TexasCHLforum.com

asbandr wrote:I got my chl in the mail today. Congrats I had actually just come home from Walmart and didn't plan to go anywhere until I realized I forgot some things. Went to heb with 2 young kids in tow. I've been carrying around the house for weeks now and I didn't feel weird until I got in the car. I felt like I was doing something wrong like I shouldn't be carrying outside my property. I even checked my wallet about 12 times to confirm my license was indeed there.
I put my gun on out of the kids eyesight so to avoid any mention by them of my gun in the produce aisle. My kids were curious at first and I worried that that might ask me if I was carrying within ear shot of the wrong person. So we worked out a system. If they want to know if I was carrying they would simply bump into me right where my carry weapon would be. At their age (at the time) this looked perfectly natural to anyone watching and it kept them from needing to ask. It also should me how developed their situational awareness was. It almost never failed that immediately after (or sometimes before) I would pick up a hint of a potential issue, I would feel a little bump.
I stopped at a friends house to drop something off and figured I'd passed the concealment test when the 3 friends that were there didn't run for cover.
When I got to heb I adjusted my shirt after getting out of the car just once or twice, no obsessive pulling. Adjusting my shirt after standing or bending has become a habit for me carrying or not. This is not the "tell tale" sign you are carrying that many believe it is. Often I will find good people watching places and just observe. Everyone adjusts their shirts, even kids. It a perfectly natural thing to do. I stopped to chit chat with an acquaintance and stood in close proximity to a cop all while mentally replaying my previous 12 license checks. I crashed into a strangers cart while pulling the kids off of the toilet paper piles. Double checked that my gun was concealed and went on my way.
All in all, felt it was a pretty good carry and with two boys who needs walmart?
I'm honestly more worried about carrying at church tomorrow. Especially as a recent procedure to try to treat my chronic pain will warrant me extra attention and hugs from well meaning old ladies who just have no idea. I used to worry about the hugs at church but I don't anymore. You may be wrong about the old ladies. Those older ladies who have figured out I carry from hugging me have been very supportive. A few have even confessed to having carried a gun in their purse for the last 40 years. I remind them we are not catholic and I'm not a priest, no confessions!