One aspect of building this product is that I will need to test the materials that I’m using in the wrap.

The gold standard is cordura nylon. It’s produced in bulk in officially licensed camo patterns. I plan to use a durable polyester which can be printed on demand in stock patterns or even custom ones.

To test the materials I need a firearm that can be carried, shot, and used in real world scenarios.

I’ve selected two different platforms for my initial testing. The first is a Smith and Wesson Bodyguard 2.0. The second is a Springfield Hellcat.

Both of these guns can be carried in a pocket or inside the waistband. I want to see how much wear each firearm’s wrap gets over a year of real world use using the cordura polyester I’m making the grips out of.

Why I’m Focusing On The CCW Community

More and more states are legalizing carry, and people across the US have normalized the carrying of firearms as part of preparedness culture, edc, etc.

At the same time, manufacturers have managed to significantly shrink the footprint of modern pistols so that a gun that fits in your jeans’ pocket can hold 13 rounds. This convergence of culture and design, is resulting in a growth trend, especially among women shooters.

Women are more often restricted in the type of firearm they can carry due to their small physical size, lack of grip strength, and recoil sensitivity. While many women can shoot a 9mm handgun just fine, racking a slide or concealing a glock sized handgun is not ideal. Even for guys my size, a glock is a chunky piece of plastic that isn’t comfortable either. Women and older people are the most vulnerable in society, and benefit the most from small, concealable, and manageable handguns.

The saying goes a big gun should be comforting not comfortable, the reality is that comfort is the biggest factor in whether or not people actually carry their defensive tools or not. I want to make the ccw pistol comfortable to carry daily, and while size is a large part of the comfort factor, another is abrasion. Handguns are made from plastic and that plastic has a texture which is intended to enhance grip, but that texture can cause rashes and abrasion to the abdomen while being carried.

On the other side of the argument, people say that users simply won’t carry if it’s not comfortable, and that’s where I am. I believe that the gun you carry on you is better than the gun you leave at home, meaning that it’s better to have any gun on you than to have a bunch of guns sitting in your safe, even a gun in a smaller caliber. The math supports this, your odds of escaping a violent attack by an armed attacker are 250% better if you are also armed. That’s why I’m focusing in on smaller handguns rather than duty sized pistols.

For people who prefer to carry small guns there are several great options which is where I’ll focus my initial product lineup. The Hellcat, Sig p365, Canik Mete MC9, the Shield and Bodyguard series, the LCP max and Ruger Security 9, among others.

Do not make yourself harmless or helpless

My philosophy in life is to never be helpless. There is no benefit to society by making yourself intentionally helpless. I’ve had friends murdered, I’ve seen tons of news stories, I’ve seen crime happen in my own neighborhood. In the past year I’ve seen three kidnappings / attempted kidnappings and 1 homicide. Most of these were domestic situations but two of them were not. in one, a woman was killed by a male associate which seemed like a crime of passion, but was not married to her and didn’t live with her. This happened around the corner from my house. In another, a 13 year old girl was stalked by a man in his 30s, who was planning – most likely, to sexually assault her, and maybe even kill her. We don’t know, the man escaped and is still out there, possibly still looking for another victim. In the last 2 years several people have been stabbed and died at places I frequent, and many of these happened during normal business hours, at times I would not hesitate to visit.

My wife has been stalked in the past, when she was underage and for literally years after by a man much older than her, who she barely knew. He even came to my house previously. While he didn’t become aggressive, I want to make sure she is safe.

When my friend was murdered, in a domestic violence situation, I learned from my experience that police will not save you if they can’t do it in an organized and safe way for them and for everyone else around them.

The only person who can save you in a violent event is yourself or someone in the immediate area. It took them over an hour to reach my friend and involved – donning body armor, calling SWAT, evacuating the apartment complex, all before they could reach her. By the time they did, she was far beyond help. The goal for the police was not to save my friend it was to 1) not die 2) get everyone else in the area to safety 3) save the victims of the event. That’s not heartless or cold blooded, it is how it has to be. However a lot of people think of they run into a problem and dial 911 the police will rescue them. They’ll try, but they have to do it the safest way possible for themselves and for innocent bystanders.

To that end, I want everyone to carry, if they want to. People may say that we don’t live in the Wild West, and that we are a society of order, rule of law etc. The other side of the coin is, “An armed society is a polite society”, and neither are true. Societies are not peaceful, they cannot be made to be peaceful. People who believe they live in a law abiding / peaceful society – especially in America’s melting pot, are either privileged or naïve, and I am not sufficiently privileged nor naïve to ignore the math and basic concept that when you know of a risk, even if slight, to prepare. For that same reason I have insurance, wear a seat belt, own a fire extinguisher, and own firearms.

Many people do not question the need to carry a firearm into the woods where on an average year fewer than 10 or 15 people are killed by bears, mountain lions or wolves. However the same people who acknowledge the need for a firearm in a statistically low risk environment often think it to be a mental illness to carry a firearm in a city setting where 20,000 people a year are murdered by other people.

While these risks are quite low, and we should not live in fear, the math dictates that we should be prepared for unpredictable violence at home and on the streets.