Drawing your gun from concealment is a skill you should definitely be training—there are some right (safe, effective) ways and some not-so-good (unsafe, cumbersome) ways. The hand-to-chest five-step draw is a classic for a good reason, and you should be training this at the range or at least in your dry-fire practice at home. However, as you’ve no doubt noticed, real life seldom works out the way we expect it to. Self-defense encounters are no exception, and that square-up-to-the-target, two-handed-draw-and-present maneuver might be impossible or impractical in a real-life defensive situation.
The No-Draw and the One-Handed Draw
For one thing, you might not need to draw at all. Merely moving your hand to your gun might be enough to convince a bad guy that you’re not a person he wants to deal with. This is a great outcome, but you can never count on it—so do not move to your gun unless you are prepared to draw and fire it immediately. No “well, maybe I can pull it and not have to use it.” Maybe you can, but don’t go into it waffling on whether this threat warrants lethal force.
For another thing, your off-side hand might be full. In most cases, you can drop whatever you’ve holding and utilize your standard two-hand draw. That works if what you’re holding is a shopping bag or a coffee. It doesn’t work if it’s a baby. Can you access your gun and draw it with one hand? Certainly this will be slower, because you will have to somehow clear your cover garment with your draw hand, and there is likely to be some fumbling involved—but it’s worth some dry-fire practice.
The Quiet Just-in-Case Draw
And then there might be a time when the threat is deadly and imminent, but not directed toward you at the moment. Maybe you’re grabbing a soda at the gas station when someone pulls a gun on the clerk three aisles over. Maybe you’re in an active shooter situation in your church and you’re hiding under a pew. In a case like this, whether you plan to engage or plan to attempt an escape, or even just to hunker down and play defense, you will want to have your gun drawn in case you catch the attention of the armed assailant and are forced into a gunfight. This is where you need a draw that involves minimal noise and movement, so as not to draw attention, but which still avoids muzzling yourself or others as the gun is removed from the holster.
To avoid making noise and looking like you’re up to something, you don’t want to slam your hand into your chest and rip the gun out of the holster like we do in the range-ready five-step draw. Instead, you will quietly, and slowly if you have the luxury of time, use your off-hand to sweep your cover garment out of the way, grip the gun with your strong-side hand without raising your elbow any higher than necessary, and gently ease it out of the holster (as gently as your retention level allows, anyway). Depending on where the threat is in relation to how you’re standing, you might need to point your elbow out instead of back so it isn’t seen. Ensure the gun stays pointed at the ground and does not sweep across your own leg as you bring your support hand to the gun, if it’s not otherwise occupied, in a low-ready position held surreptitiously at your waist. The trick to doing this without attracting attention is to minimize the movement of your elbow and shoulder.
Utilize cover or concealment whenever possible to help you avoid detection. If the threat has his back to you, it might be no problem. If he’s aware you’re there but he’s momentarily distracted by someone else, see if you can use a table, a wall, or even another person to sort of hide behind while you draw. Even pivoting your body 90 degrees can help keep your strong-side arm movement hidden. Again, watch that your elbow sticking out doesn’t give you away.
This should be practiced, at least in dry-fire. You’ll learn the level of tug it requires to remove the gun while minimizing that “shick” clearing noise, and you’ll get your body used to the feel of drawing the gun with the least amount of elbow protrusion possible.
When you practice this in dry-fire, don’t forget to do it from different positions. You might be sitting, kneeling, crouching or laying on the ground when you want to do a secretive draw, and all of those present new challenges regarding how you clear the holster and how you keep the gun pointed in a safe direction. You can even practice it while sitting at your kitchen table—again, with an unloaded gun—to simulate what might happen in a restaurant or at your desk at work. Drawing a gun from your strong side (as opposed to appendix) while in a seated position without a lot of upper-body movement is more challenging than you’d think.
The Casual Cheat Move
One helpful trick to shorten your draw time is to casually move your hands to your waist if you think you might need to draw. Bring your hands together, with your off-side hand on the bottom and the strong-side hand on top. Your off-side hand, partially hidden by your strong hand, grips your cover garment in preparation for yanking it out of the way if the need arises. This doesn’t buy you a ton of time, but every half-second counts, and getting a good handle on your cover garment ahead of time eliminates the fumbling and snagging that sometimes occurs when you’re trying to sweep and draw in one rapid motion.
Done properly, this simply looks like you’re folding your hands in front of you. It works especially well for appendix carriers, because their hands will be right over their gun. Hip carriers can use it as well, but keep the hands in front—trying to fold the hands to one side or the other is a pretty obvious giveaway.
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