, was attributed to the fact that when he once asked Cirillo about his preferred revolver reloading technique, Cirillo stated that he didn’t worry too much about it—he just switched to different guns as he needed them.

Cirillo personally tuned both of his service revolvers and he had an amateur gunsmith (another SOU teammate) help modify the factory sights to make them more useful and quicker on the target. The NYPD regulation cartridge at the time was a .38 Special loaded with a lead round nose 158 grain bullet that had a muzzle velocity of 700 fps (feet per second) which was held with disdain by Cirillo. He thought it to be inadequate and instead opted to load his revolvers with custom loaded .38 Special Super-Vel cartridges with a 110 grain hollow point bullet traveling at 1,125 fps. In spite of his extensive hands-on experiences with the terminal effects of .38 Special ammunition, his choice of alternative cartridges was something that caused a sore spot with some of his department superiors. It wasn’t until the year 1972 that the NYPD started issuing service cartridges with a semi-wadcutter bullet profile and finally replaced the older LRN (lead round nose) bullet. The SOU was the first police unit to field this ammunition and Cirillo did consider it to be a step in the right direction.

Backing those two Smith and Wesson service revolvers was a six shot snub nosed Colt Cobra revolver which he preferred over the S&W J-frame due to the fact that the Colt holds an extra cartridge. Both Model 10 service revolvers were carried openly on belt holsters on either side of his hips “like a cowboy.” The Colt Cobra sat in a front pocket and had a shroud over the exposed hammer to avoid any snagging on the draw. Cirillo had a preference for loading this particular revolver with wadcutter cartridges, as he believed they offered better terminal performance from shorter barrels. For some time Cirillo also carried a Walther PPK blowback semi auto sub compact pistol chambered in .32 Auto in a “crotch holster” (sic) as a measure of last resort. He claims it never saw much action besides the time he shot a rat at a gun range. Upon the realization of this Walther’s collector value, he cleaned it up and sold it.

Though all SOU officers were required to carry their official service revolver on duty, they had no such rules against carrying multiple handguns of other types. In fact, many SOU officers carried alternatives such as Browning Hi-Powers or various types of 1911s. These officers’ weapons had to be approved by Bill Allard who was the unit’s T&E officer (and Cirillo’s main partner). Allard held the power to approve or deny gear.

Allard himself always took his personal Camp Perry built Colt National Match .45 Auto 1911 pistol to every stakeout mission he was part of. The National Match pistol is a customization of a military 1911 pistol by military gunsmiths who modified them with target sights and match barrels in order to wring out match grade accuracy for use in accuracy intensive Camp Perry pistol matches. Allard claimed that he personally won one such high level pistol match with his particular NM 1911 pistol. That specific gun was one of three that he personally evaluated at Camp Perry on the fifty yard line and then purchased in 1967—the last year these handguns were available for sale. Allard carried the pistol the same way it left the gunsmith’s bench and only lubricated it and maintained it as necessary. He carried his Colt National Match 1911 pistol with three extra magazines, all loaded with 200 grain .45 Auto Norma hollow points—these were either his own handloads or factory ammunition. Concerning handgun ammunition choices, Allard and Cirillo had differing opinions; Cirillo preferred a quick moving .38 caliber bullet, and Allard preferred a slower but heavier .45 caliber bullet because he thought these offered better penetration potential in order to punch through bone and reach fight stopping vital organs. With regards to the mandatory NYPD issue service revolver, Allard preferred the Smith and Wesson Model 10 with a bull barrel as he thought it had “fantastic” overall balance. His backup snub nosed revolver was a Colt Detective Special for no other reason than that’s what the police department had available at the time of his purchase.

LONG GUNS

The SOU used both twelve gauge pump action shotguns and lightweight M1 Carbines to great effect as workhorses on stakeout missions. It should be noted that in addition to shotguns or M1 Carbines the SOU also used the Smith and Wesson Model 76 sub machine gun—a clone of the famous “Swedish K” SMG, but according to Cirillo these guns were “unreliable pieces of shit.”

