Concealed weapons offer a two-fold advantage: they provide force multiplying capability, and they provide the element of surprise. I make no bones about the fact that I think open carry of a pistol is ill advised, most of the time. If there is a choice to conceal the handgun, that is the choice I take every time. The element of surprise is a tremendous advantage when dealing with inter-personal violence.
While most concealed carriers do attempt to adequately conceal their gun on the waistline, they usually think nothing of clipping knives or flashlights to their hip pocket. The top of the tool, and certainly the clip itself, is usually readily visible. Most would argue that a light or knife, or both, clipped to a pocket hem is routine and not a big deal. And, depending on the environment, it might not be a big deal. If you live in a rural township, it is common to see men walking around town with lights and knives clipped to their pocket.
However, the problem remains this: violence is most likely to occur in environments that are infested with willfully defenseless people. Urban dwellers and suburbanites do not carry tools that give them capability, such as lights, knives, and OC spray. When you are in urban and suburban areas, you are among people who do not carry tools clipped to their pockets. Therefore, your visible light and knife is an anomaly. Why draw attention from law enforcement, and worse, the criminal element, to your different capability and mentality?
Imagine being in a public place that gets robbed by multiple, armed, assailants. If you are the only individual in the vicinity that is wearing such tools clipped to your pocket, do you think that will go unnoticed? It will immediately single you out as the anomaly, and the threat. A light, a knife, and OC spray, all visibly clipped to your pocket, will be noticed by nefarious actors.
Bulges in the pocket are entirely normal among even urban and suburban people, as they carry phones, wallets, keys, and the like, in their pockets. As long as the obvious outline of a weapon is not present, things within the pocket draw no attention. Therefore, I have adopted a means of carrying all of my tools completely concealed within the pocket. Just as I keep my handgun and my spare magazine invisible on the waistline under a concealing shirt, so to do I hide the pocket-worn tools behind the concealing fabric.
Here is how I accomplish carrying, and quickly accessing, tools in the pocket without clipping them to the pocket hem:
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I hate the feel of anything of any bulk in my front pockets. However you make some interesting points on visible clips. I will have to look into ways to avoid the clips but keep the access without bulk. I am thinking about horizontal carry on the belt or behind it or maybe inside the waistband with the belt covering the clip(s) now you got me thinking.
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Yeah, I know guys who put knives, lights, and medical in the waistband.
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I carry Spyderco knives clipped inside the waistband behind my holster with the clip between the waistband and my belt which is 1.75″ gun belt by Kore. Of course the whole business is hidden by a shirt, jacket or vest. Some will say the vest is a giveaway but it is not a “tactical” vest, has no tactical pockets, and is either blue or beige and very light weight. My light is the size of a fountain pen in my shirt pocket, and my spray is in the vest pocket where I can have my hand on it all the time. Of course I’m 82, bald and grey, badly wrinkled, with a bit of a belly. The grey man is my idol.
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Sounds like you are doing things right. There is a reason why many criminals get smoked by seniors every year. With age comes the ability to be low profile with almost any clothing choice. I wish I had the stats on how many criminals buy the ride from a senior citizen with a snub in the pocket. It is probably an impressive number.
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