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Ooops! Where is my gun?

3K views 24 replies 20 participants last post by  gregarat 
#1 ·
It has happened a couple of times, but I find it silly and funny nevertheless. My mind has been churning about one stuff or the other while getting ready to go to work and I knew that my usual routine was somewaht out of whack but just couldn't/didn't/wouldn't stop and pay attention and I ended up walking out the house without my gun. I usually figure it out the moment I get in my truck 'cause I have to go through the ritual of adjusting the gun to keep it clear of the seatbelt, realize it is not where it is supposed to be, cuss, get out and get back in the house to retrieve it.

However one day I guess I was more distracted than usual. I knew something relating to the gun was not quite right but I could feel the holster on my side and I kept wondering what the hey was bothering me. Did I remember to leave the safety off ? Is it positioned weird and bothering me? I went ahead and checked the gun and, SURPRISE! I was wearing the holster, but I left the gun home.

I was halfway to work by then but turned around and headed back home to get the gun feeling like a damn idiot all the way and back.
:embarassed:

Anybody else has had one of these OOOPS! Moments? I do hope I am not alone!
 
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#2 ·
Only once. A few years back I did the same thing. Halfway to work when I realized I was wearing my holster but the gun was still on the headboard of my bed.

It's never happened since.
 
#3 ·
I carry a handgun around with me in the house. Once, I laid it down and could not remember where I had put it. Found it a few minutes later on top of the refrigerator (had been washing dishes!). Sometimes Stupidity rules!
 
#5 ·
It Happened To Me.....Once.

The day of my Dads funeral we had to pass through a very bad area of PGH in order to get to the funeral home.
I just brought along a Walther PPK/S & put it in the "glove compartment" for the drive to & from the funeral home.

I had decided to not to "pocket carry" the pistol inside the funeral home & (inside the car) cleared the chamber & popped the loaded magazine & one loose round under the car seat & locked the car doors and locked the Walther in the trunk.
I put the pistol inside a paper bag & hid it in the trunk. I remember doing that.
The car was parked in the funeral home parking lot which had an attendant.

When we finally got home...a short while passed & I realized that I had absolutely no idea where the Walther was. I had no recollection of taking it out of the trunk....the magazine was not under the car seat (but, one loose round WAS still under the seat) & in fact I thought that the pistol could possibly have been stolen out of the car at the funeral home & during the service.

I tore the house & the car apart & the pistol was in no place that I would have normally have put it.

After a solid few hours of searching everywhere I was ready to phone the police & report the pistol either Lost or Stolen.
I remember thinking that the damn funeral home "parking lot person" must have stolen my pistol out of the car. I was pissed and upset.
Of course...I was upset for other reasons also.

I went upstairs to get my wallet & license information (ready to make the highly embarrassing phone call to the police) & the doggone Walther was in the Curio Cabinet underneath my wallet & a printed copy of a poem that my Niece read during the funeral service.

To this day I have absolutely no recollection of taking the firearm out of the car trunk...inserting the mag...or of bringing the pistol into the house. Obviously, I did. The magazine was in the pistol but, the chamber was empty.

That is the only time that I ever misplaced a firearm & it will never happen to me again.
 
#6 ·
My wife and I had our 9 y/o neice over for a weekend a couple of years ago. (more often actually, but this is when the story takes place) Since her momma is rabid leftie, I made sure there was not so much as a stray bottle of Hoppes out where she could find it. My sister, is convinced that firearms are evil and would refuse to let my neice to come over anymore.
Of course I did continue to carry.

I wen't to bed on sunday, and put my bug, a NAA mini, in a little, homemade, holster I attached to the back of the night stand, for that very occasion. It was within reach, of me in the bed, but not visable from anywhere else in the room.

Her momma picked her up early on monday, while I was still asleep. When I got up a few minutes later, I couldn't find the NAA mini!! The holster was there, but there was no sign of gun. I grabbed a light and looked, under the nightstand, and the bed.

I was about to pick up the phone and call my sister, to tell her that her daughter might have a loaded gun, which was small enough to look like a toy, when I decided to take one last look. I moved the night stand, nothing was behind or under it. I moved the bed out slightly, and heard the most beautiful thump I have ever heard. It seems that the naa either fell out, or I knocked it out of it's hiding place during the night, and it wedged itself between the wall and the matress.
I think I aged 5 years in less than a minute.
 