As far as American pump action shotguns are concerned, the Ithaca Model 37 shotgun was one of the most prominent 20^th century shotgun designs that both fell flying game and interdicted criminals. Designed by John Moses Browning, this shotgun was possibly the world’s first ambidextrous pump action shotgun; due to its unique design, shotshells were both ejected and loaded from the bottom of its receiver. The left and right sides of this shotgun’s receiver are slick. Like some of Browning’s other shotgun designs, the Ithaca Model 37 has no trigger disconnector meaning that a shooter can fire all loaded shotshells continuously by cycling the action while simultaneously keeping the trigger depressed. Along with many other police departments during this time period, the Ithaca Model 37 was the standard issue for the NYPD as well. NYPD shotguns had twenty inch barrels and four round tubular magazines, which allowed the officers to carry up to five shotgun cartridges in the gun at a time. Cirillo mentions, “We had full length, and we had cut-downs—we loved the cut-downs because we were in tight quarters in some of the places we were hidden. We cut ‘em right down to the magazine tube, and then we welded a lanyard holder, because the muzzle was right there where you ended up pumping. So we had these nylon or canvas heavy webbing straps attached to ferrules so that you put your hand in there, you could keep your hand open and just slide it in like a karate chop, and you could fire this gun as fast as you could pull the trigger.” 

Though the twelve gauge buckshot ammunition available in the late 1960s and early 1970s was unsophisticated in comparison to modern tactical buckshot, the SOU being an adaptable unit still used shotguns to their advantage. Allard mentioned having a rule where buckshot was to be fired within distances of up to fifteen yards, and for anything past that, one ounce slugs were preferred. This was something he did to account for the possible spread of errant pellets. According to Cirillo, the SOP (standard operating procedure) for nighttime stakeout duty was to load a shotgun with slugs last in order to shoot them first inside a store where overhead lighting could aid in better aiming. They reasoned that if the use of force encounter spilled out onto the streets, they could then use buckshot to send a pattern to fleeing suspects or getaway vehicles. The daytime stakeout SOP for shotgun loading was the complete opposite—to send a column of shot against armed robbers inside the confines of the store and use slugs once the incident moved onto the daytime streets to mitigate pellet spread (as there would be more bystanders on daytime streets). SOU officers also briefly fielded sawn-off side-by-side shotguns favored by detectives of this time period. They did not last long on stakeout duty as SOU officers thought the low shotshell capacity to be a hindrance.

The M1 Carbine is a light weight, magazine fed semi automatic rifle designed on the eve of the Second World War and was issued to American troops who needed a weapon more capable than a handgun but did not need an infantry rifle or heavy sub machine gun. It was intended for men who manned artillery guns or carried communications equipment, but its light weight, compact size, and relatively high capacity (compared to standard infantry rifles of the day) also lent itself well for unconventional duties. It saw service up through the jungles of Vietnam until the more modern CAR-15 type rifle eventually superseded it. .30 Carbine ammunition was designed with a straight walled rimless casing that is reminiscent of a .357 Magnum casing without its rim. Projectiles were shaped like other handgun bullets as opposed to longer and heavier full size .30 caliber sptizer rifle bullets. Out of their eighteen inch barrels, these carbines typically pushed those 110 grain FMJ bullets at just a hair under 2000 fps. According to Cirillo, the M1 Carbine was an all around SOU favorite. He recounted, “They were great for stakeouts because we were in tight quarters, behind walls and such. We hand full-length ones and some that were cut down. When we confiscated an M1 Carbine on a case, it went to the range and our gunsmith would cut down the barrel to just about 12 inches and put on a folding stock and pistol grip. You know what? The carbine was one of our best stoppers. Our gunsmith was real good; he was able to fix those magazines so they reliably fed hollow point 110 grain Winchester ammo, an expanding bullet. You figure you’re shooting a hollow point bullet that’s going between 1,800 and 1,900 feet per second. That velocity gave us good hydrostatic shock. When that bullet opened up and folded back, it was superior to our handgun for sure. It was fast to shoot, light recoil, and you had 15 rounds. It turned out that anybody that was hit with it, even if they weren’t hit in the vitals, got dropped. We had one guy [who] (sic) was hit in the thigh, and he ran outside, his leg broke, and he fell. Evidently the tissue was so torn up, or the bone might have been fragmented, or touched; his leg broke, he had a compound fracture, he went down on the ground.” All M1 Carbines owned by the NYPD at the time were semi automatic only.

