Sometimes, writing a magazine column is like time travel. I’m writing this just as the first frost of autumn is in the forecast, a few days away. It’s time for me to start thinking about rotating the cotton socks to the back of the drawer and the wool ones to the front, and folding the short-sleeved T-shirts away and bringing the long-sleeved ones out of storage. The lightweight, airy concealment garments of summer are getting put on hangers in the basement, and the oversize flannel ones moved into the hall closet.
By the time you read this, it will have already been cold for a month or two, depending on your location, and you’ll be counting down until days start getting noticeably longer and pitchers and catchers report to spring training.
For the people of my tribe—the Toting Americans—if you live in the parts of the country where it gets good and cold in the wintertime, you’ll likely have already made the adjustments to your carrying habits necessitated by the realities of climate and weather. For some people, wintertime carry means going to a heavier caliber for their primary carry piece. Noted firearms trainer Massad Ayoob is a fan of the .45 ACP for wintertime use in cold climates on the theory that even if one’s assailant is wearing heavy clothing that clogs the projectile’s hollow-point cavity and prevents expansion, you still have a .451-inch projectile doing the work.
By Tamara Keel
