Hubby Dropped His Piece @ State Fair

[randomoutburst]

So a few friends invited us to go to the State Fair tonight. It was a two hour drive for us and we only left our home at around 5pm. Obviously this left us with only a little over 2 hours to wander the park once we got down there, but we decided to go anyway.

Hubby double-packed; he wore his Taurus PT92 in his shoulder rig as well as his S&W 581 in a fanny pack. He joked that he was double-packing since I couldn't carry (I'm still waiting on my plastic). He was escorted to the PD station at the entrance where the officer requested his ID and then sent him on his way. We stuffed our faces with fried foods and then rode the ferris wheel. It had been an uneventful night.

So one of his friends is kind of goofy and wanted a piggy back ride on the way from the ferris wheel to the gate. Hubby said, "Hop on," and the friend promptly jumped on his back. When hubby hoisted the friend up higher on his back, something hit his shoulder rig the wrong way and there was a sudden *clackclackCLUNK* on the ground. We still don't quite understand what happened since the rig has a very stiff retention strap that requires a large amount of force to open, and the readjustment of the piggy back-er shouldn't have been enough force in the correct direction to unsnap the strap.

Anyway, I turned around as hubby simultaneously stepped over the fallen handgun and dropped the friend from his back. The friend seamlessly stooped the pick up the gun as he slid off hubby's back, and then promptly stuffed it under hubby's arm, under his concealment vest. Our group of 5 kept walking as though nothing had happened, with the exception of a few snickers from me and the friend. I was mostly laughing because there were many other people around who didn't notice a dang thing, and the friend was so smooth about fixing the problem. We stopped a little while down the road so he could reholster - there were no open buildings to duck in to for privacy, as it was past closing time, so we formed a sort of human shield around him so passerby wouldn't be able to discern his exact actions.

Everyone in the group knew he was carrying, as they are all very close friends of ours. I was very impressed that no one made a big deal about it being dropped, so attention was never drawn to what happened. A security guard was walking towards us at about 30 feet away when it happened and she didn't even bat an eye. I don't think she noticed AT ALL!

The gun has some moderate scuffing on the slide, which makes hubby a little sad; still, the damage to the gun could be much worse, as could have been the situation had someone noticed and yelled "He's got a gun!" while a security person was in close proximity.

I told him immediately after this happened that I would be posting this here. It's the first time anything like this has happened to us, and it went as well as could be hoped for: no AD, no ordeal, and very little reaction to the dropped gun by everyone in the vicinity, including those in our group.

Since my plastic should be here next week, today was an important lesson for me. I learned firsthand that passerby are very unobservant, and that you can drop a gun on the ground with a loud "clunk" without drawing attention to yourself! Of course, if I drop that new 1911 of mine on jagged concrete, I might just cry...

[Purplehood]

Those are certainly good friends to have.

[PJK]

This is a great story and I applaud your husband and his friend about their situational awareness and quick thinking.

Next time however, I would leave the piggy back rides out of the fair.

[Excaliber]

Quick recognition and smooth recovery are key in situations like this. If it's scooped up and rehidden right away with no outward gestures of surprise, it doesn't trip the "something unusual" switch that has to go on before most folks pay attention.

A second insight here is that one needs to think ahead when carrying because lots of things are different and can cause embarrassment. For example, a gun holstered at the hip can get caught under a crosspiece of an open back chair when you try to stand up and bring up the chair with it. A gun in the same position will also make a highly distinctive "clunk" if you sit down in a wooden seat like a church pew. Both of those events will trip the "something unusual" switch.

There are lots more situations like this, so an internal version of situational awareness needs to be added to the external one when one sallies forth while armed.

[timdsmith72]

A gun in the same position will also make a highly distinctive "clunk" if you sit down in a wooden seat like a church pew. Both of those events will trip the "something unusual" switch.

This has happened to me before in church. Luckily nobody noticed. Or at least I didn't get any funny looks. Sure did sound loud, though.