THOUGHTS

These days, hyper-reliable pistols with magazines that hold nearly twenty cartridges spoil the gun owning public. Moreover, the proliferation of slide mounted electronic red dot sights on duty and carry pistols has helped the modern shooter to wring out even more capability from their handguns. If one compares and contrasts the pistol found in the holster of the contemporary “switched on” shooter against those in Cirillo’s or Allard’s holster, it can certainly evoke a feeling of respect and appreciation for the skill at arms those officers and their SOU brethren had. These SOU officer all developed a general sense of what to expect on a stakeouts in addition to a fundamental understanding of what they could accomplish or could not accomplish with their guns and gear. Logically, they implemented creative adaptations to keep any unfair advantage. An obvious example is the fact that practically all SOU officers carried more than one handgun as switching to another sidearm would always be quicker than reloading any of their relatively low capacity weapons. Police shooting standards in those days also placed a very high premium on accuracy and the understanding that a revolver held only six rounds—making every shot count was how business was conducted.  The NYPD SOU was active from 1968 through 1973. With the exception of the M1 Carbine (frankly one of their most “modern” weapons), the designs of the pistols and shotguns fielded by SOU officers had not fundamentally changed since the turn of the 20^th century when many of these firearms were first introduced and developed. M&P (or Model 10) revolvers and the .38 Special cartridges were a product of the turn of the century, as the original Model 1899 Hand Ejector revolver isn’t that different from its descendants. The .38 Special cartridge in fact dates back to 1898 and was originally loaded with black powder. The same is true of Bill Allard’s National Match 1911 pistol—other than the target sights and extra care from a gunsmith, Allard’s gun design had not changed since the year the US Military adopted Browning’s .45 Auto pistol, 1911. In the same vein, by the time the SOU was formed in 1968, Ithaca had already manufactured its one millionth Model 37 shotgun at its upstate New York factory.

It wasn’t just that men like Allard and Cirillo were “gun nuts” that spent ample time shooting and tinkering outside of their job duties. While both considered their frequent participation in shooting matches to be crucial for their development as shooters, it also wasn’t just that either. The reality is that the men of the SOU were able to prevail during these armed violent encounters due to their intimate familiarity with interpersonal violence. It was a phenomenon they experienced almost quite literally every time they went to work. As a result, the comfort and familiarity of knowing themselves in the heat of danger allowed these men to remain cool and collected so that thinking with a gun in their hand was second nature allowing them to solve the task at hand.

Author’s Note: Special thanks to CM for loaning me his copy of “Tales Of The Stakeout Squad” by Paul Kirchner. This book is out of print and relatively expensive to purchase nowadays. Additional gratitude goes toward DB for his explanation of background context to policing tactics of the era.

[Ed: We are delighted to welcome new author Dr. Bruce Noonan, who acts on his conviction that people deserve to worship in sanctity securely.]

Our institutions, formerly relatively safe, are under attack.  School shootings; a recent murder attempt against a sitting Supreme Court Justice; and attacks on places of worship appear in the news in alarming numbers.  The disgruntled, the mentally ill, or politically motivated individuals transform into would-be assassins.  On June 17, 2022, the U.S. Attorney General asked the F.B.I. to investigate pro-life church attacks as “domestic terrorism”.

In the first six months of 2022 at least four churches have seen 10 innocents killed, multiple injuries, and two active killers who committed suicide following their attacks.:

2/28/22: The Church In Sacramento, Sacramento California

5/15/2022: Geneva Presbyterian Church, Laguna Woods, California

6/3/22: Cornerstone Church, Ames, Iowa

6/17/2022: St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, Vestavia Hills, Alabama

One killer was subdued by churchgoers and hog-tied with electrical extension cords; another was restrained by an attendee.  None of these churches had an armed security team.

I am an NRA Certified Advanced Pistol Instructor and Training Counselor.  I had just completed an initial CCW training of the 8-member CMA Church security team in Moses Lake prior to moving to Post Falls, Idaho two years ago.

In Idaho my wife and I searched for a new church home, and finally settled on Real Life Ministries (RLM) in Post Falls.  It is a large church serving about 6,000 attendees.  There are four services per week: three on Sunday and one Thursday night to facilitate the needs of people working weekends.  In addition, there are three other campuses locally:  Coeur d’Alene, Hayden, and North Campus (meeting at Spirit Lake, Idaho).

RLM bases its statement of faith purely on scripture.  We hold traditional views of gender immutability, marriage, and sanctity of human life.  Thus, we have become a target of the secular for being “intolerant”.  Besides the Sunday services which average 1,000 in attendance per service, we have nursery and childcare in the main building.  Other activities, such as high school or middle school meet one night a week.  Weekly youth attendance can range up to 700 in each group.

