If you have to or want to use a semiauto, some range work is necessary because it’s not only the type of gun but also the type of ammo that affects the ejection pattern. And the auto pistol should be double-action for the first shot--otherwise you are either fumbling to get the thumb safety off or run with the manual safety off, which is not normally a good thing. The size of the gun didn’t matter in my experience, save for when I wanted to put it away since the bigger one was, naturally, a bit harder to move discreetly.

I’ve used the paper bag carry only a few times, with an equal amount of limited practice and, while it does work--I can shoot and get hits--I like the gun more exposed. The file folder/newspaper approach is also faster to use when, say, answering a knock at a motel room door when you’re not expecting anyone and you may be only partially dressed. With the gun under cover, so to speak, it’s also easy to put it down on a nearby table but still have it close and available for instant use with no one the wiser.

As with any gun handling and shooting technique, a good, solid practice session is most definitely recommended; do so with the gun in either hand. After this, you should not need more than an annual tune-up.

One cautionary note: The above techniques are not unknown to the bad guys, as I was reminded by a lawman who had read my discussion of this in my first book, Real World Survival! What Has Worked For Me, where I had a photo of me with a newspaper and gun answering my front door.

He thanked me and said he thought I might have saved his life by including this, as he remembered it when he responded to a family disturbance call and a man answered his knock by opening the front door with newspaper in hand.

The officer made him drop it. (The man having a bit of blood spattered on him was a clue that something was wrong.) He did and the newspaper was concealing the murder weapon with which the man had just killed his wife: a long-bladed kitchen knife.