This Is My Rifle, This Is My Gun

One of the major adjustments to camp life is the requirement to be armed at all times (except when I'm at the gym). In keeping with the regulations, I carry a 9mm Beretta everywhere (I've also got an M4 rifle locked in a case under my bed). I'm not a gun guy at all. Until I went to CAST in October, it had been 17 years since I'd even touched a gun. It definitely takes some getting used to.

Let's try on all 3 at once!

Packing heat sounds cool in theory, but frankly it's sort of a pain 'cause there's really no good way to carry one. I started out using a leg holster for my pistol, 'cause that what they gave me, but I was constantly hitching it up and it always felt like it was pulling my pants down... which also isn't as cool as it sounds. 

Then I got my hands on a shoulder holster, like the detectives in Castle wear (love that show!), but by the end of the day it felt heavy on my shoulders and got a little sweaty, so I decided I sorta hated that too. 

Now I'm wearing a belt holster, which I picked up at the bazaar for $5. I don't love it, but it's my favorite so far because it's the least instrusive and lightest feeling of the three. The only tricky thing is that it doesn't clip on to my belt - I have to thread my belt through a loop and that makes for some awkward belt-related moments from time to time. As far as I can tell, just tucking it into my waistband would be frowned upon.

Happily, there is no magazine in my pistol 99% of the time. I only put a clip in when I leave camp (i.e. when I walk over to Camp Eggers on Fridays for Steak Night), and then it comes right out when I get through the security gate. Except when it didn't.

The Belt Holster

On my first trip to Eggers, I went to the clearing barrel to unload the pistol and for the life of me I couldn't remember how to remove the mag. Naturally, there were 3 or four people watching me fumble around, which didn't help. I eventually found the button and successfully unloaded the pistol. Thankfully it was dark and probably nobody could see my red cheeks. 

A few days later, feeling jaunty and comfortable, I pressed the eject button a little too soon and dropped the magazine on the ground. Oops! Unbeknownst to me, it scooped up some sand when I retrieved it from the ground and later that day I noticed my pistol made a gritty, scratchy sound when I racked it back to clear it. So... that night in my room I decided I'd better clean the darn thin. You guessed it, I could not remember how to take it apart. Thanks to Mr Google, I figured it out and it's all clean.

Whew!

I'm pretty sure I've figured it out now. I can load, unload, clear and clean the thing. I've got a holster that's mostly comfortable. I don't think I'll ever get used to carrying it, and thankfully the only scenarios where I would have to actually fire the thing are exceedingly rare. But for now, it's just one more part of life at Kabul.