I was approached by the church staff member in charge of security. He is retired from serving as a sniper and team leader in a police SWAT unit.  As a master trainer and expert in tactics, he conducts annual timed firearms qualification testing for all “Safety and Health” team volunteers [hereafter referred to as “Security Team”] who may wish to carry concealed.  Additional A.L.I.C.E. Training® (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate), and force-on-force are also offered to team members.  Each team member must also be a church member, attend services regularly and participate in a church small group.  Each person carrying concealed must also have the Idaho Enhanced Concealed Weapons License.  Although not provided by the church, most team members possess individual concealed carry liability insurance through USCCA or U.S. LawShield.  I feel right at home scripturally and find the Security Team at the RLM Post Falls campus to be a good fit for my talents.

The Post Falls RLM Security Team currently consists of 58 unpaid volunteer members.  Most are current or retired law enforcement, military veterans and retired or reserve military.  Health members include 3 active and 1 retired paramedic, 2 EMTs, 4 RNs, and one physician (me).  Additional Security Team members include men and women, teachers and an attorney.  Almost everyone on the team carries concealed.

Principles for protocols taught to Security Team members are based on the “Four D’s”:

Deter:           Post signs declaring the church property as private; lock some doors to prevent unauthorized access; issue verbal warnings about carrying baggage into a service.

Detect:         Alarm system in all campus buildings; 168 camera monitoring indoors and out, including blind spots; Capture images of suspicious individuals and vehicles; Watchful Team members fitted with two-way radios; Monitoring the National Crime Statistics Exchange.

Deny Access:  When an individual arrives who appears to be intoxicated or on drugs, he or she is intercepted by team members.  We DO want all individuals seeking the Lord to have access, so these individuals are approached in a respectful manner, and may be offered a free cup of coffee while politely asking if they are visiting.  Backpacks, visible weapons of any kind are not allowed.  Signs, belligerence or foul language are not allowed, nor are pets except for working animals.

Anyone on the property who may be part of a demonstration deemed inappropriate or disruptive will be asked to leave.  Local police will be called to remove trespassers.

Defend:        Hopefully deadly force will not be necessary, but we are prepared.  Our primary goal is to prevent injury to the children, senior pastor, and all congregants, volunteers and staff.  This may include interceding in an attempted kidnapping of a child, or in a belligerent dispute, domestic or otherwise.

Security Challenges

As an example of an encounter, in 2015 the only armed security at RLM in Post Falls was provided by sworn law enforcement officers who were church members.  A distraught individual behaving in a suspicious manner, wandered into church Building 2.  He was agitated, and shouted, “You need to get out of here. It’s going to get messy pretty quick!”  Alerted by cell phone, our sole security officer present left the 9:45 am church service in Building 1 and helped to escort the children out of building 2 as per protocol.

Meanwhile the suspect drew a handgun and waved it around as people ran for the exits.  The officer grabbed his SWAT gear from his patrol car, ready for the arrival of additional SWAT members and a K-9 police dog. After negotiating for two hours, the increasingly hostile suspect exited building 2, swept people with the handgun’s muzzle, and fired two rounds into the ground. He paused near the cross outside as Officer James hurled a flash bang at the suspect and released the K-9 toward him.  At this point, the suspect fired his pistol into his own chest.  Resuscitation efforts by paramedics failed.

More recently, in December 2020 at the Thursday night service, a tall, aggressive unkempt man walked into the Post Falls RLM church wearing boots, blue jeans and overcoat, carrying a guitar case.  A Bowie knife and scabbard was strapped to his side.  He was observed to be cornering a single female near the café area in the church lobby.  He was approached by security and told he could not take the openly carried knife and case into the sanctuary.   He put up an argument but was notified the church was private property and that he would have to leave.

A week later, he appeared at the Coeur d’Alene campus with the same knife, guitar case and a backpack as well.  The security team had already been alerted by Post Falls campus security to watch for this individual.  When questioned, the individual said he wanted to sit up front by the pastor.  Again, he was told he could not have the backpack, knife, or guitar case in the sanctuary.  When suggested he put them in his car, he explained he didn’t have a car.  He then left briefly, returning a few minutes later.  Two security members eventually talked him into surrendering the backpack, knife, and guitar case to be placed in the pastor’s study. However, the guitar case was exceptionally heavy, the pastor opened it only to discover it was filled with firearms and ammunition.  The Coeur d’Alene Police were called.  They soon discovered the individual was a convicted felon.  He was arrested and is currently serving time for illegal firearm possession.

