Springfield Armory XDS 3.3" Tactical Gray

If you watch Personal Defense Network videos you probably know a couple of things about the way I carry a concealed gun. Generally, I like to carry Centerline or Appendix carry Lately, I've been carrying the Springfield Armory XD-S and I generally carry in a CrossBreed Holster. So what I've got here is Appendix carry. I've got a CrossBreed holster and I've got an XD-S but this XD-S is a little different. This is the new Tactical Gray Version of the XD-S.

And this is the 3.3" not the normal four-inch that I carry. So if you like Gray and you're like a shorter gun the XD-S is now available for you in the 3.3 Subcompact Single Stack Model in their new Tactical Gray color. Not too much different about this. This is the same old XD-S that we've had for a long time. It's a great gun, it's a gun that I recommend.

It's a gun that I've seen, a lot of different students have a lot of success with on the range. One of the things that you may not be as comfortable with the XD-S is well-known the Gray color you've probably seen that before but not particularly in the XD-S. So that's kinda interesting. And we could end the video now except what I want to do is I want to talk to you about another gray issue inside of the training community and it's whether or not Appendix carry can be done responsibly and safely. So let's get into that gray area and take a look at exactly what I'm going to do.

Now, because I was just administratively pulling that gun out and putting it back in there really wasn't much extra risk involved at all. The concern, a lot of people have about presentation from the Centerline position to the Appendix carry position is that when the gun is pulled out of the holster or when it's put back into the holster that it is dangerously oriented in towards the human body. Now, one thing about the XD-S of course is that it has a grip safety. And what that means is if I determine that I'm going to go back into my holster and I decided to take my thumb which even with the Appendix carry holster from CrossBreed I can't leave my thumb in the shooting position and get the gun back into the holster in the first place. So what I need to do is get the thumb out of the way.

But when I get the thumb out of the way, if I index it on the back of the slide I remove my hand from the grip safety. Which means that this gun is now inoperable. Even if I were to put my finger on the trigger and pull the trigger, it's not going to go off because the grip safety isn't pressed. Now that isn't something that we demonstrate gratuitously with a loaded gun but that's how it's designed to work. So I fired my shots, I've done my training and maybe I've stopped the bad guy the police are on their way I'm going to go back to the holster.

I'm going to change my shooting grip to this one take my hand off the grip safety. And now I really don't have any to worry about if I were to get my finger or clothing or the top of the holster or some part of the belt, or who knows what into the trigger guard area, as the gun goes back into the holster, I'm still off of the grip safety. I don't have any contact with that. So the gun is inoperable. Now, even if you don't have one of the XD-S's with the grip safety or any of the XD models with the grip safety, we do have a technique that we recommend to make holstering and unholstering presenting the gun from the holster, less dangerous.

And a lot of people think it might be in that gray area of Appendix carry. I'm going to obviously leave my shirt tucked in here. We don't need that out. Leave my shirt tucked in here just so you can see what's going on. We know that naturally, if I'm startled if I'm under attack I'm going to lower my center of gravity, right?

I'm going to go all crazy. Look at this. I got to defend myself. I've got my weight forward, I've got my hips closed, my knees are bent. And if I were to pull this gun out right now I would either have to curve the gun forward and pull it out in a way that's pointed in towards my body or if I tried to come straight up I would come into my body, into my rib cage.

Now, for some people that have more of a belly somebody has more weight they're carrying in the front. The only option would be to push the gun forward and then have the gun pointed back in it themselves. And obviously this is a very vascular area. We got the Femoral Arteries we got that kind of thing going on. We don't want to put any rounds anywhere in our body but certainly not into this area especially if we're needing to defend ourselves right now.

So what we teach people to do is when we realize we need to shoot to push those hips forward, reach back down get a good grip on the gun, come up and you can see the gun is already pointed in front of my body, orient the gun towards the threat and then drive out in a rotating way so that I can get into my good shooting for this. And to notice that my hips are closed again and my shoulders are forward of my body. I come back into the ready position and assess if I don't need to shoot anymore, that's when I'm again, going to push my hips forward opening that angle up rotate the gun oriented into the holster. Again, my thumb is on the back of the gun, it's not on the grip safety. It's on the back of the slides so the grip safety is now active.

And I can push that gun back down into the holster and relax. Obviously cover it back up again. And what I want to do here is I'm going to clear this gun drop that magazine out, clear the chamber, I'm going to show it to you guys. I'm going to show it to my camera guys. Everybody can see that it's clear.

And I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to flag it just for extra safe precaution here 'cause what I really want you to get an idea of would that chamber flag in the way there're obviously no round can be chamber of the guns, not in battery. This gun can't hurt anybody. Now, I'm going to go back to the holster I can just about get it in there. It's leaning on it a little bit. Now, if you look at it from the angle you're looking from the camera what you're going to see here is this, I recognize the need to shoot as I push my hips and grip the gun and I come straight up and out, this gun is now going to orient right along my line of sight.

So I'm not twisting it and rotating it out this way I'm coming straight up along my line of sight pushing out to drive out and shoot. As I come back into assess, this is when I'm going to very specifically raise my elbow and rotate the gun. Almost like if a dowel rod was coming straight out of the perpendicular from the barrel, from my body, this angle of my torso and just rotate right around it look down at the holster bring the gun back down and straight down. This gun is still pointed out in front of my body. Push that gun down in, and now the guns in the holster.

So it really doesn't matter what the guns pointed at while it's in the holster. Right? I hear people talk about, well, the gun's pointed at your anatomy gun's pointed at your Femoral Artery it's pointing at your genitals. Here's the fact, if you've ever sat presenting to a room full of SWAT cops with drop-leg holsters you've got 10, 15, 12 guns, 20 guns, 30 guns 100 guns pointed right at you but they're in a holster. You ever walk into a gun shop and you see a gun that's flagged like this one or a gun that's in battery that you assume the professionals have unloaded and place at gun counter you're walking into gun counter it's going to be 150 guns pointed at you through that glass face on that is obviously not going to stop a bullet.

The idea that a gun should never point at anything even when it's in a holster and the trigger guard has covered the idea that a gun can't point anything when it's flagged like this is a little facetious. We have to understand how these rules are meant to be applied. If I'm handling a gun that isn't flagged open that is operable I would never want to point it out towards the cameraman and the rest of my crew here, obviously. But in this case, because the gun is flagged or in this case right now because the gun is in a holster what it's pointed at, it's kind of irrelevant. So I really don't think it should be a gray area.

I think it should actually really clear that whether you're using this XD-S 3.3 model or any other gun if you're using it properly and you have a good holster you should be able to safely come in and out of Appendix carry and carry a gun in a Centerline position all day long without any additional risk over more traditional carry position.