[drjoker]

Your hubby must be the Hulk or Arnie's long lost brother because he was giving an Adult Friend a piggy-back ride. I can't even give my skinny wife a piggy back ride for more than 10 seconds...!

[Katygunnut]

Good to hear that all ended well. A little embarassment is a lot better than some of the other alternatives that could have happened. Kudos to your hubby and his friend for the quick thinking on their reaction. I'm sure this will be a good lesson learned to be even more careful in the future.

[randomoutburst]

Your hubby must be the Hulk or Arnie's long lost brother because he was giving an Adult Friend a piggy-back ride. I can't even give my skinny wife a piggy back ride for more than 10 seconds...!

He's a large strong guy (weighs almost 300 lbs) and his friend isn't (weighs around 130 lbs and looks like a stick) so it wasn't a lot of weight for him to carry around. And I agree with PJK; piggy back rides shouldn't be offered while he's carrying, for the simple reason that an accident like described in my OP can happen very easily. I was actually surprised he even said okay to the piggy back ride since even I don't get those.

Internal SA is something he usually takes into account and something that I will need to develop once I get my license. I'm already planning out how to physically interact with others when they want a hug or think it would be cool to pick me up since I'm so tiny, and how to avoid being "made" when I carry at work due to the amount of back/side/hip patting that goes on. I work as a waitress so we often touch others' torsos to announce our presence and prevent fast movements. I think I'm going to have to use some deep concealment at work; if anyone "makes" me while carrying like that, they'll have a lot more to worry about that discovering I have a gun.

The look on hubby's face when he heard the CLUNK was this -->
But he calmly kept walking and trusted the friend to pick it up. The external SA was definitely working great for our group, and I suspect everyone's internal SA will get better as a result of this accident. Just as it took them a while to learn not to bug-eye when they accidentally "made" him, it may take this group a while to change the way they physically interact with him. This group of friends likely won't ask for piggy back rides anymore and my hubby likely won't give them, either. It was a good learning experience and didn't come at a high cost - that's the best kind.

[terryg]

Your hubby must be the Hulk or Arnie's long lost brother because he was giving an Adult Friend a piggy-back ride. I can't even give my skinny wife a piggy back ride for more than 10 seconds...!

Ahh, there is so much you can do when you are young ...

[mgood]

Everyone else has already said it. Good recovery. In most cases, the "act like nothing's out of the ordinary and no one will have reason to think otherwise" usually works. You've scooped it up and concealed it so quick and acted like nothing happened, that even if someone did see it, they might not be entirely sure of what they saw. No harm other than some scratches. Scratches are unfortunate, but they become battle scars. They add character. They tell a story, your story being better than most. Someday the conversation will be, "No, really, I dropped it right there at the State Fair! That's where it got this scratch right here."

On a side note, it makes you think about retention. A bucket attached to your hip, into which you dump your gun, might be secure enough for standing around. At the opposite end of the spectrum, if you're doing gymnastics, you'd obviously need something a bit more secure. You say this holster holds the gun fairly tight, "retention strap that requires a large amount of force to open." I'd probably get home and experiment (with a triple-checked empty gun) with bumping it from different directions to see if I could recreate the situation (over carpet or something so I wouldn't cause further damage). Maybe it's just one of those freak things that couldn't happen again in a hundred years. But you should evaluate that and make sure.

[randomoutburst]

On a side note, it makes you think about retention. A bucket attached to your hip, into which you dump your gun, might be secure enough for standing around. At the opposite end of the spectrum, if you're doing gymnastics, you'd obviously need something a bit more secure. You say this holster holds the gun fairly tight, "retention strap that requires a large amount of force to open." I'd probably get home and experiment (with a triple-checked empty gun) with bumping it from different directions to see if I could recreate the situation (over carpet or something so I wouldn't cause further damage). Maybe it's just one of those freak things that couldn't happen again in a hundred years. But you should evaluate that and make sure.