Biblical Justification

At this point, you may be wondering if the use of deadly force by church volunteers could be justified biblically.  In his excellent book, Pistol in the Pulpit, Pastor Tim Rupp, himself a retired police officer, states:

“To be frank, nowhere does the Bible say explicitly, ‘A local church shall have an armed security team.’  Neither does the Bible say ‘A local church shall not have an armed security team.’” (p. 17)

Rupp goes on to show examples of God’s principles in allowing His people such as Moses to directing Joshua to take untrained Israelites to fight the professional attacking force of Amalek; Nehemiah praying to God and then assigning guards to protect the workers rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem; God commanding Elisha, a prophet and non-combatant, to kill survivors escaping the Israeli military commanders; and Jesus permitting Peter to carry a sword.  Jesus even instructed his disciples to sell their cloaks to purchase swords.  Rupp further concludes that “turning the other cheek” refers to responding to insults, not acting impotent in the face of mortal danger.

Medical Assistance

Although I am a retired physician (ophthalmology), I have never been licensed in Idaho.  Nevertheless, I am current in BLS and ACLS, and have had training and experience in acute firearm wound care.  Health team members on the Security Team are not infrequently called to assist with immediate medical needs of church attendees.  After calling 911, the church is 7 to 10 minutes from city paramedics, so immediate assessment and emergent life-saving care is offered until city paramedics arrive.  In recent times we have had a heart attack during a service, attended by church medical personnel and smoothly handed off to 911 personnel for transport to the hospital.

On another occasion, a woman suffered a heart attack in the church parking lot. A team paramedic, team nurse, and a non-team cardiac surgeon responded, and 911 was called.  Unfortunately, this patient did not survive.

Other medical emergencies have included two individuals with seizures.  I attended the first patient, a young female adult having grand mal movements with unintelligible vocal noises during the church service.  Her thrashing about in the middle of a row of chairs required she be physically restrained by four men in place to prevent injury. As the seizure lasted 10 minutes, we had to call 911.  She recovered just before their arrival.  Nevertheless, she was taken to the Emergency Room for observation.

Another seizure happened to one of the in-service camera operators.  Our church services are also available by live streaming video.  Had it been known that the cameraman had a seizure disorder, he would not have been allowed to use one of the elevated camera platforms.  When the seizure struck, he fell off the camera platform. Fortuitously he was caught by a nearby staff member and suffered no injuries.  He recovered quickly and was allowed to go home.

Our medical supplies are duplicated at all four RLM campuses.  Each has an AED.  Some other supplies are listed in the following table.

I generally serve at least 7 hours per week on duty.  In addition, the security team is occasionally called upon to help at community outreach events on church property such as the annual Easter egg hunt (5,000 kids!), and the autumn Harvest Festival. I get a great sense of joy serving our Lord Jesus Christ in this activity.  I still pray every day that I won’t need to shoot anyone.  However, in defense of others, especially children, team members are willing to risk their lives to stop any threat for that noble purpose.

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— Bruce Noonan, MD is a retired ophthalmologist, NRA Benefactor Member and NRA Certified Advanced Pistol Instructor and Training Counselor.  He began hunting at age 10.  He served as a Navy Flight Surgeon, retiring as a Captain, and shot Expert with the .45 pistol in training. 

All DRGO articles by Bruce Noonan, MD

While dining at El Sombrero this evening I was surprised to see a Public Service Announcement on the TV displaying the character Smokey the Bear with the caption: “Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires”.  I recall the impact that ad had on me as a child in my long-past and misspent youth.  The PSA startled me because El Sombrero is 900 miles south of the Texas border.  I wasn’t expecting to see him here.  The shock piqued my inner adman.

It struck me that that message could be reframed as “Only You Can Prevent Gun Fire”.  This statement could overlay any of the many heroic civilians who have stopped shooters in public places.  Or, perhaps, a series of pictures of the latest civilians who have performed such public service.

What’s the effective idea here?  Is it really a binary proposition?  It is only the individual hiker or camper who can prevent a wildfire. It is not Forest Service smoke jumpers who parachute into the sound of crackling timber to fight fires in process.

In reality, with most problems of social concern, it is a combination of effort by professionals and lay(wo)men alike.  In obstetrics, it’s the professional doctor or midwife who ensures the safest possible delivery.  But the patient has as much as 9 months to line up these professional resources.  With home fires, it’s the builder who bears initial responsibility for constructing the home to code.  The homeowner maintains the premises as free of combustibles as possible and keeps fire extinguishers ready to use.  Professional firefighters rush to the report of a 911 call.

