[tallball]

I am 52 years old. I live in Texas. The summers are really bad in my area. I've been shooting handguns regularly since I was a teenager.

In the summer I normally wear a sleeveless t-shirt and cargo shorts. My Ruger LCR and holster easily fit into the cargo pocket. It's easy to reach sitting down, and with my long gorilla arms, standing up is no problem either. It's light enough that it doesn't make the pocket sag.

Sometimes I carry a Kel-Tec P3AT instead. (The Ruger LCP is a copy of it.) I can conceal it pretty much whatever I'm wearing.

In cold weather I carry larger handguns. In the summer I carry what seems reasonable and comfortable to me. My idea of SD is one or two perps trying to mug or carjack me. What I carry, how well I shoot them, and my situational awareness make me comfortable with my choices.

I lower my risks by approaching things in a different way than many here. To me, situational awareness is paramount. I also lower my risk of being a crime victim by not looking like one. I'm a big guy. If I'm out and about, I dress borderline "rough", looking like I don't have ten cents in my pockets. My vehicles (though well maintained and mechanically sound) are old and practically worthless. I'm not as pretty as I used to be. If I don't look at all like a good target for mugging, car jacking, or sexual assault, it seems unlikely to me that I will be the victim of a violent crime. But just in case, I like to have at least a revolver or small automatic on me, something that I've practiced with a lot (and carried where I can reach it quickly).

If someone is in a parking lot, wearing his Rolex, getting in or out of his Mercedes, talking on his phone and not paying attention to what's going on around him, he's offering himself up as an easy and profitable target. The large-capacity pistol he's carrying won't make him any safer. One experienced BG with a brick will take him out in a split second.

One guy did show interest in mugging me a few years back. I was on my way home from work and therefore unarmed. I had stopped to put gas in my car. A rough-looking character approached me from 7:00 or so. When he was about ten feet away I pivoted unexpectedly and looked him straight in the eyes. He raised his hands up as if to say "Not looking for problems" and went on his way. It was my fault for putting myself in that situation. I was wearing business casual and was unarmed. I should have just gotten gas later, when I could have looked a little rougher and had something concealed. Keeping my head on a swivel saved me from a possible problem. If I had gone out later, and the same thing had occurred and gone south on me, a large-capacity pistol wouldn't have been any more useful than a 5-shot snub revolver.