#8 ·
Carrying as I do so much 16/7 - this does not happen - at least not re leaving home. I have tho twice left bathroom and got back to office, realizing I had not reholstered! This was in early days of carry.

We have no young kids and step kids are gun savvy thank heaven - but on one of those two occasions my wife noncholantly said some time later - ''missing anything hon"? I wondered if she meant my brain cells LOL! Well yes she was right - but the gun was missing too!

I now have what might be called a ''pat routine'' - I check flashlight (because it can come unclipped) - gun and keys. I find that routine essential as I have still all but omitted gun replacement after bathroom a time or two - but the check puts it to rights.
 
#9 ·
We at times become complacent and forget the very normal things.

This is why I as Chris does and I'm sure we all do have a routine with things and this makes it much easier to keep everything under control.

The one thing that seems to be the same in above post's is that something changed or a situation was different kicking you out of your typical routine but the complacency is still there cause we have done it for so long.

So after our routine changes for what ever reason and we think "were's my gun" you/we have changed the normal to adapt to what is changing around us but all along we are doing the right things, just can't at times remember the action we have taken because it was so different than the normal and have a moment were we have a laps in memory because we have taken ourselves out of our normal routine as to what is right and our mind will accept as right, anything different and we are searching for the answer and why things are not the way they should be.


Ti.
 
#10 ·
I've found that a routine can be my downfall. Like "looking" left-right-left before proceeding at a stop sign. Once, my mind didn't register a motorcycle because the routine was looking for cars. Of course, my dementia had nothing to do with it. But the point is, that "looking" isn't really LOOKING when it's just a routine. I have to break through the routine as I look for an empty chamber, so I actually SEE that the chamber has nothing in it before dry fire practice or cleaning. The routine of always putting the gun in it's place or holster still needs to be broken through so the awareness truly rises to the awareness. Yes, I've had the moments of utter panic when I've outsmarted myself with a new hiding place for a gun, or when I've let the routine lull my awareness to sleep. I better not age any further! I'm already dead in dog years.
 
#11 ·
gunthorp you make a very good point.

Ergo - ''routine'' can so easily = complacency - very easily.

I prefer to think of not so much routine as ''schedule'' - and when implementing that - have a mental check list which is applied almost afresh each time. Still - easy to say but hard to do - when repetition takes its toll over time!

I certainly tho always encourage translating ''looking'' into ''seeing'' - and IMO that is best done by ''self interrogation. ''What do I see, as I look". Whether vehicles at intersection, on highway - or people around. Ask self for analysis - it helps, but no way foolproof.

We can but keep trying to refine these things!
 
#12 ·
A couple of times I've had the opposite problem as the original poster. We have "not in your lifetime ever" issue here in Hawaii so I can't legally carry outside my home. I do however carry all the time I am in my home. My usual routine is to place it in the ready access safe just before going out the door. A couple of times I've felt something poking me in the side as I'm backing down the driveway, reaching down to discover what it is leads me to the grip of my Sig.

migoi
 
#13 ·
Routine, applied correctly! is not just a routine.

Do you think that a member of a military branch doing very routine things daily in harms way is complacent? or a LEO or SWAT member doing routine stop's or busts is complacent?

There are many other examples but I used these for the idea.

There is a differance!


Ti.
 
#14 ·
Ti - I doubt we mean anything much different - maybe it is semantics too :wink:

Let us say - all depends on the manner in which a routine is carried out. My point was simply - that routine, IF, made too cursory thru over familiarity - could lead to complacency. Not trying to assert that that will be the case - and point taken re mil aspects.

A learned routine needs to be as tho fresh each day - with no cursory exclusions. Or as with mil maybe - followed by the book and to the letter :smilez:
 
#15 ·
That's exactly right Chris, and I wasn’t picking on you or anyone by the way!

We are on the same page, I was just re-affirming the idea.


Ti.
 
