Carrying with a newborn baby/very young child

[DBP9]

I have had my CWL for a little over a year now, and have a gun on or within immediate reach 90% of the time. My wife and I are expecting a baby next month, and I anticiapte that this will probably close the gap on the 10% of the time I am not currently carrying. However, I have been running some scenarios in my head, and wanted to see what you guys do/would do.
Obviously if my wife is with me and a threat presents itself, the baby goes to the wife and I maintain myself in between the threat and wife and baby. How close do you tell your significant others to stay to you. Obiously I don't want to hurt my child's hearing if I have to fire, but hearing loss is definitely a better option than...
Secondly; If I have the baby with me, and the wife isn't with me my instinct is to stay out of the fight 100% and evade if at all possible. If evading isn't an option what do you do? If the baby is in the stroller I envision pushing her a safe distance away from me, but within reach and then addressing the threat; but if she in my arms then what?
Thanks in advance!

[frank_drebin]

Sorry but these things do not happen the way we plan for them to. Bad guys are bad guys and the perfect scenario will never present itself. I taught jujitsu for years and fought a lot of good, highly trained fighters. I won some, I lost some. I tapped out when I had to but fought with everything I had. When the time came for me to actually use it in a real life situation I soon realized that the untrained person that was attacking me did so in a "radical" manner that no trained person would ever do, He got in a hit because of that fact. No sane, trained fighter would ever open himself up like this guy did to take the shot. He hit me and landed a good solid punch. (I dislocated his arm and broke his elbow but that's besides the point).

My point is, all you can do is practice how you carry, where you carry and how you will draw. Prepare for that ahead of time and make sure you don't put yourself in a position where you would have to drop a car seat to draw a weapon. Aside from that all you can really do is be watchful.

[Dietrich]

Frank is right.If the bad guy is planning to attack you,he most likely will do so savagely and without a mapped-out plan.If you can`t run away,the best you can do is to place yourself between the threat and your loved ones.You won`t have a lot of time to think as these things happen very quickly.I pray to God that you never find yourself in that position, but if you have to shoot,keep firing until the bad guy stops moving or catches fire.

[Bawanna]

The only preplan I have with my wife is she always walks on my left and never ties up my right hand. If we went to a movie she sits on my left. Works out well as I drive my chair with my right hand too but practice crossing over with my left so I can still move with gun in hand.

I tell her and all my cops if they are ever being held at gun point and I come along always break to their right if they have the chance and I'll shoot to my right. Weak plan but the best I've come up with so far.

I tell my wife and kids to get away from me in a secure spot if possible and let me become the target for the BG.

My sons know that if we get in a bad spot the PM45 will get slid accross the floor to them for a worst case scenario.

It finally stopped raining over here, weird, I gotta go catch some fish.

[JimBianchi]

My daughter is 5 and a half and I have carried since before she was born, when I was very FAT I pocket carried my MK9, or used a SmartCarry with loose pants.

Now (100# down) I can IWB comfortably and do so with either the Mk9 or G26. I still pocket carry sometimes when I am in a hurry or lazy, it's just to easy with the MK9.

Here is what happened to me and my little one a few years ago:

While I strapping her in her car seat (she was less than 3) at a crappy stripmall here in Vegas, a dark colored truck with two guys pulled in behind me and blocked my Ford F150 in. The two guys in the vehicle were 15 feet away, their stereo was so loud I could not hear what the driver was saying.

I put myself between them and my daughter, I could not run or charge them without leaving her. It was every narrow between the vehicles, I was very nervous being trapped like this.

What ever they were saying I don't know for sure, the driver looked pissed off, he opened his door and took one step towards me, I assumed the bladed position, left hand on my G26, and yelled "NO, leave me alone" while shaking my head vigorously. (They could not see the gun directly, but my body position was a dead give away)

The driver took another step, both of his hands were visible and empty, the passenger must of understood my stance because he yelled over the stereo, "Lets Go".

The driver looked back at the passenger and hesitated, but got back in the vehicle and took off at a high rate of speed.

If they had been on foot, I'd had been in a gun fight, but their truck and stereo gave me a little warning. This was a very high crime area and the only Radio Shack near my house, that's why I was there.

What I learned: It will happened fast. This all took 30 seconds. In the first 5 seconds he could have rushed me when my back was turned tending to my kid, I got lucky.

I now almost never park between cars, I try and take an end spot so my door opens fully. Since it is not always possible, I also stay very vigilant and watch for idiots. Unless I am in the shower or in bed, I am armed. Even then it is less then 15ft away. (I have three small keypad gun safes. One in the master bedroom, one in my office and one in the family room. If I need to secure my carry piece for what ever reason, there is always a kid-proof safe nearby.)

I have had a ton of practical and professional training and it helps tremendously. I can't stress that enough. Training will save your life and the life's of your loved ones.

Stay armed and stay safe.

[BuckeyeBlast]

My one son is 4 and my other 6 mos. I've carried every day since before my 1st was born. The gun is on me, and I'll fight or flee, depending on how the situation presents itself. If I've got time to hand off the baby, I'm probably going to use that time to retreat. If that's not an option, I've been in a situation where I deliberately flanked my wife, took a few steps to her side but closer to the threat (she actually took a couple of steps backwards.) This took her out of any potential line of fire as well as forced him to look slightly in two different directions to see us both. After threats were exchanged (without drawing), he realized I wasn't backing down and appeared a bit nervous and it de-escalated. Had it been two guys, that probably wouldn't have been a good idea as now I'd be the one trying to look at two potential threats and leaving my wife wide open to at least one of them.

Stay armed, stay alert.

[TucsonMTB]

You might find this video interesting. I did. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJriDAhI ... r_embedded

Edited to add: Check out that Wilson 1911, too!

[LaP]

Secondly; If I have the baby with me, and the wife isn't with me my instinct is to stay out of the fight 100% and evade if at all possible. If evading isn't an option what do you do? If the baby is in the stroller I envision pushing her a safe distance away from me, but within reach and then addressing the threat; but if she in my arms then what?
Thanks in advance!

Your instincts are your friend. Trust them. You are correct in avoiding the situation IF it is apparent to you... if not, do whatever it takes to survive and protect your family.
There really is no single answer. I think it was Clint Smith who said "If I knew there was going to be a gunfight, I would have stayed home."

[teammazza]

Always be observant

Of course get out of a bad situation as fast as you can, but sometimes in life bad things happen fast. I have a 3 yr old and I've carried ever since he was born. I carry always, but especially with my son because I am in charge of protecting him. I always wear running sneakers in case I have to pick him up and run, I never understand people who wear sandals with no back on them. Bad guys are everywhere and looking for easy targets, sometimes I will talk to my son really loud to let any sketchy people nearby know I am there and in control. If I ever have to use my gun to protect my son and I, I would put him behind me or behind something solid and the bastard who is trying to hurt us will have to get through me and my 9mm.

[jlottmc]

Ok when my little one who is now 3 1/2 was newborn, I had just had shoulder surgery on the the left side. I thought about, and decided that I would use me as a shield, as much as possible, and still carry like I have. I did not run into any problems, but I was almost hyper alert too.