Then what of assaults by firearms?

Public shootings are least like the obstetrics example.  We don’t get months of notice that an attack is pending.  We can’t really speak of “preventing” a public shooting in the same way as we can prevent a crisis in labor and delivery through proper prenatal care and case management on the delivery date.  Professional public servants really can’t do much to prevent public shootings.  Failure to recognize this simple fact is to divert our attention from effective mitigation.

We can look at public shootings from an analogy of emergency rooms and ambulance services.  The emergency occurs.  The ambulance is summoned and mitigates the damage as best they can on the street.  Then the professionals in the ER do the best they can to save those who survive the ambulance ride.  It’s the best they can do.  Police can’t really do any better.  Sometimes they can be pre-positioned for scheduled public events.  But ambulances and ER doctors can’t be everywhere at once.

Perhaps the best example is that of the home fire.  Builders can implement some preventative measures ubiquitously.  Still, homeowners must maintain their premises as fire safe as possible.  We keep and replenish fire extinguishers.  It is us, the (civilian) homeowners who are “first responders” when fire breaks out, before professionals can reach the scene.

We have the data.  Each gunshot homicide is investigated and documented in great detail.  We understand the problem very well.  What works?  A good guy in blue who rushes to the sound of gunfire?  Or the good-guy—irrespective of the color of his profession—who is already at the scene?  How many must die as a consequence of our fetish for professional responders? When those professionals cannot reach the scene in seconds? Or when, upon arrival, fail to run to the sound of gunfire?

Only you, the good guy at the scene, can prevent gunfire.

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— ‘MarkPA’  is trained in economics, and is a life-long gun owner, NRA Instructor and Massad Ayoob graduate. He is inspired by our inalienable rights to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” and holds that having the means to defend oneself and one’s community is vital to securing them.

All DRGO articles by ‘MarkPA’ 

You can’t point to a single cop show or action movie where the shoulder holster isn’t prominently displayed.

James Bond, Die Hard, Miami Vice, Last Man Standing, The Mummy, Bad Boys, Bullitt, Lethal Weapon, The Matrix, The Untouchables, Dirty Harry, the list goes on and on.

Despite it being an iconic “plain clothes” carry method, it’s been oft relegated to the preference of “fudds” in recent years. Why is that?

With the glut of appendix/inside the waistband options these days, it’s understandable that older carry methods would fall by the wayside, but is the shoulder holster obsolete, or just misunderstood?

[FYI: Appendix is no spring chicken of a carry method either.]

I’m inclined to say the latter, and here’s why.

I’ve been fortunate enough to fall under the tutelage of Darryl Bolke in the last couple of years, and he has seen fit to share with me not only some of his own personal experiences but conversations that he’s had with other industry experts as well.

So what was the death knell for shoulder holsters? In a word: square range training.

For institutional training (law enforcement), it’s far more challenging for a Rangemaster to operate a safe course of fire with a line of shoulder holsters than it is working off of duty belts. For competition, it’s virtually impossible for someone not to violate the 180 rule without some very intentional body positioning on the draw and holstering.

So they didn’t so much fall out of favor as they were forced out of favor, due to the existing administrative rule sets.

So was this an example of natural selection, or is the shoulder rig still viable?

From a purely concealment standpoint I do feel that there are better options that will allow you to hide a comparably sized gun without the wardrobe limitation. Hollywood has given us a false idea of just how easy it is to effectively conceal with a shoulder holster, mostly because it’s not actually in use unless it’s on display for the scene.

With that being said, if you look at the shoulder rig less as a concealment solution, and more as a “gentleman’s LBE*” as Jack Clemons called it, it suddenly becomes a bit more appealing.

Shoulder holsters make larger guns easier to live with, donning and doffing is simple, and the shoulder holster will always keep the gun in the same spot regardless of what you’re wearing (obviously keeping it hidden requires some wardrobe considerations).

If you look at where shoulder holsters were most commonplace, it was with investigators and bodyguards. Both roles have you seated for extended periods of time. Instances like that certainly benefit from bringing gear up off the beltline to make it more accessible (look at the GWOT trend of mounted combat arms troops attaching holsters to their body armor).

While I doubt I’d ever recommend one to someone as their first holster, I do still think there are circumstance where a shoulder holster could be an appropriate choice.