Because it was a shoulder rig, I think it was more at risk for falling out than a hip holster -- at least in this scenario with the piggyback ride. I'm thinking it was a freak accident because we did test it once hubby woke up this morning. The only explanation we can come up with is that perhaps the strap just wasn't secured as it should have been. There is only one way the secured strap could have been snapped open without intent - the supporting strap would have had to be stationary while the gun in the holster was twisted towards his body. That scenario is impossible because the gun is snug up against his side; there's no room to allow twisting of the holster.

Then again, he carried it around all day before the fair and if the strap was, indeed, not secured...well, I suspect we would have had a problem before the fair. Regardless of why it happened, it makes us more aware of possible scenarios and how to prevent them!

[Running Arrow Bill]

So a few friends invited us to go to the State Fair tonight. It was a two hour drive for us and we only left our home at around 5pm. Obviously this left us with only a little over 2 hours to wander the park once we got down there, but we decided to go anyway.

Hubby double-packed; he wore his Taurus PT92 in his shoulder rig as well as his S&W 581 in a fanny pack. He joked that he was double-packing since I couldn't carry (I'm still waiting on my plastic). He was escorted to the PD station at the entrance where the officer requested his ID and then sent him on his way. We stuffed our faces with fried foods and then rode the ferris wheel. It had been an uneventful night.

So one of his friends is kind of goofy and wanted a piggy back ride on the way from the ferris wheel to the gate. Hubby said, "Hop on," and the friend promptly jumped on his back. When hubby hoisted the friend up higher on his back, something hit his shoulder rig the wrong way and there was a sudden *clackclackCLUNK* on the ground. We still don't quite understand what happened since the rig has a very stiff retention strap that requires a large amount of force to open, and the readjustment of the piggy back-er shouldn't have been enough force in the correct direction to unsnap the strap.

Anyway, I turned around as hubby simultaneously stepped over the fallen handgun and dropped the friend from his back. The friend seamlessly stooped the pick up the gun as he slid off hubby's back, and then promptly stuffed it under hubby's arm, under his concealment vest. Our group of 5 kept walking as though nothing had happened, with the exception of a few snickers from me and the friend. I was mostly laughing because there were many other people around who didn't notice a dang thing, and the friend was so smooth about fixing the problem. We stopped a little while down the road so he could reholster - there were no open buildings to duck in to for privacy, as it was past closing time, so we formed a sort of human shield around him so passerby wouldn't be able to discern his exact actions.

Everyone in the group knew he was carrying, as they are all very close friends of ours. I was very impressed that no one made a big deal about it being dropped, so attention was never drawn to what happened. A security guard was walking towards us at about 30 feet away when it happened and she didn't even bat an eye. I don't think she noticed AT ALL!

The gun has some moderate scuffing on the slide, which makes hubby a little sad; still, the damage to the gun could be much worse, as could have been the situation had someone noticed and yelled "He's got a gun!" while a security person was in close proximity.

I told him immediately after this happened that I would be posting this here. It's the first time anything like this has happened to us, and it went as well as could be hoped for: no AD, no ordeal, and very little reaction to the dropped gun by everyone in the vicinity, including those in our group.

Since my plastic should be here next week, today was an important lesson for me. I learned firsthand that passerby are very unobservant, and that you can drop a gun on the ground with a loud "clunk" without drawing attention to yourself! Of course, if I drop that new 1911 of mine on jagged concrete, I might just cry...

Let me get this straight...[as a Devil's Advocate]...

Y'all left home about 5 pm for a 2 hr drive to Fair Park in Big D, only had about 2 hours to visit there... Sounds like "high school impulsiveness"...lol.

Then, hubby's friend jumps on his back to be carried by hubby...[were they ex-highschool football players??]...

Then, holstered sidearm jumps out of holster...and goes whack on ground...

Just curious...had y'all been drinking? [Don't answer that].

I suppose kids will be kids...

[USA1]

uh oh

[KFP]

...never realized friendship was a trait that declined with age...

[Keith B]

Noting wrong with impulsiveness, fun friendship and just having a good time enjoying life. Beats old fogie'ism any day!