I have carried concealed professionally for 23 years. Here are a few tips and a suggestion or two.

Get something lightweight or you will end up leaving it at home.

Get something easy to conceal, quick to draw and reliable.

Get something simple unless you are a professional gunfighter. I'm paid to carry concealed and win gunfights and still prefer simplicity.

Avoid the all-knowing advice of "wanna be's." Ignore anyone who insists that the .38 Special doesn't work. I believed that nonsense until I had to deal with the bodies of people shot with it.

Consider Smith & Wesson's Bodyguard or Centennial revolvers. They hide well, draw quickly and can be fired through a pocket without malfunctioning. Airweight is lighter. The stainless airweight guns require very little attention. Smith built one for me in '83 or '84, well before the design became popular. I have carried it for 20 years and it was there when I needed it. Don't believe that alloy frame guns don't hold up, although they do kick more. Centennial and Bodyguard revolvers are available in .38 Special, .357 Magnum and .44 Special. I just upgraded to the .44 from .38 and will carry it into the foreseeable future.

Practice shooting targets from arms length to the length of a typical room in your house. When you get good, practice at closer and longer range targets. Get good, qualified, credible instruction from a professional in order to develop safe and effective skills. Generally speaking, threats to your well being happen close and quickly, and the guy across the street is not a major problem.

If you keep your eyes open, are attentive to your surroundings, and stay away from places you thing could be trouble, you'll likely never need your gun. Then again, you just never know.

If you end up shooting, a good thing to tell the police is that "I was in fear of my life." And you should have been or you should not have fired your weapon. Get a lawyer because you may end up in court.

In a previous assignment I was required to travel the world and teach this topic to perhaps a thousand people. There was no publicity to the effort, just an operational goal taught to an established standard. The reported results have been very good and I'm comfortable in passing this professional insight on to you.