#16 ·
Well; it finally happened! As I was reading this and not paying much attention until reading about the routine... then it dawned on me that I hadn't checked my side for awhile. Reached back and (Oh no, now where did I leave it). Thought the bathroom but no avail then just remembered leaving it in a lockbox in my truck as I was responding to the last call we had (Firefighter) and was at a "no-go" area. I routinely lock it up when responding to area's that are gun-free zones as LEO's are supposed to secure the scene as in this call (University). Wish there was a way around this dilema but I have to id the location of the call so I know when to disarm. Anyone know of any exemptions to the rules?
 
#17 ·
I've "forgotten" before. But the opposite this last time. I was driving to town and was about 2/3's there when I thought, damn, I left the gun on the coffee table!

I turned around and drove back and looked all over for it. Couldn't find it. I then reached where my holster/gun are now located (switched to an SOB with a 38special and only been wearing it for about a week) and lo and behold, gun was right where it was supposed to be.

Felt like an idiot.

I stayed home, didn't feel like driving back to town.

Wayne
 
#18 ·
OK, I confess. :frown: I left out this info when I described my burglary in December 04, because I felt like a total stupid-head, and there's that Mr. Murphy involved.

I had my S&W 640 out, but I decided to tote something else for a main and backup that Friday. That dropped me out of my routine. Instead of immediately locking it in the safe, I decided I was going to wait until I opened the safe later in the day when I'd pack up my range gear.

I shoved the 640 up under the bed pillow, which I tend to do with a gun when I'm around the house or in the shower and that gun is not on me. (I do that for whatever SHTF home scenario - I want to know where my guns are, but I don't want them to be plainly seen by any intruders, especially if I'm in the bathroom and don't hear them coming.)

I was busy packing for the weekend; I was going to visit my family who live 1.5 hours away. I packed my clothes, I packed my range bag...and I completely forgot the 640 I left under the pillow.

And that was the weekend my house was burglarized and totally ransacked like a tossed salad. They even trashed my bedroom and I could tell they lifted up the covers and the mattress, but they didn't find the 640 hiding under the pillow, which was a totally stupid and obvious place to put it. They were that close to finding it. I was that close to having my 640 tucked in some thug's waistband, to be used for some future crime or ending up in a pawnshop. I don't want to know, and it makes me sick in the stomach to think about it.
 
#19 ·
Nothing terribly dramatic for me. I have found myself walking around with an empty holster, especially after picking my daughter up (no carry in the day care). Makes me feel like a knucklehead when I do the "check" and there's nothing there!

For a week or two after a deployment or long training exercise I will unconciously check my nonexistent thigh rig. Feels funny without it strapped to my leg.
 
#20 ·
Since we are sharing. I went through the period of carrying the 1911 at night or whenever I rode into the city to visit the folks, so one night I cleaned my pistols and put the 1911 up. Well, in the process I forgot where I put my .38. Well this is not too bad since we dont have kids yet unless my first child on the way counts. Anyway the wife was at work and had about 5 more hours to go. I tore the place up. I almost freaked out. Well, I found it under my bed. Jeeez....that never has or will happend again.

What I learned was to always think(bringing back my military days) and keep it simple. Now regardless, my primary is the 38 with two speed strips and my knife. If I need more than that then I am truly in the wrong place or dreaming.
 
#21 ·
I now carry all waking hours (where permitted) but a couple of times I've left the house with out the gun (still locked and unloaded at home). Boy, I've felt totally nekkid!!
 
#23 ·
I normally count my guns before leaving the house to make sure they're where they need to be. One on me, one in the under the bed, etc. One day I came up one short, and spent a while trying to figure it out. The missing gun was my Glock (the only one I had), I traded it in earlier that day.

I've also "lost" my taurus M85 on a few occasoins.

I think my biggest bonehead move was leaving the house with my 5" kimber, and two spare magazines for my compact. It was noticed at the range, and I got two new wilson 47s while I was there, with a lot of teasing from the guys working there.
 
#24 ·
Zach, I understand. Since I picked up a G19, I'm worried about just that. Leaving the house with my 19 and the mags for my 26. I need to just standardize on the 19's mags since they will work in the 26.

Bent, I've felt the same way. When I went to the theater and dinner with my GF in NPEs, I felt naked. I did have 4 folders but bringing a knife to a gun fight isn't my idea of fun.
 
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